Posted by Dan Greenfield on Jul 6, 2020
Why BURT WARD is the Greatest of ALL Robins
It’s time to crown the greatest of all Boy Wonders (or is that Boys Wonder?). — UPDATED 7/6/20: Burt Ward turns 75! This was first published in 2014 — but it’s as meaningful now as it was then. Dig it. — Dan — Aw, hell, I’m just gonna throw this one out there: Burt Ward’s Robin the Boy Wonder is, upon great reflection and judgment, with all factors weighed, with pros and cons carefully calibrated, the Platonic ideal of the character. Let me make myself clear: Burt Ward’s Robin the Boy Wonder is greater than any incarnation before or since, covering all media, including, yes, animation, films and comic books. Accept this as truth. Because it is. I swear I’m not kidding. Now, there’s one qualification: “Boy Wonder.” This exempts Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s older, more mature “Teen Wonder” of the early 1980s, the one who ultimately ditched the shorts and pixie boots for a new guise as Nightwing. But we’re not going down that rabbit hole. Here’s why I’m right: He was blindly loyal and willing to run through any challenge, trap or danger to assist or rescue his mentor. Ward’s Robin – and Dick Grayson – would do anything for Batman. He is far more devoted than any of the “official” Robins in comics lore: He would not reject him like Nightwing has; he would not defy him like Robin II, Jason Todd; his enthusiasm for the job far exceeds that of Tim Drake’s, the third Robin; and he’s far more respectful than Damian Wayne, the coming-back-from-the-dead, fourth Robin. (And before you write in about any other Robins, these are the four main Robins, so just don’t.) The only time Robin ever went up against Batman was to either save him or because he was – gasp! – drugged with Catwoman’s dastardly cataphrenic – which not only made him fall in love with the Feline Fatale’s sidekick, Pussycat, it made him fail to recognize that the girl who played her, singer Lesley Gore, was a lesbian and not really into him at all. Despite that last part, he was magnificently intelligent, if endearingly naïve. I mean, even he was better than Batman at solving the Riddler’s vexing conundra. Who else could have solved this sphinx-worthy puzzle: “There are three men in a boat with four cigarettes...
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