10 Best Robin Costumes in All of DC History

There’s no Batman without Robin, and for eighty-four years, the Boy Wonder has been flying through the streets of Gotham, showing off his incredible acrobatic skills and helping the Dark Knight keep the streets on the safer and lighter side, mainly through a quick quip or two. He’s not just an essential piece of Gotham or even DC Comics but all of comics in general as the first sidekick ever to be introduced to the world.

Since then, many people have held the mantle of Robin, fighting side by side with all those who have held the mantle of Batman, and the costume has changed hands just as many times. Without further ado, here are the 10 best Robin costumes in all of DC history, thanks to all the wonderful heroes that have put on the costume of Robin and had a turn at being the greatest sidekick of all time.

10 Tim Drake’s Red Robin Is a Full Evolution

Robin Tries His Hand at a Batman Costume

Tim Drake’s Red Robin era was an emotional peak of Tim Drake’s character, showing how he was just as good a superhero as Batman himself. To prove this, he broke away from being solely Batman’s sidekick and created his own Robin persona, apart from any team-up or partnership. Shown in his dark cape and his cowl, Tim Drake is the spitting image of his adoptive father who has agreed that Tim Drake is by far the best Robin.

In his efforts to divert from being a sidekick, this version of Robin does lose all the classic costume qualities that make the Boy Wonder a Robin. Eventually, Tim Drake comes back from his solo adventures and sleuthing to costumes that do justice to Dick Grayson’s vision while ultimately championing his own personality, in his very next iteration of this Red Robin.

9 Jeff Lemire’s Robin Is a Modern Redesign

Dick Grayson Sees His Armored Suit For the First Time

Dick Grayson is the original Robin, and although he’s been Nightwing for many years and practically surpassing Batman by shutting down gods, he got his start as the famous Boy Wonder. An acrobat born into a circus family, Dick’s costume was meant to only ever aid him in his acrobats. But in this retelling of Batman and Robin’s first days, Robin’s costume serves a different purpose, one more suited to Batman’s fighting style.

In Robin & Batman, by Jeff Lemire with art by Dustin Nguyen, Dick Grayson gets his best costume yet. Removing all the silly circus frills and maintaining a more armored look meant for battle, this costume provides a Robin costume for a modern age, as if Batman and Robin’s first days were today and not in the forties. This is a minimalist Robin, designed to stalk in the night, not to perform.

8 Damian Wayne’s Original Costume Was a Repurposed Robin Costume

Robin Took Dick Grayson’s Look and Made It His

One of the most controversial Robins in history, more so than even the heated temper of Jason Todd, is Damian Wayne’s Robin – and yet no one has reinvented the title of the Boy Wonder as much as Batman’s son. His first costume appeared in Grant Morrison’s Batman, and is a refitted version of Dick Grayson’s costume. Damian believed himself to be the ultimate Robin – so he took the ultimate suit, that being the original.

A major piece of this costume isn’t in the costume at all but in the fact that Damian Wayne used a katana in his first days as Robin. The addition of the hood also points to the background of Damian’s history as an assassin. This costume seems to answer the question Jason Todd had been begging to ask: what would Robin look like if he killed?

7 Jason Todd’s Rebirth Robin Is a Dark Retcon

A Modern Retelling with a Red Mask

Told in flashbacks and memories in Red Hood and the Outlaws, by Scott Lobdell, Dexter Soy, and Pete Woods, Jason Todd’s Robin outfit is nothing like Dick Grayson’s. Gone are the days of circus tricks as the superhero world was becoming harsher and certainly more unforgiving to children, as Jason Todd is quick to accuse Batman of. They would learn eventually, the hard way.

This is a more tactical costume for a more modern era, much more suited to Jason Todd’s fighting style which is harsher and less coordinated than Dick’s. A key piece too is the red color of the Robin mask, as a foreshadow to the hero Red Hood he would later become. While every piece of this costume hints at tragedy, it’s nowhere near the worst costume Jason Todd has had, thanks to the Joker’s meddling.

6 Red Robin’s New 52 Look Fixes Its Previous Errors

Tim Drake Is a Whole New Robin

This is a brilliant synthesis of two different components: Tim Drake’s attempt at being Batman in his first Red Robin costume and his embracing of his innate Robin personality. The world doesn’t need another brooding Dark Knight – it needs as many colorful sidekicks as it can get. As the leader of the Teen Titans in the New 52 reboot, this Tim Drake costume keeps his previous look while upgrading most every other aspect.

He returns to his classic domino mask, but his costume is primarly red, like his title he still holds of Red Robin. He also trades his Batman cape for one much more bird-like. This was an attempt pn Tim Drake’s part to create a new Robin character when there were more than enough Robins – and in this suit, he is fully Robin, not just a redesigned Batman.

