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Robin Reading Order: Your Guide to Batman’s sidekicks (from Dick Grayson to Damian Wayne)

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Robin War - Robin Reading Guide Order

Robin. The Boy Wonder. Batman’s sidekick. Originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson, Robin is the alias for Batman’s crime-fighting partner in the DC Comic Universe.

The initial incarnation of the character first appeared in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940), just one year after Batman’s debut. As there was rarely a Batman published story without the Boy Wonder, Batman and Robin became known as the Dynamic Duo or The Caped Crusaders.

As Batman is a dark and brooding hero with a personal vendetta against crime and injustice, Robin is a more light-hearted, joyous, and spontaneous character. The two characters complement each other, and together, they created one of the most iconic comic book partnerships.

Robin began to live his own short adventures as soon as 1947, published in Star Spangled Comics (we will have to wait until 1992 for Robin to have his own title). He would also be a founding member of the superhero team Teen Titans (in 1964), and since then, Robin is almost always part of the team.

Throughout the years, several characters have held the mantle of Robin, from the most popular Dick Grayson to our favorite little brat Damian Wayne. Discover all the Robins with the following guide.

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Suicide Squad Reading Order

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The Suicide Squad as we know it today wasn’t always like that. First created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Ross Andru in 1959 in the pages of The Brave and the Bold #25, the first incarnation of The Suicide Squad was a team of good guys with a scientific edge led by Rick Flag Jr. They faced monsters and nuclear bombs. It didn’t last long, and we will not talk about it more here.

The Suicide Squad, as we know, was introduced by writer John Ostrander (with Len Wein) and artist John Byrne in the pages of the Legends miniseries in 1986, the first major DC Universe crossover after the events of Crisis on Infinite Earths. This governmental team controlled by the morally ambiguous Amanda Waller is really called Task Force X and is composed of supervillains like Blockbuster, Bronze Tiger, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, and Enchantress. Rick Flag Jr. is still the leader. The team is sent on “suicide” missions—sometimes, everybody is not coming back.

From 1987 to 1992, John Ostrander wrote the Suicide Squad ongoing series with the help of Kim Yale, and art by Luke McDonnell and John K. Snyder III, among others. It lasted 66 issues. After that, the Squad didn’t retire but only guest-starred in other titles for a while. A new ongoing was launched in 2001, written by Keith Giffen, with art by Paco Medina. The members changed quickly and Sgt. Rock became the squad leader (the members changed regularly).

As part of DC New 52 continuity reboot in 2011, The Suicide Squad was once more relaunched—this time by Adam Glass, with art by Federico Dallocchio and Ransom Getty. Amanda Waller built a new team around Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark. This series concluded after 30 issues, but the Suicide Squad came back rapidly after that. In fact, it never really went away since.

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Avengers Reading Order (1963-2015)

DC Comics had the Justice League and, in 1963, Marvel was inspired by its success to respond with its own team of superheroes. And thus, The Avengers were created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in the pages of The Avengers #1 (September 1963).

The story begins with Loki seeking revenge against Thor. His actions led young Rick Jones to call for help. That’s how Ant-Man (Hank Pym), the Wasp, and Iron Man joined Thor and the Hulk in their fight against Loki. The story ended well for the good guys. So well in fact that Ant-Man suggested they form a team – it was the Wasp that came up with the name Avengers.

The rest is history. A long history in fact, with multiple incarnations of the team with the Hulk rapidly leaving the team (in issue #2) and being replaced by Captain America (in issue #4). Former villains, new heroes, honorary members… the roaster changed, but the fight went on against famous foes on Earth, in Space, and everywhere else!

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Tokyo Ghoul Manga Order

Tokyo Ghoul Manga Order

Our site is dedicated to American comics, but once in a while, we also wrote about European comic books. And now, we expand our horizons with our first manga order thanks to Tokyo Ghoul!

