The "Best Robin" From "Teen Titans Go!"

Who is your favorite Robin?...

Wait, What do you mean? You don't have a favorite Robin?

It is challenging enough to name all of the various Robins... Having raised two sons to 11 and 7, let's see if I can do it without recourse to Google:  Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne... Well, I just ran out of road.  With the help of Google, there is, of course, Stephanie Brown and Carrie Kelley. (Ironically, their names are displayed right above the "Homosexuality in the Batman Franchise" subject listing in Wikipedia.)

"'Of course?...Who are these people? And why should I care?" you might ask.

Thanks to their presently misspent youth, my sons could tell you. I'm not sure that I am capable of marshaling all the details myself without spending way too much time on this post.

Suffice it to say, there are a lot of named Robins, and then there are all of the various iterations of each with their various costumes and hairstyles.  Last night's episode of "Teen Titan Go!" was titled "The Best Robin," and featured the show's resident Robin inviting his other incarnations in to show his lazy teammates how to do the superhero thing correctly.

The kids were watching the show at 6 pm on a school night instead of doing their homework mostly because I was busy trying to figure out a way to make sauteed mushrooms and kale appealing for a second grader's palate. Which is to say that I did not attend to the plot of the episode.  One can only imagine the sort of existential pop culture crisis that multiple iterations of oneself might touch off. 

My younger son's response to the episode, however, was pretty straightforward: There was no question which Robin was superior.  He was the guy with no exposed skin, but with spiky hair, and an attitude. 

As it turned out, the strawberries I was planning to put in the lunch today were moldy, and given Robin's unfriendly expression on the napkin, he should probably be holding one of those uneaten sauteed mushrooms.

(In the unlikely event that you want to see a clip from the episode)

Or to see some of the 40 other napkin posts regarding Robin in his many forms

Red Hoods

Under the Little Red Riding Hood:

We came across an oblique mention of Little Red Riding Hood while I was reading "Jinx" by Sage Blackwood to the kids last night. Ansel was delighted to spot the "little girl wearing a red cloak" as the fairy tale character. Fan of DC comics that he is, however, he first identified her as "The Red Hood." This led to some brief chuckling about the comparison between Jason Todd and the girl with the basket.

For those of you who don't spend significant amounts of time reading age inappropriate graphic novels to small boys:  "Under the Red Hood" is an animated movie which also has a couple comic book and graphic novel incarnations.  I
To attempt a brief summary: Jason, the third Robin is brutally murdered by the Joker and then later resurfaces as a mysterious, reanimated and red masked vigilante.  (With cool guns and a stylish jacket!) The story is on the darker, more violent end of the Batman spectrum... but yet, no elderly people are eaten alive by a wolf.

I thought Little Red should have the upper hand on today's napkin, as she survived a fate arguably worse than being blown up by the Joker.

Attack on Teen Titans

 

An obvious mash-up that we could not resist.

We are now on the 12th volume of  "Attack on Titan." Our older son would happily read another 12 volumes if they were available.

The Teen Titans are not so high on the list of popular shows at the moment, but Robin never completely loses his appeal.

I suppose that if this were a genuine mash-up of the two shows, Robin and company should be naked, but I just could not even try to imagine that.

Bat Family Pile-on

We had been in sort of a latent phase regarding Batman recently.  We hadn't been rereading any of the two bookshelves worth of DC materials stashed in the boys' bedroom.

That was, until we received the recently released "Batman Li'l Gotham" compilation by Dereck Fridolfs and Dustin Nguyen.  This holiday themed all-ages series features all of the Robins and associated Bat characters drawn as big headed kids.  For our sons, it has an appeal similar to the "Tiny Titans" series where characters from different timelines and stories are all affably hanging out together.  And it is quite beautifully drawn and painted.

After a long discussion of which Robin was which during bedtime reading last night, I had the delusional idea that I was going to draw a whole bunch of Robin-kids goofing around.

This sort of drawing with multiple characters/multiple costumes was definitely a mistake for me to think I was going to be able to pull off after I should have already been in bed last night. 

Astrid, Toothless and Hiccup in Teen Titans Costumes

Halloween with Dragons #4:  Starfire and Robin with a Dragon wearing a Batman mask.

While the kids are much less fixated on Teen Titans Robin and Batman right now than they have been in the past (see all the Robin napkins, or the Batman napkins) I was pretty sure that Hiccup in a Robin costume was going to be an acceptable concept.

While Ansel chuckled when he looked at this, he did ask me what Toothless was wearing, so obviously I failed to sell the Batman mask.

Tyrannosaur, Robin and Batman

Last night, Ansel insisted we read Doug TenNapel's "Tommysaurus Rex" for the second time this week.  I think the dogs in the book might be the real draw for him (and of course the possibility that a pet dog could be reincarnated as a dinosaur)

But I was more interested in drawing the dinosaur than the dog.  Robin and Batman are riding him because someone had to, and they don't require much research.

Ansel hadn't given me a request last night, but this image almost prompted a smile this morning. 

Teen Titans Robin Made of Doug TenNapel's Magic Cardboard

Ansel was so impressed with James Grashow's cardboard version of a Bernini fountain (pictured in the NY Times), that we had to read Doug TenNapel's Cardboard again last night.

There is no doubt what sort of person we would fabricate if we had magic cardboard that could come to life.

Ansel asked me hopefully this morning if I had made an actual cardboard model of Robin in order to make the drawing.  Disappointingly, no.

