SLIDESHOW MADE BY @better_robin on Tiktok
Feel free to message me if you have any questions!
DISCLAIMER
All of this information is taken from an amalgamation of comic
runs and continuities. This is meant to be a basic overview of
each Robin to help people better understand them.
TW FOR S/A
(19th/20th slides)
It’s related to Nightwing
There are mentions of
drug/alcohol abuse in
slides 22 and 66
Richard “Dick”
Grayson
Nightwing
Robin Begins
★ Born to Mary and John
Grayson
★ Romani
★ Acrobat + Trapeze artist
★ Haly’s Circus
★ Flying Graysons
★ One of three able to do a
quadruple somersault
Robin (vol. 2) Annual #4 (April 1995)
Robin Begins Cont.
★ Tony Zucco loosened screws
during a performance
★ Zucco did this to scare Haly
★ No net
★ Mary + John fell to their
deaths just before Dick
joined the act
All Star Batman & Robin , The Boy Wonder (2005)
Robin Begins Cont.
★ Batman promised to find the
Grayson’s killer
★ Juvie after parents died
★ Taken in as Bruce Wayne’s
ward - adopted as an adult
★ Tried to find who killed his
parents on his own
★ Became Robin to avenge
Robin & Batman #1
parent’s deaths
New Teen Titans Vol. 1
Robin
★ Boy Wonder
★ Started at 9
★ Trained extensively
★ Poster child of sidekicks
★ Genius
★ Brilliant detective
Titans Vol 1 #3
Robin Cont.
★ Founding member of Teen
Titans
★ Fought with Batman
★ Went out on his own
★ Wanted to be his own hero,
not a sidekick
Batman Superman World's Finest #7 (Cover art)
Nightwing
★ Told about a Kryptonian
legend from Superman
★ Nightwing and Flamebird
★ Moved to Blüdhaven
○ (Gotham’s sister city)
★ Became a cop to take down
more criminals without being
Batgirls #1 (Cover art)
behind a mask
Nightwing (Batman)
Red Robin (2009) #11 Cover
★ Bruce Wayne (Batman) died
fighting Darkseid
★ Dick pretended to be Bruce
Wayne
○ Took over Wayne
Enterprise, etc.
★ Took up mantle of Batman
★ Gotham would fall if they
knew Batman was gone
Nightwing (Batman)
★ Made Damian Wayne his
Robin
★ Trained Damian
★ "I've seen too much to be
Robin, but I'm way too
optimistic to be Batman."
★ Didn’t want to be Batman in
the first place
Booster Gold (2007) #25
Nightwing (Again)
★ Bruce Wayne came back
★ Dick went back to Nightwing
and Bludhaven
★ Quit being a cop because the
Nightwing #105 Cover
Police Force was too corrupt
Nightwing #80
First appearances
★ April 1940
★ Detective Comics #38
Designs
★ Original Robin design
★ Made by Bob Kane +
Jerry Robinson
★ More or less
unchanged for 50
years
1982 DC Comics Style Guide by
José Luis García-López
Designs
★ Discowing
★ 1980s
★ Iconic
Tales of the Teen Titans # 44 (1984)
Robin to Nightwing by George Perez, 1990
Designs
★ Current
★ Objectively better
★ Upgraded from old suit
★ Fingerstripes
Nightwing #88 Cover
Misconceptions
★ That he’s always nice
○ He’s genuinely so mean
sometimes
★ That he doesn’t have a temper
○ He’s notorious for it
★ That he’s the golden child
Detective Comics (2016-) #1045
○ He gets into screaming
matches with Bruce daily
Misconceptions
★ That he threatened to send
Tim to Arkham
○ He would never - he
only suggested that Tim
should see a therapist
Red Robin (2009) #4
Oversexualization
★ Nighwing is very
oversexualized both in and
out of comics
★ He’s been reduced to
basically a himbo
○ He’s literally a genius
★ He’s more than his body too
Nightwing #106
★ It’s fine to find him attractive