Written and illustrated by Sui Ishida, Tokyo Ghoul is a dark fantasy manga taking place in a world where Ghouls live among us. Ghouls are a cannibalistic humanoid race that can only eat human and other ghoul flesh. So, ghouls regularly attack humans to feed. The government tries to keep the situation under control with a special entity called the GCC and its investigators who specialize in exterminating ghouls.

Ken Kaneki was an ordinary college student with a passion for literature when a violent encounter turns him into the first half-human half-ghoul hybrid. Trapped between two worlds, he must survive Ghoul turf wars, learn more about Ghoul society and master his new powers.

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Stephanie Brown Reading Order (Spoiler, Robin, Batgirl)

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Stephanie Brown Reading Order (Spoiler, Robin IV, Batgirl III)

Created by Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle as a plot device in Detective Comics #647–649, Stephanie Brown is a DC superheroine considered part of the Batfamily. She is first introduced as the vigilante Spoiler, had a brief stint as Robin, and has also taken the mantle of Batgirl.

Pre-New 52, Stephanie Brown had a difficult life, one with some similarities with Jason Todd. Her mother was an addict and her father was the third-rate villain Cluemaster. It was in order to stop him that Stephanie Brown became the vigilante named Spoiler (as she was trying to ‘spoil’ things for her abusive father). She lived in poverty and didn’t have a great track record when it comes to her love life.

She served almost immediately as the love interest/girlfriend for Tim Drake/Robin II, which she didn’t know his real name for a long time. Stephanie’s relationship with Batman was a difficult one, a sort of reflection of the way some people at DC seemed to perceive her– leading us to some mistreatment of her character.

In the New 52 era, Stephanie Brown’s story has been rewritten, making her past and her relationship with Batman way less harsh and complicated than it has been before. Right now, Stephanie Brown is protecting Gotham City as one of the Batgirls, alongside Cassandra Cain, while being guided by Oracle/Barbara Gordon.

The Following is Stephanie Brown’s reading order to discover all her adventures.

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The Final Night Reading Order, 1996 DC crossover event

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Published in 1996, The Final Night is a DC Comics crossover event written by Karl Kesel with art by Stuart Immonen. For a change, it was not about a Super-Villain fighting the Heroes, but about an extraterrestrial entity called the Sun-Eater that envelopes and extinguishes the Sun, causing Earth to freeze and wither into ecological collapse. It’s an End of the World scenario in which heroes, villains, and everybody else had to work together to surmount the impossible.

Here is the official synopsis: In The Final Night, the heroes and citizens of Earth face the impending end of the universe. When a cosmic force of nature known as the Sun-Eater extinguishes the Sun, Earth is thrust into its final night. Deprived of the massive star’s illumination and heat, the world experiences a catastrophe of epic proportions.

But even in a situation devoid of hope, the world’s greatest champions struggle on against the inevitable. Featuring many of the heroes of the DC Universe, including Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman, this book graphically illustrates the true definition of a hero, as Hal Jordan, the former Green Lantern, makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the world.

What to Read Before The Final Night?

The Final Night is a self-contained event, but you may want to be familiar with the character of Parallax to have a better understanding of his decisions in this story. First, the famous Emerald Twilight storyline (Green Lantern Vol. 3 #48–50), collected in:

Second, the event “Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!” You can find our reading order here.

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Carnage Reading Order

Created by writer David Michelinie and artist Mark Bagley in The Amazing Spider-Man #361 (published in 1992), Carnage is a supervillain, pure and simple. Being an offspring of Venom (see reading order to know more), Carnage is a Symbiote, an extraterrestrial organism who bonds with a host to which he gave superpowers.

In this case, even if it had multiple hosts through the years, Carnage is famously connected to its first, the sadistic serial killer Cletus Kasady. Everything began when, after Venom left behind him its offspring in a prison cell, the new symbiote connected with Eddie Brock’s cellmate, Kasady. Together, they left behind them chaos and deaths.

Envisioned as a darker version of Venom, Carnage is more violent, powerful, and – simply put – deadly. He became an adversary of Spider-Man of course, but also the archenemy of Venom. At times, Carnage was put at the center of multiple storylines, crossovers, and events, spreading fear throughout the Marvel Universe.

