Playing Second Fiddle

judging by the success of superhero movies in 2008, its a fair assumption saying that the comic book genre has now become hollywood's safest bets. i mean iron man, the hulk and dark knight all did pretty well at the box office. and with the looming economic crisis looking to stick around for a while, like those annoying out of town relatives who always drop in during the holidays, hollywood is definitely looking to play it safe.

so i guess the era of superheroes frolicking around in spandex suits is upon us. oh and speaking of spandex suits and rubber nipples, there are rumors about the next batman movie being in production with catwoman and riddler being outlined as possible villians.

but what really peeves me is how there is no chatter about the inclusion of robin. i mean, come on ! without robin, batman is just the dynamic uno. a depressed, middle-aged man who lurks in the shadows at night wearing tights. pretty stalker-like behaviour if you ask me. with robin around, atleast two is company.

now why robin didnt get a comic of his own from the start, i dont get. he was probably introduced so kids would have someone to identify with. and this is not at all a strange concept. im sure there are alot of kids who fantasize about playing chewbacca, or any other sidekick for that matter, rather than the lead character. then again, these are probably the very same kids who eat paint chippings off the jungle jim. you would have to be as dumb as a box of rocks to pick robin over batman.

and that just brings me back to my original question: why introduce robin as batman's sidekick ? what exactly is robin to batman ? he is just the sidekick ? or is he more ? perhaps the partner, the lover, the servant, the houseboy... ?


or maybe robin was simply brought in to offer kids the hope that if your parents were tragically murdered, one day batman just might let you too fight criminally deranged villians well after midnight.