Posted By Dan Greenfield on Mar 7, 2025 | 3 comments

FRANCO’s FREE FOR ALL FRIDAYS Meets ROBIN WEEK!

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Welcome to ROBIN WEEK! One of the greatest heroes in comics history debuted 85 years ago, on March 6, 1940 — and we’re celebrating with a series of features saluting the Boys, Girls and Teens Wonder. For the complete index of features, click here.

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By FRANCO

Robin’s 85th anniversary!  That guy looks younger than I do!

Why does everyone like Robin? In all the years I’ve been around comics I’ve rarely heard anyone say they hate Robin as a character.

Well… except when you’re a kid and you’re with your cousins and you all decide to play Justice League and everyone is older than you and then they pick which character they’re going to be over your protests that you (OK, I) want to be Superman, but you are told no because you’re not tall enough and too young.

And then you’re told you couldn’t be Batman because you’re not tall enough, and you’re still too young, AND not cool enough, because Batman is cooler looking. Or at least that was the argument between Superman cousin and Batman cousin.

So you’re not Superman or Batman or any other League members, as they are summarily taken over by my cousins (I have a lot of cousins).

So, in order to play Justice League, we decide to raid the linen closet in my aunt’s house so we could all find the appropriate color towel — uh, I mean cape — to wear. This, as you could imagine, was another argument: Green Lantern doesn’t wear a green cape, just a ring, and you argue with your older cousin that “he does now” is not a valid argument! Skipping to the end, Green Lantern gets his green cape.

Many arguments later about a number of different things: The Wonder Twins are Super Friends, but NOT in the Justice League. And we don’t have any twins here anyway. I don’t want to be the twins. I especially do not want to be Gleek. And so on.

They go all the way down the roster and ultimately you’re relegated to being Robin. But guess what? Your aunt doesn’t have any yellow towels (but she had green for Green Lantern?!) and all you get is an off-white — “That’s not yellow!” “Yes, it is!” — bedspread that is queen-size and how are you supposed to run around with this thing getting caught on everything and being as long as a football field?

Great. Now we’re the Justice League, but now you have to take a break for lunch and your aunt made hot dogs and already put MUSTARD on all of them and you hate mustard and…

Long story short, being Robin wasn’t so bad. And reading Robin wasn’t so bad either. Robin (any real iteration) was smart.

We love Robin because he (or she) is interesting. We’ve seen them change. Yes, Superman and Batman have changed, but they eventually changed back. Green Lantern, there’s a bunch of them, yes, but we always come back to Hal.

Robin changes. And then there’s a completely new Robin. With new ideas and a slightly new costume but a story unique all their own. In my opinion, a legacy character done right.

But despite all that. Or because of that, Robin is cool. They didn’t have a choice in how they were dressed, especially in the beginning, with those little short shorts — or with a giant off-white, not yellow bedspread at my aunt’s house…

Also, I have to stop dressing in costume.

Happy Friday!

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MORE

— The Complete ROBIN WEEK Index of Features. Click here.

— PAUL KUPPERBERG: ROBIN IN SOLO ACTION! 13 Splendid Splash Pages From STAR SPANGLED COMICS. Click here.

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Franco and his forehead have traveled the world and he writes and draws stuff. Franco is the creator, artist and writer of Patrick the Wolf Boy and Aw Yeah Comics! Franco has worked on books/comics, including Tiny Titans and Superman Family Adventures. Franco was also a high-school teacher and is one of the principal owners of Aw Yeah Comics retail stores. Dan made Franco add that he has won three Eisners.