(because he is) but there’s a
line guys
Oversexualization
★ He’s been raped a lot
○ Shapeshifter named Mirage
impersonated Starfire and
slept with him (raped him)
○ His whole team slutshamed
him after
○ The entire team was pissed
at him for getting raped
■ Teen Titans #2 (1992)
Oversexualization
★ Tarantula also raped him
○ He let her kill a villain
named Blockbuster and he
felt so guilty about it that he
basically shut down
○ She raped him during this
■ Nightwing Volume 2
#93 (2004)
Jason Todd
Red Hood
Robin Begins (again)
★ Jason Peter Todd
★ Crime Alley
★ Catherine and Willis Todd
★ Catherine was an addict
○ Died from overdose
★ Willis was a criminal
Red Hood and The Outlaws #0 ○ Willis died
★ Lived on the streets after
Robin Begins (again)
★ Stole for a living
★ Stole three tires off the
Batmobile, caught when he
went back for the fourth
★ Hit Batman with a tire iron
and ran
Batman #408
Robin
★ Adopted by Bruce Wayne
★ Figured out Batman’s ID
★ Became Robin
★ Rocky relationship with Dick at
first
○ Dick felt replaced and hurt
★ Dick gave stamp of approval
after hanging out with him
★ Found out Catherine wasn’t
his birth mother
Robin
★ Bio mom is Dr. Sheila Haywood
○ Fled to Ethiopia after botching
a surgery
★ Jason tracked her down
★ Saw her getting threatened by the
Joker
★ Met his mom - told her he was
Robin and could protect her
Robin
★ Sheila betrayed him and ratted
him out to the Joker
★ Joker knocked him out, tied him
up with a bomb in a warehouse
★ Joker locked Sheila in too
Robin Dies
★ Nearly beat Jason to death with
crowbar
★ Left Jason broken there
★ Jason tried to save his mom
★ Batman was too late
★ Warehouse blew up
★ Jason died
Robin Revived
★ Superboy trapped outside reality
★ Punched his way back in
★ Changed some things by doing so
★ Brought Jason back to life
Robin Revived
★ Woke up in his coffin
★ Clawed his way out
★ Wandered around Gotham lost
★ Picked up by Talia al Ghul
○ Daughter of Ra’s al Ghul
■ Ra’s al Ghul runs the
League of Assassins
Robin Revived
★ Dumped in the Lazarus Pits
★ Lazarus Pits
○ Magical restorative properties
(bringing back the dead,
healing wounds, etc.)
★ Talia wound him up
○ “Your killer is still alive.”,
“There’s a new Robin.”, etc.
Red Hood
★ Came back to Gotham after time
with the League
★ Pissed that he was “replaced”
○ Tries to kill Batman by planting
a bomb under the Batmobile
★ Became a crime lord in Crime
Alley
★ Took on moniker of Red Hood
○ The Joker originally went by
Red Hood
Red Hood
★ Tried to kill Tim after becoming
the Red Hood
○ Tim was his “replacement’
★ Attacked Titan Tower
★ Wrote his name in blood
★ Beat Tim up really badly then left
Red Hood
★ Morally grey
★ Anti-Hero
★ Darker version of Batman
○ Doesn’t have a no-kill code
★ Controls crime instead of getting rid
of it
★ Fights with Bruce regularly
★ Still considered part of the family
○ Shown by insignia on his chest
★ Works with The Outlaws a lot
First Appearance
★ Batman #357
★ March, 1983
Batman #408
Designs
★ Wore the original Robin suit
★ 1983 design
Designs
★ Closer to the Joker’s Red Hood
★ Pill helmet
★ 2009
★ After Batman “died”
★ Went full on supervillain for a
minute
Designs
★ Current-ish (depends on the run)
★ Sleeker design
★ Bringing back the leather jacket
★ Better
Misconceptions
★ His death was his fault
○ It wasn’t
★ He was the “angry Robin”
○ “Robin gives me magic!”