Brittany and Alvin Cosplay as Starfire and Robin

There is something very discomforting about the Chipettes.  They make Alvin and his "brothers" look strangely realistic by comparison.  A chipmunk wearing a sweatshirt seems so much more reasonable when one is looking at a pony-tailed one wearing a sequined dress.

Teen Titans Robin was cool, but Ansel's response this morning to the floating rodent in a miniskirt and a crop top was literally, "eh."

"Teen Titans" and "Teen Titans Go!" Robins

Would Robin from "Teen Titans" (the Glen Murakami version from 2003-6) be impressed with his recent incarnation on "Teen Titans Go!" ?

The previous Robin was so cool that all of his teammates surreptitiously wore his costume while he was absent.  The new guy has a suspended drivers license and seems to be unable to open a locked door without physical injury.

Muscular Teen Titans Robin Poses With Unimpressed Batman

In last night's episode of "Teen Titans Go!"  Trigon granted Robin the physique that perhaps, he has always wanted.

I have to observe that in other iterations of Teen Titans Robin, his primary character flaws were probably not vanity and fatuousness.  But he's certainly more funny as a vain idiot.

My kids thought the whole thing hysterically funny. 
Batman, however, would not be impressed.

Young Justice Canines

Super Canine Hodgepodge:  A last minute request that was clearly beyond my drawing resources late last night.

In all fairness, Ansel only asked for four Young Justice Dogs: Nightwing, Robin, Kid Flash and Superboy.  I added the two females, Miss Martian and Supergirl in the interest of gender representation and composition. 

As I like to repeat in order to excuse poor drawing, napkins are not very friendly to preliminary sketches or revisions, and in this case, the orchestration of multiple dogs and costumes was a little more challenge than I really needed at 11 pm. 

Teen Titans Robin Pug

I was engaged in some super gratifying domestic tasks (cleaning the kitchen, folding the laundry, frosting a birthday cake...and yes, this is sarcasm) until midnight last night, and seriously considered shirking the napkin duty and going to bed for a luxurious 5 1/2 hours.  

I persevered because I am trying to prove that I do not require sleep like other human beings (and yes, I know sarcasm is the last refuge of the pathetic and overwhelmed)

Ruling out any complicated multi-superhero compositions, I went for simple immediate gratification and a very fast drawing.  Robin is almost always good, and pugs have a high approval rating with my sons.  How could a pug dressed as Robin fail?  

Remarkably enough, both kids approved this morning.

Hiccup from DreamWorks "Dragons" with Teen Titans' Robin

In his superhero context, Robin is all about brains over brawn.  Like Hiccup, he is the smart, skinny guy in the group.  But everything is relative, and Robin might be a hard guy to keep up with, particularly if one has a metal foot.  Then again, Hiccup does have his own personal dragon.  

But perhaps Hiccup looks less than pleased because he knows I did such a poor job drawing him?  Hiccup lives in a different anatomical universe than the Titans, and pairing him with Robin made him look more wimpy than usual by comparison.

Ansel accepted this napkin without comment this morning, so maybe it didn't look too bad to him

Young Justice Tim Drake Robin

Ansel was reminded of the coolness of "Young Justice" yesterday.  Usually he prefers Nightwing above all other iterations of Robin, but Tim Drake does have that fighting staff.

Shadow Hedgehog and Red Robin

 

Shadow Hedgehog rides yet again, this time in a team up with Red Robin from "The Hit List" (pencils by Marcus To).  This image of Red Robin appeared previously on August 14th, when he was paired with Ace the Bat Hound.  Perhaps Shadow is the new Ace? 

Leonardo from Nickelodeon's TMNT and Robin for Ansel

 

Is Robin taller than Leonardo?  I decided he was, but this was not necessarily an informed choice.  The kids watched the premiere of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Nickelodeon show.  Afterwards, we read an old favorite, Teen Titans: Year One (Amy Wolfram and Karl Kerschl) for bedtime.  While my sons have always had a soft spot for the turtles, but I don't think Ansel was particularly pleased to see Leonardo upstage Robin.

Red Robin and Ace the Bat Hound for Ansel

Ansel is so very interested in Red Robin again that we had to cut the ears off of a Batman cowl to approximate the Red Robin headgear.  (They boys told me last night that they needed to wear appropriate costumes as they were planning to attend a baby shower for Commissioner Gordon which was scheduled for sometime after 1 am this morning.)  I added Ace on the napkin for good measure.  Not sure if he went to the baby shower....  The image minus the dog is more or less from Red Robin #13, penciled by Marcus To

All Star Superman and Red Robin for Ansel

The boys are not usually too interested in the man of steel unless he is working with Batman, but we read some of the TPB of "All Star Superman" last night.  Ansel liked it enough to make his first request for Superman on a napkin... although he still wanted Red Robin to be there with him.  He looked at this in the morning and told me that he wanted a different version of Red Robin- the one with the glider wings so that he could fly with Superman.  I should have known. 

Robin from The Batman for Ansel

Robin from the TV show.  Ansel was very displeased with the split in the cape.  I can only offer in my own defense that the bifurcation of the cape does appear in the source material...but I should have known better.

Batman and Robin from Dress Up Batman for Ansel

My 5 year old art director specified the silver Bat costume from the online game Batman Dress Up, but paired with Robin from the television show "The Batman" and a slightly different version of Mr. Freeze's hideout.  I had aspirations to improve on the somewhat awkward drawing of Batman in the game, but ending up not even doing that well.