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Topic: When Sidekicks De-unique (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Aaron Smith
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 7:13am | IP Logged | 1  

As I said in an earlier post, I never wanted to be Robin, preferring even at a young age to be Batman. Still, I don't mean that to imply that I don't like Robin as a character (or Bucky or any other sidekick). I can enjoy these characters in good stories, but I think if I were writing Batman I'd only use Robin occasionally. 
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Derek Muthart
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 7:19am | IP Logged | 2  

Worst of all, as Feiffer also pointed out, the kid partners were created to give the primary audience -- kids -- someone to "identify with". But the kids wanted to identify with the adult heroes. The kid partners just got in the way.

************

Amen to that brother.  Why do you think most people voted to off Jason Todd?  Yeah, he was a jerk, but I don't think the vote would have turned out much different if it had been Dick Grayson.  Kid sidekicks are annoying.

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Mike Norris
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 2:41pm | IP Logged | 3  


 QUOTE:
I've always HATED sidekicks and younger versions of SuperHeroes. I've always considered it was DC's specialty (I may be partially wrong) and my reason for prefering Marvel. I thought it was just laziness and lack of creativity and cheaply making the most of already existing powers and heroes. A DC Kitty Pryde would have been  Cyclops Girl or Wolverlassie.

The Golden Age was the golden age of kid sidekicks. Timely had kid sidekicks for all their major characters: Cap/Bucky, Torch/Toro and even Sub-mariner/Subby!!!!

DC followed that tradition in the early Silver Age with characters like Kid Flash and Aqualad. But later characters like Green Lantern and the Atom never had kid sidekicks. Nor did Hawkman (who had an woman as his partner)

Kitty would be a bad example since she was created to be a member of a team not as a partner to a solo hero. Though Marvel seems to be intent on catching up with the Young Avengers characters and X-3 (or what ever that distaff Wolverine clone is called)

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Paul Anthony Llossas
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | 4  

The recent TinyTitans comic makes fun of the Kid Flash/Speedy issue.

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Bob Neill
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | 5  

Derek Muthart:

Amen to that brother.  Why do you think most people voted to off Jason Todd?  Yeah, he was a jerk, but I don't think the vote would have turned out much different if it had been Dick Grayson.  Kid sidekicks are annoying.

The 'post-CRISIS' Jason was a tool.

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Lance Hill
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | 6  


 QUOTE:
I don't know if this has changed later, but originally Robin's name was based on Robin Hood, not the bird.


So the Teen Titans member who's named after Robin Hood isn't the kid with the bow and arrows. I'm telling you, Speedy does nothing but cause confusion.
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Matt Hawes
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | 7  

 Derek wrote:
...Why do you think most people voted to off Jason Todd?  Yeah, he was a jerk, but I don't think the vote would have turned out much different if it had been Dick Grayson...

I do, by a longshot.

People liked Dick Grayson, and people like Tim Drake, but Jason Todd was almost universally despised. I don't think fans would have voted to kill Dick at all.

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Aaron Smith
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | 8  

I agree.
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Thom Price
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | 9  

I have more of an appreciation for kid sidekick's as an adult than I did as a kid; when I was younger, they were something of an annoyance.  I didn't need or want a kid sidekick to identify with, it was the hero I wanted to identify with.  I tend to think of the true sidekick's as those that have their own identity (Robing, Bucky), rather than just being younger and/or gender swapped derivatives of an existing hero (Supergirl, Batgirl, Aqualad.) 

The derivatives are those that I really dislike, since they water down and deunique the original.  If I had my druthers, Superboy, Supergirl, Batgirl, Wonder Girl, Aqualad, Aquagirl, the junior Marvels and Kid Flash would all be history.  Marvel used to be better at keeping their characters unique, and even when they created a derivative (She-Hulk, Spider-Woman) they seemed to have unique personas although this seems to be changing.


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Steven Myers
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 9:44pm | IP Logged | 10  

I liked the younger heroes because I'm the younger brother.  My brother always liked the older, leader-types.  When I started reading the TeenTitans, i didn't like Robin the best because now he was the leader-type.  I liked Changeling! But overall, I could do without sidekicks.
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Ron Chevrier
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | 11  

I seem to recall the original version of Jason Todd, the nice kid whose origin was eerily similar to Dick Grayson's as being fairly well-received by most Batman fans at the time, myself included.

In the post-Crisis, post Year One Batman titles, the previous Batman continuity came to an abrupt halt, and Jason Todd was inexplicably given a brand new origin. Far from being more interesting, he was an obnoxious hubcap stealing little cretin, hardly a worthy partner for Batman. His personality became increasingly (and purposely on the part of the writers?) grating as time wore on. By the time the telephone stunt was dreamed up, I was cheering for the Joker.


Even the most diehard sidekick hater has to admit one thing: Kid Flash had the coolest uniform around, bar none.
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Thomas Moudry
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Posted: 14 February 2008 at 10:54pm | IP Logged | 12  

The post-Crisis Jason Todd was a terrible character.

I loved the pre-Crisis Jason with his "Hey-I'm-Dick-Grayson-in-every-
way-but-name" origin; it was a way to have your Nightwing and your Robin,
too. Of course, Batman was still smiling in the pre-Crisis Jason Todd days,
so it's no wonder his second Robin was an amiable character.

The post-Crisis Jason was petulant and whiny and first shown trying to
boost the tires from the Batmobile--the perfect storm for being ill-
received.
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