I'm wondering if it okay for any older hero to have a young sidekick with any unique abilities or skills in their side for so many missions/fights/etc in their life like batman and Robin did?
is it okay for a older hero to have young sidekick?
No. It's not okay to have a 10 year-old fighting alongside you against psychopaths and serial killers.
@green_tea: Jason toad would put his middle finger up
Well, I think it's fine for some missions (delivery, recon, etc.) but for the "Jokers" of the universe, they're staying home. They're nothing but a risk.
Sure, I think it just depends on the story, genre, objectives, appeal or character involved, plus other variables. A serious mature themed Punisher MAX series, it would hard to take Frank having a young sidekick Punisher Junior seriously. It would ruin the tone, conflict with the character potentially, and if the appeal was a certain degree of realism, potentially ruin that. Then again I remember Barracuda, a Punisher villain, having a Mature themed mini series, where he sort of had a sidekick, but that was more for dark humor. So a tone shift as well as a protagonist shift.
Batman and Robin is tricky, because Batman is a huge pop cultural icon and could be argued as the biggest comic book character ever so far, and he has thousands of different stories across dozens of different media/mediums... So naturally, its probable that in some of the stories, the tone, setting, writing, plot, would allow for young sidekicks and be better for it. Then obviously some that won't. I personally don't think Nolan's Batman trilogy would have worked with Batman having a young side kick in them. I think the original animated Teen Titans works well though. The original live action Batman TV series I am unfamiliar with, but know that its frequently known to be quite campy. Batman Forever and the Batman and Robin movie... seemed to age up Robin. So adjustments can be made to also try and work around suspension of/suspended disbelief/belief.
Some X-Men stories make a focal point of younger mutants being put in harms way, and there are various arguments to be for and against. Usually those are serious. We also have a small genre in comics, that includes like X-Babies and I forgot the DC version, but like baby and kid versions of heroes, but those are cute, silly, humor based stories, if an older 6 year old hero, has a young 3 year old sidekick, thats just adorable. So it depends.
I usually prefer my Batman focused stories to be sans sidekicks. Then again I usually prefer my Batman focused stories sans other superheroes as well, but I can still enjoy Batman in Justice League stories.
Yes, being a sidekick will give the young hero experience and can help them one day become their own heroes like was the case with original Robin (Dick Grayson) who became his own hero Nightwing. Being a sidekick from young would be like on the job training or an apprenticeship. When it comes to morality older heroes don't force younger ones to become sidekicks, they choose that kind of life by their own volition. If anything happens to them on the field the old hero can't be blamed for it.
Y’all makin it weird, Williamsons current run on Flash proves it perfectly fine and acceptable (so long as the older gentleman can be trusted) Flash and young Wally were an awesome team and yes even in this day and age young people need to be taught, especially if they want to use powers to fight evil
@kirkseven: Something like Batman and Flash.
@gokluma: You missed what I meant, but alright.
Well, vigilantism itself isn’t really that ok, so by default no. However in the spectacular and sensational world of fiction, absolutely. If any kid in the real world could match the skill of Damien, Todd, Grayson, Drake, Harper, etc., then they’d be safer and better off than probably 99.9% of adults. If not 100%.
@kirkseven: oh just say 20 to 30 years or older who has lot of experienced
Well, I think it's fine for some missions (delivery, recon, etc.) but for the "Jokers" of the universe, they're staying home. They're nothing but a risk.
To be fair, that's faulty logic as well. Someone like the Joker would take advantage of this and pull another Jason Todd on said side-kick.
Well Batman is arguably the biggest comic book character in all comic mediums/medias , which has various type of plots/stories that made Batman's sidekicks either important or fodder therefore it depends on whether this characters/sidekicks are among the main protagonists of a particular comic arc or not , if not then in my opinion it's better not to include them since they don't bring any separate dimension towards a comic arc just for the sake that they are Batman's sidekick .
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