How Every Robin in DC Continuity Eventually Died (& What Happened Next)
Summary
- All main Robins in Batman’s history have died and returned, facing severe brushes with death.
- Jason Todd’s murder by the Joker led to his infamous return as the brutal vigilante Red Hood.
- Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne also encountered death but have been at some point resurrected.
Few superhero sidekicks are as well-known or lengthy-lasting as Batman’s companion, Robin — which suggests every single Robin has been via quite a few unsafe experiences, and they have not constantly survived. While fans are effectively conscious of Jason Todd’s death and return, not every person knows that each other main Robin in Batman’s history has also died and returned.
Batman’s classic companion, Robin, has been a staple in Gotham considering that Dick Grayson’s debut in 1940’s Detective Comics #38. While Dick has definitely had the longest tenure as Robin — each in continuity and in the history of DC’s publications — Batman has named several other young vigilantes as his Robin.
Besides Dick, there have been 4 Robins of note and with fantastic narrative significance: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne. While other characters have briefly worn the Robin costume or taken on the name, these 5 beloved DC characters have considerable history with Batman — like, for every single of them, severe brushes with each death and resurrection.
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Dick Grayson Was (Briefly) Killed by Lex Luthor
Forever Evil #6 by Geoff Johns, David Finch, Richard Friend, Sonia Oback, and Rob Leigh
Dick Grayson meets his surprising finish in the course of the events of Forever Evil #6 by Geoff Johns and David Finch. In this story, Dick is captured by the Crime Syndicate, who have invaded Earth. After becoming strapped to a bomb that’ll only quit if Nightwing’s heart stops, Lex Luthor tends to make the executive selection to kill Nightwing, considerably to Batman’s horror.
This death was the shortest of all the Robins, even though, as Lex Luthor rapidly utilised a shot of adrenaline to restart Dick’s heart and bring him back to life. While Dick was only dead for a couple of seconds, the complete planet witnessed and believed it, which later permitted Dick to join the spy organization Spyral, beneath a distinct name, ahead of producing his return to public life and the Nightwing mantle.
Jason Todd’s Murder Is One of the Most Infamous Deaths (& Returns) in DC’s History
Batman #428 by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo, Adrienne Roy, and John Costanza
By far the most notorious Robin death, the Joker famously killed Jason Todd in the iconic story Batman: Death in the Family. As the second Boy Wonder, Jason was a controversial Robin to say the least, and he at some point ended up traveling across the planet to come across his mother. But what he could not predict was his mother betraying him to the Joker. The Joker proceeded to beat Jason with a crowbar ahead of leaving Robin to be killed by a bomb. Even in his final moments, Jason nevertheless attempted to shield his mother from the blast, but sadly, neither of them survived.
Jason became a brutal vigilante who did not thoughts applying lethal force, and he’s remained that way ever considering that.
During the events of Infinite Crisis by Geoff Johns and Phil Jimenez, Superboy-Prime punched the fabric of reality so really hard that he brought on ripples that changed main featured of the DCU. One of the most significant modifications was the revival of Jason Todd. Instead of lying dead in his coffin, Jason was brought back to life, clawed his way out of his personal grave. Jason at some point took on the moniker of Red Hood. From then on, Jason became a brutal vigilante who did not thoughts applying lethal force, and he’s remained that way ever considering that.
Jason Todd’s return as Red Hood can be noticed in
Batman
#635 by Judd Winick, Doug Mahnke, Tom Nguyen, Alex Sinclair, and Pat Brosseau!
Tim Drake’s Close Encounter with Death Was Quickly Overturned
Detective Comics #940 by James Tynion IV, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Adriano Lucas, and Marilyn Patrizio
After a group of military drones was set loose on Gotham City, Tim Drake managed to destroy them by forcing them to all converge on him as their single target. Once all the drones have been in variety, Tim destroyed them, but he could not protect against them from attacking him. It definitely seemed like Tim Drake had been killed, completely vaporized by the drone’s attack, but it turned out that Tim’s story hadn’t ended. Instead of becoming killed, he was just taken someplace else.
