I am a little hungry,
Of course, Robin.
Even crime fighters must eat.
And especially you-- you're a growing boy and you
need your nutrition.
Every great metropolis has a silent avenger,
a secret paragon of truth, justice, and equality.
And typically speaking, these iconic do-gooders
have one thing in common.
They all have sidekicks--
teenage accomplices of the hero in question
charged with taking up the creed and legacy of their mentors.
And yet, the more these beloved four-color vigilantes
are adapted into billion dollar film franchises,
the less we see of their adolescent supporting acts.
Let's face it-- the superhero sidekick
is a thing of the past.
Before we get too deep into today's episode,
please be sure to like, comment, and subscribe to Nerdstalgic
for more superhero videos just like this.
Undoubtedly, when thinking of a superhero sidekick,
the first one that leaps to mind is Dick Grayson, a.k.a.
Robin.
While today's episode isn't exclusively a Robin episode,
it's going to feature a lot of discussion about the boy wonder
because, inarguably, he's the most iconic sidekick.
Chicks dig the car.
This is why Superman works alone.
Robin was created for two reasons.
The first was a simple sales ploy.
DC Comics and Batman creators Bob Kane, Bill Finger,
and Jerry Robinson were attempting
to appeal to the primarily young readership of the book.
While Batman might have been initially introduced
as a brooding, gun-wielding anti-hero,
everyone involved with the character
rapidly figured out that the quickest way to make money
was to sell him to the reader base of mostly children.
The second reason Robin was created
was purely logistical, to give Batman someone to talk to.
While Jerry Robinson was the person primarily
responsible for pushing the idea that Batman would have
a Robin-Hood-themed sidekick, it was Bill Finger
who built out all of the narrative real estate that
was given to the character.
As quoted in Steranko's History of Comics,
Finger relayed the creation as such.
"Robin was an outgrowth of a conversation I had with Bob.
As I said, Batman was a combination
of Douglas Fairbanks and Sherlock Holmes.
Holmes had his Watson.
The thing that bothered me was that Batman didn't have anyone
to talk to, and it got tiresome always having him thinking."
But this archetype of a young companion
aiding the adult superhero in their war on injustice
wouldn't it be a one-off.
The formula proved so successful that teen or child sidekicks
became all the rage across basically every publisher,
from Bucky, to Toro, to Speedy, to Donna Troy,
to Superboy, to Jubilee.
Basically every superhero at one point or another
has been given a teen sidekick in order
to attempt to sell books, and they worked.
But these characters serve a much more noble purpose
than just simply attempting to pull in a younger audience.
They serve as a grounding element to the heroes.
This is ironic considering the idea of an 11-year-old child
learning martial arts and using his familial gymnastics
skills to take up a life of crime fighting
is pretty unbelievable.
And yet, this type of Nerdstalgic
has been a staple of sidekicks for close to 80 years,
with Robin being the prime example.
But here's the thing-- when sidekicks
are brought into other mediums, they're usually aged up.
Robin's only appeared in two incarnations on the big screen
in live action-- once in Batman--
The Movie from 1966 and then again in the two Batman films
directed by Joel Schumacher.
In his prestige adaptation, the character
is taken in by Bruce Wayne after the murder of his family.
The only problem being he's being
played by Chris O'Donnell who, at the time of the film's
release, was 25 years old.
Yeah, he was a grown man who could
have had a master's degree and entered the workforce.
But instead, he was doing karate laundry in Wayne Manor.
Robin's youth and innocence serves
as a ray of hope in Bruce Wayne's dour world.
He's there to smile, laugh, and remind Bruce
that the world can be brimming with optimism.
The world of Batman, as with all superheroes,
is an ecosystem of symbols that are just
as important in their world as they are in ours.
There have been a few close calls
with Robin almost making it to the big screen over the years.
In fact, he was going to appear in each of Tim Burton's Batman
films, with Marlon Wayans literally being cast in returns
and then being paid not to appear in the final film.