○ The angry Robin was Dick
Misconceptions
★ Pit Madness
○ Everything he did was out of his own
volition, he just dramatic and petty
○ Chalking everything up to Pit
Madness is kind of insulting to his
character
★ He’s also never said that he doesn’t hurt
kids
○ He doesn’t normally but he has in
the past
Set Up For Failure
★ His writers hated him because he
wasn’t Dick
★ How he died - there was a number
you could call to vote whether Jason
should die or not
★ Comic book stores rigged the vote to
kill Jason because they thought it’d
sell for more
★ People also just didn’t like him
Tim Drake
Red Robin
Robin begins (Once again)
★ Timothy Jackson Drake
★ Jack and Janet Drake were his
parents
○ Archaeologists
○ Weren’t around a whole lot
★ At Haly’s circus the night Dick’s
parents died
★ Got a picture with Dick
Robin begins (Once again)
★ Neglected by his parents
○ They mean well but…
★ Bruce got suspicious of their neglect
Robin begins (Once again)
★ Figured out Batman + Robin’s
(Dick’s) identity at age nine
★ Obsessed with Batman and Robin
○ Mainly Robin
★ Collected news clippings
★ Saw Robin do a quadruple
somersault and the dots
connected
★ Batman became more violent +
suicidal after Jason died
Robin begins (Once again)
★ “Batman needs a Robin.”
★ Tried to convince Dick to be Robin
again
★ Didn’t go well
★ Took up the mantle himself to help
Batman
○ He just wanted to help Batman
★ Became Robin at roughly 14
○ This varies
Robin begins (Once again)
★ Convinced Bruce to let him be
Robin
★ Got the most training
★ Repeatedly called the best of the
Robins
★ Best detective
★ Genius
Robin
★ His parents were poisoned
○ Janet died but Jack survived
○ Jack was left in a coma
○ Bruce Wayne took temporary
custody over Tim in this time
★ Jack later woke up but was
paraplegic
○ Got with Dana Winters
■ His physical therapist
○ Married her
Robin
★ Tim would argue with Jack a lot
○ His dad decided to be more
active in his life which meant
less Robin
Robin
★ His dad gets murdered by Captain
Boomerang
○ Tim walked in minutes after he
died
★ Dana basically had a nervous
breakdown after Jack died and
checked herself into a hospital
Robin
★ Tim was super against getting adopted
by Bruce Wayne
○ He wanted independence and
didn’t want to be interrupted
★ Created a fake uncle named Edward
Drake
○ Paid a guy to pretend to be said
fake uncle
○ The actor was just supposed to be
there for legal stuff and would
leave after
Robin
★ Founding member of Young
Justice
★ Superboy, Impulse, Wonder Girl
○ Conner Kent (Kon-El), Bart
Allen, Cassie Sandsmark
Red Robin
★ Batman died fighting Darkseid
★ Tim didn’t believe it
★ Obsessed over it
★ No one else believed he was alive
★ While Dick was Batman, he
replaced Tim’s position as Robin
with Damian
○ Tim didn’t take this well
★ Became Red Robin
★ Tim left the country to search for
Bruce
Red Robin
★ Traveled everywhere for proof
★ Teamed up with Ra’s al Ghul
★ Found proof
★ Had to escape Ra’s
★ Hacked into the League’s
computers and blew up every
base they had
Red Robin
★ Ra’s then attempted to kill
everyone Bruce cared for
★ Tim outsmarted him and won
★ Ra’s was impressed
★ Thought Tim would make a great
heir to the League
○ Tim was not appreciative of
this
Red Robin
★ Became CEO of Wayne Industries at 17
○ Dick was making pretty bad
financial decisions as Bruce
■ In Bruce’s contract it says his
power as CEO can be taken
and given to Tim if Bruce gets
out of line
● The company being given to
Tim foiled Ra’s al Ghul’s
plans
Red Robin
★ Successfully rescued Bruce from the
timestream
★ Bruce became Batman again
★ Life returned to relative normality
★ Tim rejoined Young Justice
Cloning Era
★ During the period where Bruce
was gone, two of Tim’s best
friends died
○ Conner Kent (Kon-El), Bart
Allen
★ Kon was a clone of Superman
★ Tim attempted to clone him
★ 99 failed attempts
★ Both Kon and Bart came back
eventually
First Appearances
★ Batman #436 (August 1989)
○ As Tim Drake
★ Batman #457 (December 1990)
○ As Robin
Designs
★ Redesign of Dick/Jason’s suit
★ Added pants
★ 1990
Designs
★ Red Robin suit
★ The cowl looks a little weird
★ 2009
Designs
★ New 52 Red Robin suit
★ Cool cape
★ The straps look better too
★ No cowl!
