Batman Reveals How He Tests Robins (And Why One Failed)

Warning: contains spoilers for Robins #2!

While Batman is known in the DC Universe for having few friends and mostly working alone, he has also spent years training each individual Robin as his sidekicks and eventually potential successors. The five main Robins throughout the years – Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne – are all highly skilled combatants and detectives, but they each have their individual strengths and weaknesses. Thus, Batman has created methods to test all of them individually…and readers find out how Batman passes (and fails) each one in Robins #2. 

The first Robin, Dick Grayson, didn’t wait long after the debut of Batman to grace a cover, appearing in the landmark Detective Comics #38 in 1940. With a similar backstory to Bruce Wayne (both parents killed as a result of criminal activity), the Dark Knight decided to take him in and train him in the art of crimefighting. Grayson was already a skilled acrobat, but with Batman’s training became an expert. He eventually “graduated” from the Robin role, taking the name of Nightwing and moved to Blüdhaven, but he remains one of Bruce’s trusted allies and friends.

The main narrative of Robins #2 is interspersed with Batman’s records of various ‘gauntlets’, or exam-style tests given to each Robin to asses their physical fighting skills and ability to make effective decisions during a crisis. Not all the encounters are planned by Batman; some occur when fighting other criminals, such as Tim Drake’s test in which the exuberant Drake realized the role of Robin wasn’t simply a game to play, but pushed through his fear anyway to save Bruce. Drake and the others passed their tests, but Stephanie Brown – now Spoiler – did not.

While fighting the Cluemaster, Brown’s criminal father, Batman ordered Robin to stay behind; instead she disobeyed orders and saved his life. But other Robins – especially Jason Todd – have failed to listen to Batman before and retained the role. The true reason why Batman “fired” Brown from becoming Robin was her motivations: “She isn’t getting revenge for her parents. She’s getting revenge on one of them. Fail.” Batman is clearly against vendettas, and Brown lost the role because of this strict policy.

Stephanie Brown and the other Robins endure intense training, but Batman clearly puts plenty of thought into the psychological aspects of fighting crime in Gotham City. Not everyone can withstand fighting enemies like the Joker, and Bruce wants only the best. Thus, the tests; designed to weed out the Robins who would either break from the pressure or become villains themselves, they are Batman’s greatest achievements (considering all the Robins became heroes in their own right).