Warning! Major spoilers for Robins #1 ahead!
The Dark Knight’s tradition of taking in troubled children and training them into fighting protégés has gotten a lot of bad press recently, with many people asking if other heroes should step in and break the Dark Knight’s bad habit. Aside from the daily stress of being Robin, Jason Todd, also known as the Red Hood, literally died for the goal (although he was famously resurrected with a Lazarus Pit). Dick Grayson, who now fights as Nightwing on his own, has always been referred to be Batman’s “First Robin,” but what if he wasn’t the first?
Robins #1
The five current and previous Robins meet in Robins #1, to discuss and finally determine if being Batman’s sidekick “…Was a good thing or not.” Each of Batman’s sidekicks reflects on their own experiences as Robin, reaching differing conclusions on how their time with the Dark Knight has influenced them. Simultaneously, at a crowded park, a hooded figure appears to be compassionately returning a fallen robin chick to its nest before detonating a bomb, killing the family of robins as well as several innocent bystanders. “That’s what we do to the lads who kick us out,” she says, referring to her successor.
The Green Underwear Squad
Tim Drake notices that his Bat-Computer has locked him out, and the front door is kicked down by a harried man, interrupting the meeting of “The Green Underwear Squad.” This man claims that someone helped him escape Blackgate prison before he was identified as Delcaine, a member of the first gang that Dick Grayson ever busted as Robin. Others were allowed free as well, according to Delcaine, including “Garzonas, the Innocente creep, the Shadid Girl.” The Robins immediately understand that each of these titles refers to their respective “gauntlets,” or the first significant adversaries they defeated as Robins. Delcaine is about to warn the assembled heroes of an even greater threat when he is fatally struck in the head by a sniper bullet.
King Robin from the Dark Multiverse
While the assembled Robins are unaware of it, their opponent is a young lady costumed as Robin who reveals herself to be “the very first one,” implying that she was Robin before Dick Grayson. There are a plethora of options for who this woman is. There’s a chance that there was a sidekick before Nightwing, as Batman fought crime for years before taking in Dick and teaching him to become his (allegedly) first Robin. This woman looks a lot like King Robin from the Dark Multiverse, which could indicate that the Dark Multiverse has operatives on Prime Earth. To find out who the genuine “First Robin” is, pick up Robins #1 and the subsequent issues.
