Why has Robin been excluded from yet another Batman film?
Is it to quell the gay rumors?
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f5/96/14/f59614bdeecbe2eead5a8192002788cf.jpg
Probably as in this iteration as is said in the film this is Batman in his 2nd year, yes in the comics Robin was introduced after the first year of them being published, but at that time Bruce Wayne as Batman was a number of years into his story (was in comic #38) so maybe in a couple more films. If they do have Robin though, they could make him dark really seeing his parents were murdered by a gangster who sabotaged their trapeze equipment when Dick Grayson was 8 years old. So could easily make Robin a bit more bitter and twisted, even a bit resentful that Bruce Wayne adopted him and is hardly there, until Grayson discovers Bruce is Batman and wants in on being a vigilante. They'd probably have to alter it all a fair bit though as couldn't do an 8 year old as Robin now like in the original comic, probably have to be at least in High School like Spider Man. So probably would need a film where first he is adopted and then later he becomes Robin, or do a time skip in a future film, even Jason Todd was adopted by Bruce when Robin became a Teen Titan and subsequently Nightwing.
shareWell thanks. Everyone on this board is so love with the new dark Batman, that they won't even consider bringing back Robin. Yours is the first alternative which could work and would include the Boy Blunder.
So in the comics Robin was added in the second year. That makes him pretty much an original in the comics.
There's been that many variations of Batman since 1939 that I'm open to seeing different things and a dark Robin isn't that difficult to do, I mean Batman The Animated Series was dark and Robin worked in that (in fact they disagreed a lot). I mean Nolan's Movies were pretty much a Live Action version of those, if you watch the animated movie of that time called Batman: Mask of the Phantasm you'll see a sadistic Joker.
While I like this version as it takes Batman back to his roots of being more Detective like before it got softened up by the *Comics Code in 1956 after a campaign against them that started in 1954 and further softened for the 1960's series, it was rather long. However, all up as I say I liked this iteration and it was a nice step away from a lot of people acting like the Animated Series was the be all and end all of Batman and wanting them to all be like that, which of course Nolan's films perpetuated that thought process. Now of course you get that whole the Batman Movie of 1989 being a pinnacle thing going on, but I can tell you when that Animated Series hit in 1992 there was a big sigh of relief from many many people and part of the reason it is so highly regarded (and it introduced Harley Quinn for the first time ever).
*https://www.vox.com/2014/12/15/7326605/comic-book-censorship
That link is a little bit wrong as the first thing they did with Batman in 1954 to ease the moral crusaders of the times minds believing there was homoerotic subtext between Batman and Robin, was to introduce Kathy Kane as Bat-Woman as a love interest for Bruce Wayne. Then not long after bring in Kathy's niece Betty Kane as Bat-Girl, so she could be a love interest for Robin, Vicki Vale wasn't really a love interest in the beginning, more an annoying Reporter who kept trying to prove Bruce was Batman.
That was about the time it all went pear-shaped though, with also the introduction of the family pet Ace the Bat-Hound (1955), and extra-terrestrial imp called Bat-Mite (1959), culminating in 1960 with The Rainbow Creature issue (shudders). That was also around the time that The Joker who was in the beginning a remorseless serial killer and jewel thief, turned into the Clown Prince who mainly played practical jokes.
Then of course the TV Series came along along and I've waffled on long enough and will leave it at that.
Edit: Found another article that mentions the Rainbow Creature: https://tilt.goombastomp.com/culture/batman-the-1950s-and-censorship
The CCA outright destroyed horror comics. It banned “walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism”.
Interesting. So the CCA was the comic arm of 1950's McCarthyism. Interesting article. Hilarious to learn that in the 50's they felt the need to counter any gay rumors about Batman & Robin. Lol.
I'm not a big comics fan, I admit. And I love the queer artform of camp. So I would like to see an attempt made to "re-camp" Batman. I loved the old Batman tv reruns when I was a kid. But with the current superhero craze perhaps that's not on the table right now. They want dark evil superheroes. No more good guys!
And hey, tell me that Rainbow Creature is not gay as fuck!!! They should bring him back as the LGBT flag fag rainbow menace.
But I think you hit the nail on the head about how it should be done. Bring back Robin and make him Batman's troubled cohort. Batman plucked him out of a juvenile hall as a wayward teen. It could be an interesting play on the theme. It's something new and innovative because I don't think I'm the only who thinks Batman is getting played out about now.
Great post! share
Those days were crazy, pretty much Aunt Harriet was added to the Comic first and TV Series continued it because it wasn't liked that there was no female in the household and adoption laws at the time said there had to be, they actually used it as story arc in the TV Series My Three Sons in 1966 when they tried to adopt.
But yep it's not hard when going down this dark route to make Robin a bit darker, they did in the TV Show Titans recently and also in Frank Miller's Dark Knight Universe, like I said I'm not against changes. Honestly it'd get boring if they just kept revisiting a similar storyline all the time, a bit like how Spider Man gets rebooted but nothing much changes. Same would go for this, if it went on too long in the dark Detective vein of the original comics, it'd get tiresome. Three movie arcs of different styles of Batman is fine by me and who knows one day it may get camp again, though that was typical of the time as pantomime was big as were all the Sid James Carry On movies, but hey things go in cycles so you never know. Though I think if that happens, it will be when something changes more and Super Hero Movies aren't as big as they are right now or disappear for a bit, they've had a long good run so the public may tire of it soon(ish) yet.