Posted By Dan Greenfield on Mar 8, 2025 | 8 comments

It’s the ROBIN WEEK finale!

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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 WALT GROGAN

I love the Earth-Two Robin! I always have since the first moment I saw him on the cover of 1967’s Justice League of America #55! Now I know that technically he’s just the grown-up version of the 1940s and ’50s Robin the Boy Wonder but to me, at least, he’s kind of like a separate character, especially since he never got a lot of play even when he transitioned from the JSA to the Super Squad in the 1970s.

With ROBIN WEEK wrapping up, 13th Dimension’s grand poohbah asked me to come up with 13 of the Earth-Two Robin’s best moments, but I’m going to stretch that here and there to look at both those and the things that make him such a cool character!

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1. Yep! I’m kicking it off this THAT cover — Justice League of America #55! Over the past several years, it’s become ubiquitous — never failing to pop up and the reason is whether you love it or hate it, that costume leaves a lasting impression! But it’s more than that!

Carmine Infantino’s cover design places the Grown-Up Boy Wonder front and center, deftly telegraphing that this isn’t Batman’s sidekick anymore! And at the same time, Robin is honoring his mentor in that glorious costume! And while penciller Mike Sekowsky rendered that design wonderfully, it’s Murphy Anderson’s skillful inks that round off both Infantino and Sekowsky to give us one of the Justice League of America’s most memorable covers.

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2. I’m going to be sticking with #55 for a few more points and for this one, I revel in Robin’s joy in becoming a full-fledged member of the Justice Society. Look at that grin! It’s what makes Robin… Robin! While Batman ultimately transitioned into a dark, gloomy, and yes, crabby, super-hero, that’s far and away from what Robin should be. He’s a giddy, joyful breath of wonder.

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3. But let’s get back to that costume on the cover. Even though the interior to both this and the subsequent issue featured a more Robin-esque costume with Batman colors, the cover’s costume design really set the standard for what a hybrid costume could be.

I’ve heard it all: “It’s a horrible costume!,” “It’s the laziest design ever!, ” “It’s ugly! It hurts my eyes!” And I always go back to this… it’s Batman’s costume with an “R” on it. It evokes Batman’s non-yellow circle past, at a time when no one thought the yellow circle was going to disappear!

And that mask is Bat-tastic! How can you not love it? It’s a bat! I would have loved one of those while jumping around the backyard in 1967, during the height of Bat-Merchandising-Mania! Sure, I get that the yellow cape throws off the aestetic a bit, and, for a time, I didn’t really like it, thinking it was the one false note.

But over the last almost 60 years it has really grown on me! And for you nay-sayers, I’ve even suggested Batman’s outer blue and Robin’s inner yellow for it: Batman on the outside and Robin on the inside! Heck, I even colored it that way for a Murphy Anderson birthday faux house ad!

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4. But no matter how wonderful that cover costume is, the interior costume is quite a bit different! I’m sure Mike Sekowsky was given the directive to merge the two costumes and while his design is not bad, it’s just not as dynamic, as it keeps too much of the Boy Wonder’s former costume. And it occurred to me that it might not have been colored as intended.

So, I took it upon myself to recolor it as I think it could have been, as well as a version applying the cover’s color scheme. And even though I haven’t, officially, gotten to it yet, the Neal Adams version:

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5. Well, some things are too good to last and in 1971’s Justice League of America #92, the Earth-One Robin, who joined the JLA-JSA annual team-up, had damaged his costume. His Earth-Two counterpart offered to lend him an unused design by a little-known costume maker by the name of Neal Adams! He and writer Mike Friedrich really wanted to jettison the Earth-One Robin’s dated costume but it wasn’t to be. Well, for the Earth-One Robin, that is!

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6. The Earth-Two Robin appeared sporadically over the next several JLA/JSA team-ups but ended up being cover-featured on 1975’s Justice League of America #124! That issue ended with the promise of something new but sadly it was not the continuation of Robin in his Bat-duds!

Rather it was the promise of a new JSA-led mag. Can you imagine?

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7. Well, it might not have been titled “Super Squad,” but at least that was featured as the sub-title. All-Star Comics returned from the dead sporting new stories of the Justice Society of America with a new generation of heroes tagging along… and one of those members was Robin, now adorned with the Neal Adams costume. Clearly, there were others who disliked the Batman-inspired costume. As sad as I was, and I even mentioned it to Paul Levitz at a Chicago comics convention, I was super-stoked for a JSA book, having been primed with Golden Age reprints in the 100-Page Super-Spectaculars and Wanted: The World’s Most Dangerous Villains.

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8. One of my favorite things about Batman’s team-up comic, The Brave and the Bold, was that you could never really guess who was going to show up as the guest-star. It was a tradition initiated by long-time writer, Bob Haney, so when writer Alan Brennert decided to cast both the Earth-Two Robin and Kathy Kane’s Batwoman in #182, I was overjoyed! And that Jim Aparo artwork really sang!

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9. Alas, Earth-Two was ultimately doomed and both the Earth-Two Robin and Huntress were kicked to the curb by Crisis on Infinite Earths. Robin had a much harder time: He ultimately disappeared. The Huntress faired better as a reinvented character with a new secret identity. Nevertheless, this beautiful piece from the bottom of the cover of Crisis #11 is bittersweet, as both Robin and Huntress take center stage under the majestic pen of the late George Pérez.

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10. Neal Adams’ Robin costume is much loved and it made a welcome appearance on the animated Batman: The Brave and the Bold, in the episode Sidekicks Assemble!

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11. 2011 saw the introduction of a new Earth-2 and a new Earth-2 Robin, however briefly, in the relaunched World’s Finest. In this new incarnation, Helena Wayne takes on the mantle of Robin before later adopting the guise of Huntress. Check out that powerful cover by Kevin Maguire!

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12. Much like Neal Adams’ Robin costume, there is still love for the Ex-Boy Wonder’s original Batman costume. It reappeared in 2015’s Convergence: Detective Comics. You can only imagine how excited I was!

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13. To close off this celebration of the Earth-Two Robin, I leave you with this — Robin riding on Superman’s back from, again, Justice League of America #55! Isn’t it amazing?

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MORE

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

— BIRD CALLS: 13 Thoughts on 13 ROBINS. Click here.

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A 10-year-old Walt Grogan fell in love with the Big Red Cheese thanks to essays written by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson in the paperback edition of All in Color for a Dime, released in 1970 and bought for him by his father off a paperback spinner rack in a liquor store on the South Side of Chicago. Walt runs The Marvel Family Web Facebook page devoted to all incarnations of the Fawcett/DC Captain Marvel and blogs about Captain Marvel at shazamshistorama.com. He also runs the Robin: The Grown-Up Boy Wonder of Earth-Two! Facebook page.