In the past couple of days, it was revealed that Damian Wayne, the latest Robin in the Batman series, had been killed by Heretic. Damian was the fifth Robin (fourth not counting Stephanie Brown) that Batman had, except he was Bruce Wayne's son. After thinking about it a while, Damian is not the only one of Batman's sidekicks struck by tragedy. Let's start with Dick Grayson, the first Robin. While he did part ways with Batman and later become Nightwing, his origin story is very dark. He was found by Bruce Wayne while attending a circus, after Dick's family was killed by a mob boss. Soon after, Bruce adopted Dick and Dick became Robin. The next Robin was Jason Todd. Not loved by the fans, Jason was killed off in the series "A Death in The Family" by The Joker. After Superboy Prime punched Time in the face, Jason came back and became the Red Hood, looking to take justice in Gotham into his own hands. Since his first appearance as the Red Hood, Jason has been toe to toe with Batman, trying to prove that he has better than his former teacher. The next Robin, Tim Drake, also left Batman to become the next leader of the Teen Titans in the New 52 reboot, as well as coinciding Young Justice television show. While nothing bad ever happened to Tim, he was the second Robin to leave to pursue new things. Which brings the question is there something about Batman that drives people away? In the Justice League animated feature "Doom", Batman was kicked out of the Justice League. Is it the way he does things or is it something about the character himself. His parents where killed, he now has 2 Robins that were killed, and the others just left or something happened to them. Lets look at the character of Batgirl. The first Batgirl was Barbra Gordon. Everything was fine and dandy until "The Killing Joke" came out. Barbra was shot in the back and became paralyzed from the waist down. Granted she did become Oracle after that, but the fact remains she was shot while Batman's sidekick. The second Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, left to become Blackbat, being the one of 3 sidekicks to leave. The third Batgirl was Stephanie Brown. She was originally the fourth Robin when she was fired by Batman. Another example of Batman not liking his sidekicks. With all the Robins, he was iffy at first about having their help. When he finally gets close to them, something happens to him or them. They leave or die or get seriously hurt. Is Bruce Wayne surrounded by death and disappointment? Is he doomed to walk this earth alone? We might never know the answer, but I'm sure he'll get another sidekick before too long. Who knows, maybe Superboy will punch time in the face again and Damian will come back. Until then, RIP Damian Wayne. You will be missed.
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