Batman and the Ethics of the Child Sidekick

By Rebecca Busker

Most Americans know the story of Batman. Thanks to various movie and television incarnations, most know that as a child, Bruce Wayne saw his parents murdered, and grew up determined to fight crime. Most may even know that he took in a similarly orphaned boy who became his sidekick in thwarting the evildoers of Gotham City. Other superhero comics would follow this trend – Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and Aqualad were quickly born – but no comic book sidekick has ever been so famous, or so controversial, as Robin. The presence of the child sidekick reveals an underlying moral tension in the world of Batman, a tension between the need to stop evil in the world and the potential price of doing so, and also the tension between what will make for good stories and what is ethical behavior on the part of the characters. Although this tension manifests itself in many themes in the various comic series, none has been so potentially troublesome as the image of a young boy in a brightly colored costume fighting criminal psychopaths.

As a side note, Batman has seen many media incarnations in addition to the comics, from early movie serials and the 60's television show, to the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher movies and subsequent animated series. These incarnations have varied in tone from the "Biff! Bam!" of Adam West and Burt Ward to Batman Beyond's Return of the Joker, which was dark and disturbing enough to have scenes cut before release. Although the comic books themselves are far from unified in tone (or even in continuity), a comparative analysis of the various incarnations of Batman would require a book. For the sake of brevity, I'll confine this analysis to the comics.

From his beginning as a character, Batman has been steeped in violence. In his earliest appearances in Detective Comics, he even carried a gun, although that was dropped after only a few issues. Batman, in fact, was so dark and violent (especially compared to the "star" superhero of the day, Superman) that publishers felt a "lightening" influence was needed, and the first kid sidekick was born: Robin, the Boy Wonder.  While the presence of Robin, with his brightly colored costume and awful puns, certainly lightened the tone of the comics, the inclusion of a 9-year-old boy into the violent world of a costumed vigilante created, and continues to create, some interesting ethical questions, ones the comic itself has slowly become aware of. While many have pointed out that Batman's actions amount to child endangerment (see Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns for one of the best examples of this), the comic itself ultimately seems to argue that Robin is in fact a moral necessity.

In A Lonely Place for Dying, the necessity of a Robin was addressed for the first time not in terms of narrative and fan appeal, but in terms of the values of the Bativerse. The story takes place after the death of Jason Todd, who had assumed the mantle of Robin following the departure of Dick Grayson. Indeed, the conflicting explanations of Dick's decision to leave the role of Robin and become Nightwing point to the moral ambiguity of Robin's presence: while in the earlier stories his decision was shown as simply the need to abandon the childish costume and role of sidekick, later stories had Batman forbidding him to continue vigilante work after being shot and nearly killed by the Joker. Why Batman chose to take on another young boy as a partner after denying the job to the adult Grayson is unclear; the most common argument is that Jason Todd needed an outlet for his anger and aggression. Whatever the reason for the decision, it backfired. After a call-in vote by the readers decided his fate, Jason Todd was killed by the Joker. Batman, not surprisingly, decided that he would accept no more helpers in his crusade against crime.

At this point, the publishers were faced with an ethical quandary: from a narrative standpoint, Robin was a necessity. The plot developments, however, had created a situation in which Batman taking on another child sidekick would be seen as irresponsible at best, and morally reprehensible at worst. Returning the adult Dick Grayson to the role was unlikely; he was thoroughly engaged in storylines elsewhere. How could they introduce another Boy Wonder while keeping Batman a morally upright character? A Lonely Place for Dying answers this demand by ultimately arguing that Batman needs a Robin, not so much to get the job done, but in the words of Tim Drake (Robin III), to make sure it gets done "in the right way" (Gotham Knights 15).

In the wake of Jason's death, Batman not only swears never to endanger another in his war on crime, but applies himself to that war with a reckless disregard for both his own safety and his previously underlying ethical codes. In addition to taking almost foolish chances, he uses excessive violence against the criminals he is stopping. This is especially troublesome, because the difference between Batman's actions and the actions of those he fights has always been a matter of two things: motive and degree. His reasons for using violence (protecting the innocent) were always the deciding difference, but the degree of violence he was willing to employ has also been a key factor, one played out in conflicts with fellow vigilantes (in particular the Huntress and Azrael). After the death of Jason Todd, both are called into question: his actions become less about protecting the innocent than about purging his own rage and guilt, and his use of violence begins to exceed what is necessary to subdue the evildoers.

