Being Robin

I was always Robin. My sister got to be Batman. I didn't mind so much. Robin was cool too. Occasionally, he was even brilliant in his own naieve, farm-boy way.
Maybe this is why I liked him. He wasn't complicated, didn't expect too much and was willing to pitch in and work to protect the values and people he trusted. Issues were pretty much black and white. People were good or bad and duplicity just didn't make the slightest bit of sense. Robin understands that he can't possibly defend the entire world and be effective everywhere, but he's content to do what he can. He's a small fish and he knows it.

Robin . . . I get. Batman. . . . not so much.

Batman is well-intentioned and knows he's in an unwinnable fight. He gets discouraged, but continues to choose to live in his own world where he can be everywhere, effect everything and franchise his morality based on the fact that he's good-looking and has money.

When I got older and my sister was no longer interested in playing "Batman and Robin" I played with my younger brother. I was still Robin. He was Batman. The whole game changed, but my part didn't. Once, we intentionally drove our plastic Batmobile toy off the barn roof and then dropped cinder blocks on it to see if it was really 'indestructable'. It wasn't. The game had gone from make believe to real life.

Similarly, Batman has also gone the way of real-world, international crime. Batman is a tech-savvy, globally connected, internationally aware, crime fighter who has underworld connections and deep-pocketed society benefactors. Robin is nowhere to be found. It's true, he made a brief comeback as Nightwing but he eventaully ran toward an introspective life after getting lost as he tried to accomplish good according to the small-town guides of his youth. He didn't play the corporate game and he didn't have outside funding. Just the lessons of his odd 'Flying Grayson' circus-geek parents and a resume that lists one very bright albeit borrowed spot of notariety as the awkward accomplice of a superhero.

I'm still Robin and my sister is still Batman.