★ Objectively superior
★ 2011
Aliases
★ Tim uses a bunch of aliases
★ Just a few
○ Alvin Draper
○ “Drake”
○ Random med student to
access files
○ Mr. Sarcastic
Set Up For Success
★ Unlike Jason, his writers were
excited to write him
★ There were tons of concepts
★ This is just a fun fact but Tim’s
bisexual
Misconceptions
★ He’s a coffee addict and never
sleeps
○ He almost never drinks coffee
in the comics
○ He’s fallen asleep on a
rollercoaster
■ He sleeps any chance he
gets
Stephanie Brown
Spoiler
Spoiler’s Beginnings
★ Cluemaster’s daughter
○ Cluemaster was a villain in
Gotham
★ Her mother was an addict
Spoiler
★ Became Spoiler to stop her
father
★ Would leave clues for Batman
and Robin to find to stop
Cluemaster
○ They caught him and put him
in jail
★ She stayed as Spoiler after
because she found it fun
Spoiler
★ Eventually got closer to Robin
(Tim)
○ He knew who she was, but she
didn’t know who he was
★ They became friends
○ Started developing crushes on
each other
Spoiler
★ They started dating for a bit
○ Communication was rough
after Tim got relocated to
Keystone City
Spoiler
★ She found out she was
impregnated by her ex-boyfriend
★ Tim left Keystone City to help her
through it
○ He used the Alvin Draper alias
to do this
■ Stephanie still had no clue
who he was
Spoiler
★ She gave the baby up for adoption
○ It was a girl
Spoiler
★ Tim got sent to boarding school
for a while - met a girl named
Star
★ Robin saved Star later on and
Stephanie saw - she became
convinced Robin was cheating on
her
○ Refused to talk to him for a
while
Spoiler
★ Robin was on a secret mission out of
town for a bit afterwards
○ Stephanie realized she still wanted
to see him
★ Batman offered to train her
○ He told her Tim’s name
■ This caused a big rift between
Tim and Bruce for a bit
○ Still doesn’t know Batman’s ID
Spoiler
★ She became friends with Batgirl
(Cassandra Cain)
○ Batgirl would train her, Steph
would teach her to read
★ Stephanie was often at odds with
Batman
○ She would disregard plans a lot
Becoming Robin
★ She figured out Batman’s secret identity
after a while
★ Batman later told her to hang up the cape
○ Stopped training her
★ She’d still patrol with Tim
★ Tim’s dad found out about him being
Robin
○ Forced him to quit for a bit
■ It didn’t last
Becoming Robin
★ While Tim wasn’t Robin, Stephanie
decided she wanted to be Robin
★ Snuck into the Batcave with a
homemade Robin suit
★ Demanded for Batman to let her be
Robin
○ He agreed - he started training
her more vigorously
★ Eventually finally got to be Robin
Losing Robin
★ After 49 days of being Robin, she
was fired and told that she’d never
be a hero
○ She disregarded Batman’s
orders
○ The entire comic was rushed
★ In Robins #2, Batman said he fired
her because, unlike his previous
Robins, her motivation was revenge
on her father instead of justice
Losing Robin
★ Stephanie wanted to prove herself
○ Stole one of Batman’s plans
that would deal with Gotham’s
entire criminal underworld in
one go
★ It backfired horribly
Losing Robin
★ The plan needed Matches Malone to be at
the multi-gang meeting she set up
○ Matches Malone is Batman’s alias
■ Stephanie didn’t know this
○ He did not, in fact, show up
★ A bunch of mafia bosses died
★ She started a citywide gang war
○ She did not succeed in convincing
Bruce to let her be Robin again
Losing Robin
★ Stephanie was captured by Black Mask
○ Tortured for information about
Batman
★ Stephanie escaped in critical condition
○ Died in Leslie Thompkins’ Clinic
■ Leslie Thompkins is a long trusted
ally of Batman and the Robins -
she often patches them up
Dead
★ Dr. Leslie Thompkins later told Batman
that she let Stephanie die to encourage
Batman to stop letting kids help
○ Batman did not appreciate this
■ Dr. Thompkins fled to Africa
