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Batman Begins: How would you include Robin?

Klaus

First Post
Batman Begins being the awesome realistic portrayal of Batman that it is, how would you go about and include Robin in it? Please, only post if you have an idea of how to include Robin, not to just say "don't include him".

Quick re-cap.

50 years ago, Robin was created to increase the appeal of Batman among the young kids, who could identify with the Boy Wonder more than with the adult Dark Knight Detective.

So far there have been three Robins:

- Dick Grayson, the original Robin (also the first Robin in Batman: The Animated Series and in the Teen Titans cartoon), was a member of the Flying Graysons trapeze act, along with gipsy-descended parents John and Mary Grayson. After his parents' trapeze was sabotaged by crime boss Zucco, the boy was taken in as a ward by Bruce Wayne (who was present during the performance). Like all parents, Bruce wanted to give the kid what he himself didn't have while growing up, and offered him a purpose. After a year of intense training, the boy (a natural acrobat, better than Batman himself) was allowed to take to the streets as Batman's apprentice. He also founded and led the Teen Titans. Later in life (already in college), after being shot by the Joker, he was fired by Batman. Soon thereafter he created the identity of Nightwing, current leader of the Outsiders and has an awesome track record of affairs with superheroines. Dick Grayson has been officially adopted as Bruce Wayne's son in recent years and is the sole heir to the Wayne empire.

- Jason Todd, the second Robin, was the son of a petty thug who double-crossed Two-Face and got killed. The boy took to stealing for a living, even daring to steal the Batmobile's tires. Seeing misguided potential in the boy, Batman took him in and started training him to be the new Robin (Dick Grayson had already been fired). Not only that, but Bruce officially adopted Jason as his son. But the boy was reckless and hot-headed, and eventually got himself beaten to near-death with a crowbar by the Joker, then blown up along with his estranged mother by a bomb set up by the Clown Prince of Crime. To this day, Jason is Batman's greatest failure.

- Tim Drake, the third Robin (also the second Robin in Batman: tAS) was a young boy watching the Flying Graysons in that fateful day when Zucco sabotaged the trapeze. While still young, he watched Robin perform an acrobatic feat only Dick Grayson had performed before. From that, he deduced that Dick Grayson was Robin and that Bruce Wayne was Batman. After Jason Todd died, Batman became increasingly violent and reckless, bordering psychotic. Tim went to Dick Grayson (now Nightwing) and asked him to go back to being Robin, for Batman needed Robin to remind him of what he's fighting for. Tim eventually saved Batman and Nightwing from Two-Face and started training to be the third Robin. Unlike previous Robins, he only lost his parents *after* becoming the Boy Wonder. Tim is currently a member of the Teen Titans.
 

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Klaus said:
Batman Begins being the awesome realistic portrayal of Batman that it is, how would you go about and include Robin in it? Please, only post if you have an idea of how to include Robin, not to just say "don't include him".

Well, I'd technically include him...

As an obituary in a background newspaper. "Circus accident kills entire acrobat family."

Sorry, I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but I truly believe it's the best way to do it.

That said, if they must include Robin, I'd make him a guest star only, with no costume. Batman sees Dick Grayson's family killed, and Dick helps him in tracking down the person who did it--and then goes his own way.
 

I've always thought Robin kinda went against the vibe of the movie -- the loner, obsessive-compulsize rich playboy who's actually a psycho vigilante. In my opinion, to include Robin in that paradigm, you need to rework him extensively. Be willing to drop decades of expectations and do something different that better fits the paradigm.

The Cassandra Cain Batgirl would make a good prototype for Robin. And you don't even have to turn Robin into a hot ninja chick to make it work -- just take the basic idea. ;)
 

But let me add -- if the writers do decide that to work in Robin they need to change "him" into a hot ninja chick, I'm all in favor of that...
 


Mouseferatu said:
Well, I'd technically include him...

As an obituary in a background newspaper. "Circus accident kills entire acrobat family."

Sorry, I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but I truly believe it's the best way to do it.

That said, if they must include Robin, I'd make him a guest star only, with no costume. Batman sees Dick Grayson's family killed, and Dick helps him in tracking down the person who did it--and then goes his own way.
Obituaries aside, this might be a nice idea.

Zucco orchestrates the death of the Flying Graysons. Seeing the orphaned Dick Grayson, Bruce (seething with rage for witnessing the same thing that happened to him happend to another boy) offers to house him until the court decide his fate. Meanwhile, Batman becomes even more hardcore tracking down Zucco, and even crosses paths with Dick Grayson, who's been sneaking out of Wayne Manor to find Zucco on his own. Once he tracks Zucco down, he offers Zucco to Dick so he can have revenge (see how far he went from his initial ideas?), to which Dick replies he doesn't want revenge, he wants justice, and tells Batman to hand Zucco to the police. When they return to the Batcave, Batman offers the boy a deal: the skills, the training and the means to fight injustice. Dick agrees by calling him 'Bruce'. The movie ends as the training begins and from there you can have a Teen Titans movie with Robin, leaving Batman as a solo series.
 

you forgot the best part about Jason Todd.

Um... just in case. [sblock] HE'S BACK. Maybe. Some guy in a domino mask just beat on Joker with a crowbar and Batman think he looks familiar. They still haven't called him Jason in the comics, but in every interview he is referred to as Jason. (More bad comic writing. yay) [/sblock]
 

Heh, I sometimes make jokes that DC should have a Death of Robin Annual, with Robin dying in ever more ignobious ways in each one... hit by a bus, choking on a chicken bone, killed by a bad vaccination...

The Auld Grump
 

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