Ranking my favorite Batman Side-kicks

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog for this week! Last week we talked about Star Wars, but now we’re moving onto BATMAN, or more specifically, batman’s sidekicks. This blog is dedicated to my wonderful older brother, Ethan since he was the one who got me into superheroes in general. To keep this short and enjoyable for you guys, I will only rank my top four. All photos belong to the Wayne Family Adventures comic on Webtoon. 

4. Jason Todd (Red Hood)

Since I don’t read many comics, I have only heard about Jason from my brother and the Wayne Family Adventures comic. From those two experiences, I have developed a love-hate relationship with this character and his distinctions from the other sidekicks. One of my favorite differences between him and Batman is that he uses guns, which is a massive no-no for Batman. Due to this little disagreement and a whole battle when Batman went missing, they agreed that Jason could use guns as long as he didn’t kill anyone with them by using rubber bullets. Besides that, I just like his character traits and personality. His hair is pretty cool too.

3. Tim Drake ( Red Robin)

Tim Drake would have been fourth if it wasn’t for the emotional damage that was done to me from Batman Beyond: Return of The Joker, where the Joker brainwashes him and turns him into J.J, also known as Joker Jr. Luckily, he resisted enough to shoot the Joker instead of Batman. After that, he saw a psychiatrist until he was back to himself. Because of this incident, he was no longer allowed to be Robin under Batman, so he became Red Robin. He is also known for genius-level brain power and investigative skills. 

2. Dick Grayson (Nightwing)

The original Robin turned individual hero Nightwing is one of my favorite sidekicks to watch. When his family was brutally murdered, just like Bruce Wayne’s, Bruce took him in and started to train him into his first sidekick, Robin. The relationship was good for a while, but as Dick grew older, he became sick of being the one who had to clean the mess with no glory. So he split away from Bruce, using his training as Robin to become Nightwing. He sets his mind on not becoming like Bruce. Though they had some arguments that really impacted Dick, he still helps out Batman when asked to.

1. Damian Wayne (Robin)

The funny thing about Damian is that he started his Robin career under Nightwing, posing as Batman to keep people from freaking out since he was missing at the time. Oh yeah, he is also the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al Ghul. This makes him unbelievably strong for his age. He grew up trained by the League of Assassins and then also ended up being trained by Batman. My favorite part of this little punk is his attitude and witty comebacks. I also really enjoy how strong he is with such a tiny body, AND HE USES A SWORD. He is very harsh and aggressive on the outside, but there are also some moments where we can see a more vulnerable side of him. For example, in the animated series, he has a little crush on Raven, which causes his emotions to get in the way of his duties sometimes. In the animated series, he also shows a saddening vulnerability when he uses the Lazarus Pit to resurrect Dick. Sadly, though the pit did revive Dick, it left him in a permanently insane state. Due to his instability, Damian had to permanently restrain Dick in a strap-jacket and keep him locked up in a cell for the rest of his life, much to Damian’s sadness. On the bright side, that all gets reversed when The Flash goes back in time and reverses the flashpoint paradox by letting his mother die… maybe that’s not the BRIGHTEST side.

Thank you all for reading this week! I hope you enjoyed and keep an eye out for next week’s blog! <3

Author: Locklyn Wilchynski

Locklyn Wilchynski (She/Her) is a poet, writer, and musician. She is also a senior literary arts student at Mississippi School of the Arts. Her writing has been published in Co-Lin Refractions Literary & Art Magazine and The Phoenix Literary Journal. She won two gold keys, a silver key, and two honorable mentions in the 2021 Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards. She has also won an honorable mention in the 2021 Ephemera Prize. She is a lover of all things crafted in darkness and finding the beauty within that. She believes that storytelling is one of the most powerful forms of communication to open up new conversations and ideas. View all posts by Locklyn Wilchynski