Enter Tim Drake, a 12-year-old boy with absent parents and too much time on his hands. As a very young boy, Tim had met Dick Grayson on the very night Dick's parents were killed. Profoundly impressed by both Dick and the tragedy he (Tim) witnessed, Tim later recognized Dick's acrobatic style in Batman's new boy sidekick. Tim quickly figured out both Robin's, and subsequently Batman's, secret identities, and followed the Caped Crusaders' careers with interest. Connecting the death of Bruce Wayne's adoptive son Jason Todd to the disappearance of the new Robin, Tim is one of the few to see the disturbing trend in Batman's behavior. He tracks down Dick (who is dealing with his own life changes) with the express purpose of persuading him to become Robin again.

Here Tim becomes the voice of the moral justification for placing a child in such a dangerous position. Batman, he argues, needs Robin, not because he is not capable of fighting crime on his own, but to keep him from crossing that ethical line and becoming the very thing he fights. Robin, solely by his presence, causes Batman to use more caution, and to more fully consider the ethical ramifications of his actions. The presence not just of a sidekick or partner, but of a child, keeps him from becoming a monster. Indeed, when Dick is revealed to be both unwilling and unable to reassume his career as Robin, Tim takes it upon himself, thus fulfilling the role that he argues is so necessary.

The argument in many ways does make sense: Batman as a character is defined by his singularity of focus. On his own, he is barely human; even his "life" as Bruce Wayne is little more than a façade which allows him become Batman without fear of reprisal. Indeed, the recent Gotham Knights comic series points out that the helpers this prototypical loner gathers around himself serve as much to keep him human as to aid him in his war. Nightwing, Oracle, Batgirl, Azrael, even Alfred, all keep him connected to the world and to his own emotions, keep him from becoming a soulless machine who might some day cross that crucial line. Of all these, however, Robin remains the first and last line of defense.

And if the relationship between Batman/Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson is more complicated, Tim Drake (Robin III) seems to understand his role quite clearly. He is not, like so many of Batman's helpers, motivated by personal tragedy or ideals. He has stated repeatedly that he does not plan to continue life as a vigilante beyond his tenure as Robin. His sole motivation is to ensure that Batman does his job "in the right way."

The tension between the moral necessity of Robin and the ethics of child endangerment have not gone away. Perhaps wisely, the comics have aged Tim more rapidly than they did Dick, who remained a very young boy for a considerable length of time. Tim moved into his mid-teens fairly quickly, and his costume was darkened and made more mature (the yellow cape became black with yellow lining, and the short pants and elf shoes gave way to green tights and black boots). Also, there is little doubt that he made the decision to be Robin; unlike the previous two, he actively sought the role. Still, his frequent brushes with death continue to raise ethical questions.

If the comics' internal value system seems to justify the presence of a child sidekick, a more cynical examination must consider the motives of the publishers. Jason Todd was not killed because the storyline dictated: he was killed because the character was unpopular. While killing off unpopular characters is hardly uncommon, the choice to kill a child character (rather than remove him in other ways) was more controversial. The call-in vote to determine his fate certainly drew its fair share of criticism -- that DC Comics would not only hold such a vote, but that a majority (albeit a slim one) of callers would take the time to make a telephone call that resulted in the death of a child character, bothered more than a few people. Peter David points out that the outcry had more to do with the general public believing it was Dick Grayson who had been killed (their understanding of the world of Batman coming largely from the television show), but the overall motivation of Todd's death raises some troubling questions about the inclusion of the third Robin.

As mentioned above, Robin was added to make stories involving a dark, somewhat stiff character more appealing. The death of Jason Todd presented an ethical dilemma: they needed Robin to make the title marketable, having established that Robin could in fact die in Batman's crusade, could they have Batman place another child in that situation and still portray him has heroic? They answered the dilemma by arguing the moral necessity of Robin; however, the Introduction to A Lonely Place for Dying does not talk about the ethical problems of a new Robin, but how the writers could create a new Robin that would be liked and accepted by the readers, as Jason Todd was not. In the larger picture, it cannot be ignored that the real reason for the presence of the Boy Wonder is to sell comic books.