Red Hood Just Redefined What It Means to be Robin in DC Comics

Warning: spoilers for Robins #5 are ahead!

Taking up the mantle of Robin has always been a complicated burden to bear, as it has proven to be both a blessing and a curse for the likes of Nightwing, Red Hood, Tim Drake, and Spoiler. That hardly even scratches the surface as far as the many names to have engraved their face into a Robin mask over the years. However, it is only recently that one of the former Robins has actually made sense out of what it means to be Batman’s sidekick.

In Robins #5 by Tim Seeley and Baldemar Rivas, Nightwing incorrectly comes to the conclusion that all of the Robins truly needed Batman in their lives, after they all fail a simulation without The Dark Knight by their side to catch them. But it is Red Hood who challenges that thought process and articulates what it actually means to be a Robin. Replying to Dick, Jason says, “No, Dick. That’s not it. We all fell because we weren’t there for each other.”

Although as Robins, they were all technically sidekicks, Jason Todd sees things a little differently with insight independent from their relationship with Bruce Wayne. In Red Hood’s mind, a Robin does not exist to have Batman’s back. Instead, a Robin exists to catch the backs of other Robins. Re-contextualizing the Robins as those who need to catch each other when in distress, not Batman, adds a whole new depth to the Robin role that hadn’t been previously pronounced in Batman lore until now.

Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne have all experienced varying degrees of success and failures from working alongside Batman. For some, Red Hood especially, those failures proved especially dire and were more hurtful to their relationship with their father figure than helpful. However, even when their relationship with Bruce was strained, the Robins have always had each other to fall back on in a shared siblinghood. Only they understand the kind of trauma and pain they experience that is utterly unique to being a Robin. While Batman certainly played a part in bettering their lives, it’s hard to imagine what any of these Robins lives would have looked like without each other.

It makes it all the more apropos that Red Hood was the one to reach this conclusion, to begin with, seeing as he’s arguably the only sidekick – or at least former Robin – to consistently question Batman’s every move and motive. When the Bat-Family is referenced within DC Comics, it’s typically in the scope of Batman being at the head of the table surrounded by all of his sidekicks. However, Red Hood introduced a new layer suggesting that the exclusive Robin club is a family in itself, independent from The Caped Crusader.

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