kgrogers1979

I have a feeling that 99.9% of the people that hate the Robin character are only familiar with Robin from the 60s Adam West show. Comic writing has improved by leaps and bounds since then and Robin isn't a bad character at all.

MrSmearkase

I would like to see a pic from the Wayans costume test, but I can't find any. I had heard that Wayans even received compensation for the flick, but I'm not sure of that was just a rumor.

Solid Snake

He's not, he's a solid character. BUT..in live action? How the fuck do you make sense of a kid doing that? Comes off as hokey. Not a great level of comparison but Daredevil had the kid doing shit and it was stupid too.

Dragon Tattoo

You could easily age the character up. It isn't exactly some inconceivable mind boggler. Just have "Nightwing" in it, but call him Robin.

Or hell, call him Nightwing.

kgrogers1979

It depends on the age really. A 13 year old Robin, like Dick originally was, yes would be hokey, but a 16-18 year old Robin isn't hokey. Peter Parker was 15 when he became Spider-man, and the upcoming movie is more true to that origin with a high school Spider-man. Nobody complains about that...

pinata242

Because Tobey's Parker wasn't in high school?

My Other Self

Even though not a true superhero film I thought the kids in Kick-Ass were believable for avenging crime and all that. I could see a 16 year-old Robin but if you make him a middle schooler I don't think I'd buy that.

kgrogers1979

I wasn't talking about the Raimi movies. I was talking about the upcoming reboot movie. Peter is in high school in that movie just like in the original comics, and nobody complains about a teenage Spider-man although they always complain about Robin.

Damian Wayne could work very well in the Nolan movies. Nolan already rewrote Batman's origin to having trained under Ra's al Ghul. Throw a flashback in Rises showing Bruce and Talia having hooked up, Talia getting pregnant, and the League of Shadows training Damian in secret. Then have Bruce meet his 16 year old son in the present and become Robin, who is a complete badass having trained in the League all his life.

DonnachaOne

(Much as I can't believe I'm contributing to this nonsense) Spider-man has superpowers. Robin doesn't. Spider-man has super-strength, the ability to climb walls, limited precognition, etc. whereas Robin is a child acrobat.

Furthermore, Spider-man is the star and the stories are built around him, fitting his persona, whereas Robin is a side character and conflicts with the tone of the world Batman is generally written into, sapping the gravitas of a brooding dark hero, and therefore weakens Batman as an interesting protagonist.

I really don't want to say anything half as nerdy as I just said for the rest of the year, so please don't make me repeat everything to clarify how I shut down your argument.

kgrogers1979

You obviously haven't read comic books in a very very long time if you think Robin is just a child acrobat. Dick was an acrobat, but he hasn't been Robin since the early 1980s. Tim was trained by Lady Shiva, and she is one of the top martial artists in the DCU. Shiva is better than Bruce. Tim isn't, but he has still had top-notch training. Damian has been trained by the League of Shadows (called the League of Assassins in the comics) since he was born, and he is very badass.

Saying that Robin is merely a side character hasn't really been true since the 1980s as well. Tim has had his own book since 1992, and at times it has been better than the Batman book. The Bat-family also grew immensely in the 90s. Robin, Nightwing, Oracle, Batgirl, Azrael, Spoiler, Huntress, etc. Batman hasn't been a loner in a long time.

Spider-man has superpowers, yes, but that still doesn't stop the fact that he is a essentially a teenage kid fighting crime.

auto

Robin has a goofy name and a goofy costume. No way to make it look cool, regardless of the backstory.

kgrogers1979

Sarcasm?

How is Robin's name any goofier than Batman? Most superheroes have goofy names.

Robin has had his suit updated several times over the years. He doesn't still wear the pixie boots and short shorts.

Tim's first suit in the 90s:



Tim's second suit post Infinite Crisis:



Damian's suit:

Michael Corvin

Robin in Batman: Arkham City looked pretty badass as well.

reubs82

...says the guys on the Internet message board. (myself included). Most folks who will go to see a Batman movie are folks who will associate Robin with the 60s era camp-fest or the Shumacher awfulness with Chris O'Donnell. Nerds and geeks who read comics know that Nightwing is a bad ass, and that Damian and Huntress are offspring of Batman (whether both of those are still true, I don't know), and that Jim Gordon's daughter was Batgirl, then paralyzed by the Joker, and is now Batgirl again. Hell, they'll even know that Batwoman has nothing to do with the Bat-family except for the "Bat" idea.

I don't think that would fly on a big blockbuster summer movie, but it's perfect for the animated series. When the general public goes to see movies, they want Batman; they don't want the bat-family or the many years of exposition it takes to get there. An animated series can do it over the course of a few seasons, and a comic can do it in a few months. Movies have no more than 2.5 hours (7.5 if a trilogy), and I just can't imagine the general public getting fired up about another Robin in a movie.

Man, I feel like DonnachaOne now; I don't want to post anything like that again for a long time...

Pizza the Hutt

Not familiar with the comics huh

kgrogers1979

Logic fail.

Most folks also never even heard of Ra's al Ghul or Scarecrow before Batman Begins. Most folks only associated Joker with Cesar Romero and/or Jack Nicholson goofiness before The Dark Knight. Most folks only knew Schumacher's retarded gimp Bane before Rises.

Just because most folks only know campy 60s Robin doesn't mean that Nolan couldn't change their perceptions. As I said before, Damian with his ties to the League of Shadows would work very well in a Nolan movie, and it wouldn't take years to get there. A flashback showing Bruce and Talia hooking up while Bruce was training and then Damian growing up training with the League and then finally meets his father 16 years later and becomes Robin. That wouldn't take much exposition at all since Bruce's history with the League was already shown well in Begins.

Michael Corvin

I don't think that's true at all. People just want to be entertained. If a Robin is handled properly I don't think anyone would give two shits that he was in the movie. As long as it's good, people will accept it.

DonnachaOne

Michael gets it.

Preterite

Yup. There was a Robin action figure released for Batman Returns. I had one. It was painted to be a Caucasian like the comics character, but if you looked closely you could tell it was originally patterned after Marlon Wayans. The high-top fade was a dead giveaway!

stingermck

TGM

Robinstein!

majorjoe23

He was going to be black, not Jewish.

DaveyJoe

Too bad Nolan won't touch the character. There's probably a reason why the directors who actually took Batman seriously stayed away from Robin. Despite his improvement in the comics from the recent decades, he may not translate well to a live-action film. The comic books benefit from being in a serial format, that allows more nuance and long term development for supporting characters like Robin.

A film trilogy like Nolan's has to strip away a lot of the fat from the comics so they can get a compelling story focusing on one character. Nightwing might work in a Nolan film, but just the existence of a younger character doing the same things as Batman takes away from the accomplishments of the main character, especially since one of the best things about Nolan's Batman is his vulnerability; that trait would be redundant in a lesser-experienced vigilante. A Death in the Family is the only Robin story I could see working that would match the tone of Nolan's films so far.

kgrogers1979

will travel

Possible Bat-Movie that were never made.
Some interesting stuff and some crap.

http://whatculture.com/file/before-t...never-were.php