Breakfast Discussion: Please Hollywood, more Batman less Robin [I Heart Movies]

In a recent column from JoBlo.com, the plea is made to Hollywood– please, please, please leave Robin out of the Batman franchise. It seems sort of obvious in the direction that Batman has been evolving, but it’s not always an easy one since the green and red Boy Wonder has become synonymous with the Batman brand.

Of all the major superheroes, Batman has gone through the most significant changes in character. Going from serious superhero in the 40s to campy icon on the 60s TV show, to super detective, back to serious superhero and then reinvented by Frank Miller in 1986, he’s now become too much of a developed character on his own and Robin just doesn’t seem to fit in anymore.

Since Robin first showed up in his technicolor tights in 1940, he’s served as the Watson to Batman’s Sherlock, the son Batman never had, the epitome of the stupid young sidekick. He’s been killed off numerous times, replaced with newer versions, killed off again and has served in this sense as an emotional crux to renew Batman’s rage. He’s been kept around in animated shows and in his own comic book, but Robin has never really been able to stand on his own on a whole character. He’s only been brought in in times of crisis to try and avert sagging sales of comic books or when writers feel that they’ve run out of stuff for Batman to do or reasons for being, they bring in Robin, only just to set him up to be killed.

But as far as the movies go, since Christopher Nolan rescued the franchise, hell to be honest, ever since the first Tim Burton movie– hell, to go back even further, ever since Frank Miller saved Batman from being killed off forever, he’s been a Batman that doesn’t need Robin. Robin is a crutch and a plot device. The Batman– the motherfucking Batman– doesn’t need some goofy boy athlete in bright clothes hanging around making “Holy bat-balls, Batman!” remarks any more. I would argue that he never did. Robin is an unnecessary character and to paraphrase JoBlo, at this point you could put a dozen of the best screenwriters in the world in a room and they couldn’t come up with a convincing way to make Robin work in the reinvented Batman.

So any Hollywood writers out there who are thinking of pulling a Joel Schumacher and trying to bring Robin back into the movie franchise, please refrain. Batman’s better than that. He doesn’t need a crutch any more. He doesn’t need this quasi-homoerotic relationship with a fit young gymnast to sell tickets… as a matter of fact, where Robin used to be a draw, he’s now a liability. Just please… don’t.

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