5 Robin’s Classic Look Will Always Be Iconic

Dick Grayson Debuts as the Boy Wonder

Nothing says Robin like the classic Robin look. Even as Robin’s first appearance gets a modern remake to honor that first appearance in Detective Comics #38, Robin’s costume remains a staple of superheroes. There’s nothing so quintessential about a superhero’s costume like their original look. Even Batman goes back and forth often to those black tights that even modern comics won’t deny he looks good in.

With the green tights, the Peter Pan boots, and the long flowering yellow cape, Robin is the complete opposite of Batman, looking more like the brightness of the Bat-Symbol than the dark surrounding the night. Dick Grayson not only cemented Robin as a hero for all time with this costume, but there are always more stories to be told, as with Mark Waid’s new Year One story. It’s such an original that it keeps coming back – it’s that good.

4 Tim Drake Changes the Robin Costume for the First Time

Robin Loses the Green and Picks Up Brooding Instead

Before following even further into his father’s footsteps with his Red Robin look, Tim Drake was the first Robin to really perfect Batman’s brooding. Falling away from the classic Robin style for the first time, after the events of Infinite Crisis, Tim Drake, in mourning his fallen best friend, Connor Kent’s Superboy, decides to lose all the green from his costume. This is the first time the colors of the Boy Wonder turned solely to red and black.

Currently, Tim Drake is still trying to figure out what kind of Robin he is, since Damian Wayne is still in the picture. Jason Todd becomes Red Hood, Dick Grayson becomes Nightwing, but Tim Drake has the most costume changes over the years as he struggles to find himself. Thankfully, he looks good in nearly whatever costume he dons, whether it’s classic or a modern deviation, as DC argues Tim Drake is the better Robin.

3 Robin’s Rebirth Costume is a Brilliant Remix

Damian Wayne Finally Becomes His Own Robin

Damian Wayne returns to finally stop wearing the same clothes of his predecessor and give them his own iconic twist. As an assassin born to lead an army of killers, Damian Wayne is keen on keeping key parts of his backstory and folding them within the Robin mythos. With his Rebirth costume, he paid homage to Tim Drake’s turn of wearing black and red threads, but Damian’s version is much more shadowy, slimmer, and with a much shorter cape. The domino mask too is like one no hero has ever worn before.

It’s a new costume that’s wholly his own – and it’s about time, considering every other Robin got to do a remix of the original. This is Damian Wayne at his peak, fully Robin to his father Batman, albeit in his own style. It’s in this costume that Damian finally completed his redemption arc as Robin.

2 Tim Drake’s Original Robin Costume Was an instant Classic

With Modern and Classical Elements, Tim Drake Was a Favorite Robin

Tim Drake’s first Robin costume was the harbinger of the nineties, where modernity was catching up with comics and silliness was dying out and being replaced by super serious stories. After Jason Todd’s tragic death as a key piece of Robin lore, Tim Drake takes up the mantle of Robin and more than lives up to it – he reinvents it and brings along more than a handful of costumes along the way.

The best, however, is his very first, that he was eventually to return to. It was the first instance of a modern Robin costume, since Jason Todd’s first real costume was just a replay of Dick Grayson’s. It’s a costume many Robin-loving fans have grown up with, and as such, it really encapsulates just what it means to be Robin – all the bright colors to be expected but in a much cooler way.

1 Dick Grayson’s World Finest Suit is the Quintessential Robin

Colorful and Fun, Dick Grayson Will Always Be the Iconic Robin

Nothing says Robin like this colorful suit. It’s seen in Mark Waid and Dan Mora’s landmark series World’s Finest, which shows some of the beginning years of the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel. Importantly though, it shows Dick Grayson as a Robin just before moving on to the mantle of Nightwing. Robin fans get to see that in-between age of a Robin who is no longer a boy sidekick but hasn’t quite grown up yet.

What results is a more modern and capable suit that can withstand the era of modern comics but still hearkens back to its original era that Dick Grayson comes from. It’s bright, it’s colorful, it’s fun, and it’s everything a fan could think of when they think of Robin. While there are no shortage of wonderful suits for the Boy Wonder, this Robin costume is absolutely the best there is.

Batman

One of DC’s most iconic heroes, Batman is the vigilante superhero persona of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Forged by tragedy with the death of his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming the world’s leading martial artist, detective, and tactician. Recruiting an entire family of allies and sidekicks, Bruce wages war on evil as the dark knight of his hometown, Gotham City.

Created By

Bob Kane , Bill Finger

Alias

Bruce Wayne

Alliance

Justice League, Outsiders, Batman Family

Race

Human

FIRST APP

Detective Comics #27 (1939)

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