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Justice League Rebirth Reading Order (with Justice League of America, Justice League Odyssey and Justice League Dark)

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Following the ending of The New 52 era, DC Comics relaunched its entire line in 2016 under the Rebirth banner. For this occasion, the company restored the timeline to a form much closer to what it was before the famous Flashpoint storyline while still maintaining several elements of the New 52.

What does it mean for the Justice League? The most famous DC superteam still continues saving the world! No continuity changes were introduced at the beginning, but the team’s roster changed with the two Green Lanterns Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz joining the League (taking the place of Hal Jordan).

Here is the official synopsis: Superman. Batman. Wonder Woman. The Flash. Cyborg. Green Lantern. They’re more than just a team of superheroes. They’re the Justice League…and they’re about to enter a whole new era! The Superman these incredible heroes once knew is dead, leaving an older, wiser Man of Steel from a vanished universe to take up the fight against evil. Hal Jordan, the greatest of the Green Lanterns, has taken to the stars, entrusting his place in the League to his powerful but untested young protégés, Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz. Now the Justice League must get used to these new faces and learn to work as a team once more. But they’d better do it fast. They’re about to confront the biggest threats they’ve ever faced, from godlike machines capable of converting all life on Earth into a weapon, to a humble hacker who’s ready to hit them where it hurts most…

What to Read Before The Justice League Rebirth Comics?

As a new era is launched, it’s fairly safe to simply jump right in with the one-shot DC Universe Rebirth #1 serving as an introduction. But if you want a little more context, here are the comics you may be interested to read before:

As the Justice League has been active since the 1960s, you can obviously explore the team’s past.

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Batman: War Games Reading Order

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Batman War Games Reading Order

Published in 2004-2006, the Batman: War Games Saga is a Batman crossover event that spanned every Batman Family title being published at the time. Part of the Batman Modern Age (check out our reading order), the story was written by Devin Grayson, Andersen Gabrych, A.J. Lieberman, Bill Willingham, Dylan Horrocks and Ed Brubaker, with illustrations by Ramon Bachs, Pete Woods, Brad Walker, Mike Lilly, Al Barrionuevo, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Sean Phillips, Paul Gulacy and Kinsun Loh. 

Taking place after No Man’s Land and Bruce Wayne: Murderer, Batman: War Games tried to be a sort of mix of those two stories, with stakes on a street level as it is an all-gang war, but still on a big full scale like No Man’s Land. It’s also an event happening when Tim Drake had given up on his Robin role and Stephanie Brown had taken his place — and for her fans, this story is simply her character assassination.

But what is really Batman: War Games about? Tensions escalate and war comes to Gotham City when Batman is drawn into a skirmish between rival gangs. As Gotham’s biggest gang battle ignites, Batman must call on all his available allies—Oracle, Batgirl, Nightwing, Orpheus, Onyx, and Tarantula—to preserve life and contain the chaos while trying to determine who started this outbreak of violence.

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Venom Reading Order

A few decades before becoming the star of his own movie franchise, Venom was just a new, improved, and dark costume used by Spider-Man. Introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man #252 (May 1984), the black costume really became Venom in The Amazing Spider-Man #300 (May 1988) from David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane, the sentient alien symbiote with an amorphous, liquid-like form, that bonds with a host.

Venom became one of Spider-Man’s most prominent villains when he bonded with Eddie Brock, a disgraced journalist who, after having wrongly accused a man to be the serial killer known as the Sin-Eater (the truth was exposed by Spider-Man!), became suicidal. That’s when he came into contact with the symbiote. They bond together, and Venom is born.

First a villain, Venom evolved to become an antihero (before reverting to his old ways… for a time). Eddie Brock is not the only host for the symbiote. He bonded with Mac Gargan (Scorpion), Flash Thompson, and more. He spawned several “children” like Carnage, Scream, Lasher, Phage, and more. Recently, the mythology surrounding the Alien symbiotes became massive to the point of menacing the entirety of the Marvel Universe.

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