Why was he cut?
Because the powers that be were worried
that introducing a teen sidekick would make our protagonist
seem less grim and gritty, that the film
wouldn't be taken as seriously.
You're just jealous because I'm a genuine freak
and you have to wear a mask!
This underlying concern is the primary driving force
behind basically every sidekick in comics history either being
cut or aged up prior to the cameras rolling
on their big screen outings.
Captain America appeared on film three separate times
prior to the MCU.
All three of them refused to acknowledge Bucky.
And even though Bucky might be a global icon now, who
has legions of internet fans, the character
is significantly aged up in his first Avenger role.
Is the character well portrayed?
Yes, but he also serves as an example
of how these companies I have to do
backflips to justify the idea of a sidekick.
Marvel Studios only tolerated the idea of Bucky
because they knew The Winter Soldier was around the corner.
Think of it this way--
Batman has appeared in 13 live action feature films.
Tim Drake's Robin has never been in one of the movies.
Over the course of the existence of superhero movies,
the genre was initially viewed as goofy kids fare.
However, as projects like Donner's Superman, Burton's
Batman, and Blade brought credibility to the genre,
it began to blossom.
The '90s and early 2000s saw an influx
of adaptations of beloved properties, most
with an emphasis on grounded realism.
Sure, the X-Men were on the screen,
but they were wearing black leather.
From there, after almost 20 years of comics being adapted
and many of the trappings, tropes,
and visual accoutrements of the genre making
their way onto the big screen, sidekicks still
aren't really there.
Hollywood still thinks the audience's suspension
of disbelief will be broken by seeing a 12-year-old flipping
around and kicking criminals in the face, which
is deeply strange because it's literally been done before,
Kick-Ass.
OK, [BLEEP] Let's see what you can do now.
Yeah.
Hit-Girl and Big Daddy are pretty much
just a satirical send up of the 1966 Burt Ward and Adam West
dynamic but with a bit more violence, which, frankly,
is a quality that two out of the four primary Robins
have already become closely associated with.
So are we living in a world that will soon
see a rush of teen sidekicks?
No, probably not.
A core element of these characters
is their youth and vitality, something
which their big screen or even small screen counterparts
just seem incapable of ever really accepting.
The primal innocence of youth apparently
flies in the face of every version of the adaptation
of these characters regardless of how
grounded or whimsical the specifics of the story they
might be appearing in are.
Take, for example, the antipathy towards the idea
of the sidekick displayed in Zack Snyder's
version of the Bat-family.
Robin is literally more interesting dead than alive.
Can't have a little kid running around the world
where Batman brands people, right?
Jesus Christ.
He branded him.
Even look at the Titans TV show.
That's a show literally composed almost exclusively
of former sidekicks who all form a team.
And they have to be grounded in this gritty nihilism
so deeply it almost fails to resemble the Titans.
There's something intrinsically innocent, primarily colored,
and uplifting about teen or child sidekicks.
They obviously wouldn't be right for every version
of these superhero worlds, but come on.
They've literally only made it to live action
a handful of times, and they almost never reflect
their comic book counterparts.
Rick Jones isn't in the MCU.
Wonder Girl nowhere, .
Aqualad, nope.
Superboy, nada.
It's frustrating.
You'd think they would be around,
but you'd be wrong because these studios are
desperate to have these characters taken
seriously even when the films themselves
are overtly comedies.
Superheroes are supposed to remind us
who we should aspire to be.
They should push us to reach for our utmost potential.
And what is more important than having
characters that are the appropriate age
for the intended audience to truly internalize
these lessons?
These characters give these stories a completely unique
lens to view the world.
They teach young people that even if it seems impossible,
that there's always a hope.
There's always a way to continue.
Plus, they give the protagonists someone to talk to.
Well, that's all we have for this episode.
Who's your favorite teen sidekick?
Let us know down in the comments below.
And as always, please be sure to subscribe to Nerdstalgic
for more videos just like this one.
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