Summary
- All major Robins in Batman’s history have died and returned, facing serious 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 were eventually resurrected.
Few superhero sidekicks are as famous or long-lasting as Batman’s partner, Robin — which means each Robin has been through numerous dangerous experiences, and they haven’t always survived. While fans are well aware of Jason Todd’s death and return, not everyone knows that every other major Robin in Batman’s history has also died and returned.
Batman’s classic partner, Robin, has been a staple in Gotham since Dick Grayson’s debut in 1940’s Detective Comics #38. While Dick has certainly had the longest tenure as Robin — both in continuity and in the history of DC’s publications — Batman has named many other young vigilantes as his Robin.
Besides Dick, there have been four Robins of note and with great 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 five beloved DC characters have significant history with Batman — including, for each of them, serious brushes with both 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 end during 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 being strapped to a bomb that’ll only stop if Nightwing’s heart stops, Lex Luthor makes the executive decision to kill Nightwing, much to Batman’s horror.
This death was the shortest of all the Robins, though, as Lex Luthor quickly used a shot of adrenaline to restart Dick’s heart and bring him back to life. While Dick was only dead for a few seconds, the entire world witnessed and believed it, which later allowed Dick to join the spy organization Spyral, under a different name, before making 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 eventually ended up traveling across the world to find his mother. But what he couldn’t predict was his mother betraying him to the Joker. The Joker proceeded to beat Jason with a crowbar before leaving Robin to be killed by a bomb. Even in his final moments, Jason still tried to protect his mother from the blast, but sadly, neither of them survived.
Jason became a brutal vigilante who didn’t mind using lethal force, and he’s remained that way ever since.
During the events of Infinite Crisis by Geoff Johns and Phil Jimenez, Superboy-Prime punched the fabric of reality so hard that he caused ripples that changed major featured of the DCU. One of the biggest changes 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 own grave. Jason eventually took on the moniker of Red Hood. From then on, Jason became a brutal vigilante who didn’t mind using lethal force, and he’s remained that way ever since.
Jason Todd’s return as Red Hood can be seen 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 were in range, Tim destroyed them, but he couldn’t prevent them from attacking him. It truly seemed like Tim Drake had been killed, entirely vaporized by the drone’s attack, but it turned out that Tim’s story hadn’t ended. Instead of being killed, he was simply taken somewhere else.
Fans can witness Tim’s more recent brush with death — in the form of a bullet to the neck — in the explosive
Batman
#125 by Chip Zdarksy and Jorge Jiménez.
Instead of being 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 too dangerous to roam around freely. Eventually, Tim was broken out of this prison by an older, darker version of himself who would come to be known as Savior. The two of them worked together to escape Mr. Oz’s prison, and Tim reunited with his friends family after months of them thinking 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 likely had the hardest time as Robin other than Jason Todd. While she tried her best, the stories given to her as Robin were working against her, and even the people at DC didn’t seem to like her. She was Robin for a few months, but was fired by Batman after she didn’t follow his orders as well as he wanted. This resulted in Stephanie trying to prove her worth by enacting one of Batman’s contingencies to wipe out crime in Gotham. Unfortunately, Stephanie underestimated the complexity of the plan, and she ended up being brutally tortured and killed by Black Mask.
Stephanie was quickly rushed to Dr. Leslie Thompkins to try and have her life saved, but ultimately Leslie informs Batman that Stephanie died on the operating table. Stephanie was genuinely meant to stay dead, but a few years later her death was retconned: Leslie had actually lied, faking Stephanie’s death to prove a point to Batman about using child soldiers in his war on crime. Stephanie had actually been sent out of Gotham to heal from her injuries, and she would eventually return to Gotham City to continue fighting crime as a member of the Bat-Family.
Stephanie Brown returned to Gotham, before the New 52 reboot, for a fan-favorite run as Batgirl in the
Batgirl
series written by Bryan Q. Miller, available 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 nearly pushed Batman over the edge. During Batman Incorporated, Damian and Bruce were fighting against Talia al Ghul’s Leviathan organization. While trying to fight off his mother’s soldiers, Damian was impaled through the chest by his clone brother, Heretic. It was a brutal death that shocked everyone, as writer Grant Morrison had spent years building up Damian as a true hero, which made his death utterly heartbreaking. Damian’s death broke Batman far more 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 try and understand how Jason came back to life, questioned Superman about how he returned from the dead, and dissected Frankenstein to try and learn how he existed as a living corpse. Bruce even forced himself to relive Damian’s death over and over in a virtual simulation to prove that if he had just been better, he could have prevented Damian’s death. In the end, Batman traveled all the way to Apokolips and used 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 trained as best as they possibly can be by Batman to survive the dangerous superher life. But even all the training in the world can’t prepare one for the absurdly dangerous situations that heroes in the DC Universe regularly face. While each Robin has managed to escape certain death time and time again, there’s always that one moment they don’t make it out of. While fans will always remember Jason Todd as the Robin who died, he’s certainly not the only one. While every Robin has managed to come back, every Robin has also faced death and didn’t always walk away.