Fans can witness Tim’s additional current brush with death — in the type of a bullet to the neck — in the explosive
Batman
#125 by Chip Zdarksy and Jorge Jiménez.
Instead of becoming killed, Tim Drake had been kidnapped by Mr. Oz, who was later revealed to be Superman’s father, Jor-El. Tim was kept in a prison, as Mr. Oz had judged him to be as well unsafe to roam about freely. Eventually, Tim was broken out of this prison by an older, darker version of himself who would come to be identified as Savior. The two of them worked with each other to escape Mr. Oz’s prison, and Tim reunited with his good friends loved ones soon after months of them considering he was dead.
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Stephanie Brown Was Nearly Killed Off by DC Editorial
Batman #633 by Bill Willingham, Kinsun Loh, Rodney Ramos, Adam DeKraker, Tony Aviña, and Ken Lopez
Stephanie Brown most likely had the hardest time as Robin other than Jason Todd. While she attempted her most effective, the stories provided to her as Robin have been operating against her, and even the men and women at DC did not look to like her. She was Robin for a couple of months, but was fired by Batman soon after she did not stick to his orders as effectively as he wanted. This resulted in Stephanie attempting to prove her worth by enacting 1 of Batman’s contingencies to wipe out crime in Gotham. Unfortunately, Stephanie underestimated the complexity of the strategy, and she ended up becoming brutally tortured and killed by Black Mask.
Stephanie was rapidly rushed to Dr. Leslie Thompkins to attempt and have her life saved, but in the end Leslie informs Batman that Stephanie died on the operating table. Stephanie was genuinely meant to keep dead, but a couple of years later her death was retconned: Leslie had essentially lied, faking Stephanie’s death to prove a point to Batman about applying kid soldiers in his war on crime. Stephanie had essentially been sent out of Gotham to heal from her injuries, and she would at some point return to Gotham City to continue fighting crime as a member of the Bat-Family.
Stephanie Brown returned to Gotham, ahead of the New 52 reboot, for a fan-favourite run as Batgirl in the
Batgirl
series written by Bryan Q. Miller, accessible now as
Batgirl: Stephanie Brown
in two collected editions from DC Comics.
Damian Wayne’s Death Pushed Batman to His Limit
Batman Incorporated #8 by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, Jason Masters, Nathan Fairbairn, and Taylor Esposito
Damian Wayne’s death almost pushed Batman more than the edge. During Batman Incorporated, Damian and Bruce have been fighting against Talia al Ghul’s Leviathan organization. While attempting to fight off his mother’s soldiers, Damian was impaled via the chest by his clone brother, Heretic. It was a brutal death that shocked every person, as writer Grant Morrison had spent years constructing up Damian as a accurate hero, which created his death utterly heartbreaking. Damian’s death broke Batman far additional than Jason’s ever did.
After Damian’s death, Batman became obsessed with bringing him back. He forced Red Hood to relive his worst trauma to attempt and fully grasp how Jason came back to life, questioned Superman about how he returned from the dead, and dissected Frankenstein to attempt and find out how he existed as a living corpse. Bruce even forced himself to relive Damian’s death more than and more than in a virtual simulation to prove that if he had just been far better, he could have prevented Damian’s death. In the finish, Batman traveled all the way to Apokolips and utilised a mixture of a Lazarus Pit and a chaos crystal to bring Damian back from the dead.
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Every Robin has been educated as most effective as they possibly can be by Batman to survive the unsafe superher life. But even all the education in the planet cannot prepare 1 for the absurdly unsafe scenarios that heroes in the DC Universe often face. While every single Robin has managed to escape specific death time and time once more, there is constantly that 1 moment they never make it out of. While fans will constantly try to remember Jason Todd as the Robin who died, he’s definitely not the only 1. While each Robin has managed to come back, each Robin has also faced death and did not constantly stroll away.