Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for the Gotham Knights pilot.The premiere episode of the Gotham Knights show confronts the idea that DC Comics' Batman actively seeks orphans to train as sidekicks. The matter was treated as a joke for years in superhero parodies, with it being humorously suggested the best way for an aspiring superhero to recruit a junior partner was to go to an orphanage and ask about any children whose parents died violently. Somewhere along the line, the joke was taken seriously by some writers who handled Batman, though most portrayals of the Dark Knight are sensitive towards the safety of children. This is certainly shown to be the case in Gotham Knights.
Robin the Boy Wonder was the first child superhero sidekick, setting the mold for a horde of pretenders in the Golden Age of Comics before World War 2. Since that time, Batman has recruited dozens of young sidekicks in the comics. Many of them were orphans or otherwise without loving parents. In almost all of these cases, Batman either stumbled across these young people by chance or they sought him out for help. Despite this, the idea that Batman actively seeks out orphans to recruit as new superheroes persists.
Batman Has Gained A Reputation For Seeking Out Orphans To Become Superheroes
The only incarnation of Batman to ever be shown actively cataloging potential Robins was the one played by Iain Glen in HBO Max's Titans. This was revealed in Titans' season 3 premiere after Barbara Gordon accused Bruce Wayne of weaponizing damaged young people and turning them into child soldiers. While Dick Grayson defended his mentor, his attitude changed after he discovered profiles for Carrie Kelley, Stephanie Brown, and other potential Robins on the Bat-Computer. Dick confronted Bruce, and he was forced to admit he had been reviewing "potential recruits" after Jason Todd's death. Disturbingly, it was also implied that Bruce already had these files prepared as a contingency.
Batman’s Adoption Practices In The Comics Explained
Ironically, despite having a large support network in the comics, most portrayals of Batman in live-action and animation paint him as a lone Dark Knight who only has Alfred Pennyworth helping him at home. This was certainly how Batman originally intended to operate in the comics, though most classic origins have Bruce Wayne take Dick Grayson on as his ward out of sympathy. This stood in marked contrast to Robin's first appearance in Detective Comics #38, where Bruce Wayne planned to send Robin back to the circus after Dick Grayson helped Batman to take down the mobsters who killed his parents.
The most recent Robin origin stories have Bruce Wayne trying to give Dick Grayson a normal life, only recruiting him as a partner after Dick seeks the criminals who killed his family on his own. The most famous example of this may be the two-part Batman: The Animated Series story "Robin's Reckoning." Bruce also officially adopted Dick Grayson as his son in the most recent Nightwing origin story.
The second Robin, Jason Todd, was also adopted by Bruce Wayne after the Dark Knight first encountered him trying to steal the tires off the Batmobile. Bruce also adopted the third Robin, Tim Drake, but that came years after Tim Drake presented himself as a potential partner, having deduced Batman's secret identity on his own. Tim would not be adopted until after his father died at the hands of Captain Boomerang. In every case of Batman adopting a child, he did so without the specific intention of recruiting an orphan to join his war on crime.
Gotham Knights Makes Turner Hayes A Different Batman Adoptee
The pilot episode of the Gotham Knights show introduces an original character named Turner Hayes, whose parents died violently under mysterious circumstances. Adopted by Bruce Wayne, Turner recalls his life in the opening monologue of Gotham Knights' pilot, musing that Bruce Wayne gave him "everything I could want, except the reason why, in a city filled with orphans... why me?" Later, after Bruce Wayne is found dead and his secret life as Batman is exposed, Turner wonders why his adoptive father didn't trust him with his secret.
Gotham Knights' Robin, Carrie Kelley, provides Turner with an answer when the two visit Bruce Wayne's grave in the final moments of the Gotham Knights' pilot. Carrie tells Turner that Bruce didn't want Turner to follow in his footsteps and tried to give him the happy childhood that Bruce never had. When Turner laments that Carrie was lucky to be chosen to know the real Bruce Wayne, Carrie explains that Bruce never sought her out as a sidekick and that he only began training her and giving her equipment after she proved herself, saving him from the Mutant gang while patrolling her neighborhood on her own.
Beyond being a reference to how Batman came to work with the Carrie Kelley Robin in Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Carrie's story confirms that the Batman of Gotham Knights did not seek to build an army of child soldiers. Bruce honestly tried to be a loving father to Turner Hayes and shielded him from the darkness of his double life. At the same time, he tried to mentor Carrie Kelley once it became clear she was already committed to following him down the hero's path.
Gotham Knights season 1 continues on Tuesdays on The CW.
