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Bucky, Robin and GA sidekicks in general - Vent here.

Started by rjpb,

28 posts in this topic

rjpb

rjpb

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I was wondering if Robin would be so despised if he had been Batman's partner from the start.

 

Collectors rarely complain about Bucky, but would he be resented if he hadn't shown up until Captain America #11?

 

The parallels aren't perfect. Robin's gayly colored outfit doesn't really square with the whole Dark Knight image, and at least Bucky was color co-ordinated with Cap. In addition Bucky was pretty hard-core, as he was usually the one firing a machine gun at the Nazis.

 

Compared to some of the added sidekicks though, Robin isn't even that bad. He's no Percival Popp, that's for sure.

 

The only sidekick I can think of that actually enhanced a character was Woozy Winks, and only because Plas was basically a humor strip. I'm not counting Black Canary starting as a supporting character for Johnny Thunder - as that dynamic was a different situation.

 

Interestingly, when one considers Bucky's role in the Young Allies, and Robin's run in Star -Spangled, they each had more appearances in the Golden Age than their respective mentors.

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sfcityduck

sfcityduck

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"Interestingly, when one considers Bucky's role in the Young allies, and Robin's run in Star -Spangled, they each had more appearances in the Golden Age than their respective mentors."

 

Good point.

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markseifert

markseifert

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Have to say I disagree about Woozy, having read quite a bit of that run via archives. I find him FAR more annoying than Robin, and think that Plastic Man was much less of a "kid stuff" type of book before his arrival.

 

I think the dislike of Robin among vintage collectors is largely overstated, and also have a sense that it is a relatively recent phenomenon. I think in the age where major run collecting has fallen out of favor due to economic reality, the pre-Robin run has simply become a convenient way to limit yourself to a cool little set of books.

 

Focus on covers also has a lot to do with it. Lots of the major runs took a turn for the whimsical after the earliest years at times on covers (war covers aside, of course) even without sidekicks. Look at what people focus on in Action and Superman, for example.

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rjpb

rjpb

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Have to say I disagree about Woozy, having read quite a bit of that run via archives. I find him FAR more annoying than Robin, and think that Plastic Man was much less of a "kid stuff" type of book before his arrival.

 

I think the dislike of Robin among vintage collectors is largely overstated, and also have a sense that it is a relatively recent phenomenon. I think in the age where major run collecting has fallen out of favor due to economic reality, the pre-Robin run has simply become a convenient way to limit yourself to a cool little set of books.

 

Focus on covers also has a lot to do with it. Lots of the major runs took a turn for the whimsical after the earliest years at times on covers (war covers aside, of course) even without sidekicks. Look at what people focus on in Action and Superman, for example.

 

Good point as the increased reliance on sidekicks ( for DC anyway) coincided with the trend towards serious whimsical covers.

 

Another reason for anti-Robin trend may be that much of the current generation of GA Batman collectors grew up with many of the bronze -modern incarnations of Batman that did not include Robin as a partner. I imagine that for those who grew up reading Batman books prior to the Bronze Age, Batman without Robin was an alien concept.

 

You're right about Plas being a more traditional strip at first, but having read the Archives, I find that a weakness. IMHO it took Jack Cole a few years to really hit his stride as both a writer and illustrator. That it was a humor strip without being a parody makes it more interesting than most of its contemporary strips.

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MrBedrock

MrBedrock

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I was wondering if Robin would be so despised if he had been Batman's partner from the start.

I wonder what opinion Yoko Ono would have on this subject.

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Mac Man

Mac Man

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It's funny because my wife didn't bat an eye at Robin, but when I showed her a picture of Bucky she said, "Bucky? Really? Who names a Superhero sidekick Buckey unless they want him beaten up?"

 

Touche!

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rockman2008

rockman2008

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I was wondering if Robin would be so despised if he had been Batman's partner from the start.

I wonder what opinion Yoko Ono would have on this subject.

 

Which would you choose? The Robin Archives reprinting all the Star-Spangled stories, or the Ono Box CDs collecting the "best" of Yoko Ono.

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damonwad

damonwad

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I was wondering if Robin would be so despised if he had been Batman's partner from the start.

I wonder what opinion Yoko Ono would have on this subject.

 

Which would you choose? The Robin Archives reprinting all the Star-Spangled stories, or the Ono Box CDs collecting the "best" of Yoko Ono.

I like my eyes better than my ears so I'll choose the Yoko Ono cd's.

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rjpb

rjpb

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Worst? Percival Pop, the Super Cop in the Spectre! WTF!!!!

 

without a doubt.

 

When I was a kid in the early 70s I briefly decided I wanted to collect More Fun with the Spectre in it (almost affordable on paper route money back then). Early issues were hard to come by, so the first ones I picked up were from the Green Arrow cover era. I couldn't believe what they had done to the Spectre - it was no surprise DC opted not to reprint from this era. It would have been bad enough had they just decided to add comic relief to the Spectre strip - but they went even further, practically reducing the Spectre to Percival Popp's sidekick. A dark chapter in the history of the Golden Age.

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