★ Dr. Thompkins took Stephanie with her
○ Stephanie faked her death to avoid
Black Mask
Reborn
★ Stephanie stayed in Africa for a while
★ She came back to Gotham after Black
Mask died
★ Tim was pissed when he found out she
faked her death
○ They reconciled eventually
Batgirl
★ Cassandra Cain quit being Batgirl
○ Stephanie took the mantle up
■ Worked with Barbara Gordon
● Oracle
★ Stephanie was a lot more confident
★ Batman trusted her more
Back to Spoiler
★ Stephanie went back to being Spoiler in
the new continuity
○ This kind of varies though
★ Personally I prefer her as Spoiler
because it’s her own thing instead of it
being a mantle
First Appearances
★ Detective Comics #647
○ June, 1992
Designs
★ Classic Spoiler suit
★ Love it
Designs
★ Robin suit
★ The shirt part kind of transitions weirdly to
the pants
★ Asides from that it’s good though
Designs
★ Batgirl suit
★ I really like what she did to it
Designs
★ Revamped Spoiler suit
★ My favourite honestly
★ I just really like it
Doomed To Die
★ Stephanie was never meant to be Robin
★ She was already her own character and
had an identity outside of Robin
★ Only meant to take up the mantle for a few
months to distract readers
★ The writers were just using her as a filler
until they brought Tim back
○ She was always meant to die as Robin
Damian Wayne
Robin
Robin Begins (one last time)
★ Son of Talia al Ghul and
Bruce Wayne
★ Ibn al Xu'ffasch was his
original name
○ Translates to son of the
bat
★ Raised in the League of
Assassins until he was ten
Robin Begins (one last time)
★ Heir to the League
★ Heir to the Demon Head
○ Prince
★ Raised to take over Batman +
Wayne Industries as well as
the League of Assassins
Robin Begins (one last time)
★ Talia dropped him off at
Wayne Manor to get trained
by Batman
★ Had to adjust to an entirely
new way of life
★ Trained as an assassin and
now can’t kill or seriously
harm
★ Abused his whole life
Robin Begins (one last time)
★ Talia drugged Batman in
order to conceive Damian
○ This was later retconned
so that it was consensual
★ Damian was grown in an
artificial womb
★ Bruce had no clue Damian
existed until he was ten
Robin
★ Barely got to meet Bruce
before he “died”
★ Lived with Dick after
Robin
★ When he first came to live with Bruce
he felt that he had to prove himself
○ Repeatedly fought and belittled
Tim
■ Tim would insult him back
○ He felt threatened by Tim’s place
in the family
Robin
★ Damian thinks of himself as
superior to everyone else
because he was raised to
believe that
★ Dick made him his Robin
○ Damian needed
something to make him
feel like he belonged
★ Dick raised him
Robin
★ Damian and Bruce bonded
when he came back
★ They’d still fight sometimes
★ Damian and Tim also
eventually came to an
understanding
○ They also still fight
sometimes
Robin
★ Became friends with
Jonathan “Jon” Kent
★ Superboy + Robin
○ Supersons
Robin
★ Jon got caught up in time
○ Aged up seven years
○ Changed their dynamic
entirely (I miss them)
○ Still friends though
Robin
★ Talia cloned Damian for a
perfect heir
★ The clone, The Heretic, killed
Damian
★ Died at 12
Robin
★ Batman revived Damian
using Alien technology and
magic
First Appearance
★ Batman: Son of the Demon (1987)
○ Infant
★ Batman #655 (September 2006)
○ Damian Wayne
★ Batman #657 (November 2006)
○ Robin
Designs
★ Debut costume
★ League training suit
Designs
★ Personalizing the
Robin costume a bit
★ Distinct lines
Designs
★ His own spin on the
Robin costume
★ Embracing his past
○ Use of darker
colours from the
League
○ Escrima sticks for
Nightwing
Misconceptions
★ A lot of people boil his
character down to being a
brat
○ Yes he’s mean but that’s
how he was raised
○ He was literally a prince
○ He was also abused his
whole life so give him a
break
