Warning: contains spoilers for Batman: White Knight and Batman: Curse of the White Knight!
Fans will meet DC’s new Robin later this year: a young Mongolian woman trained by Red Hood himself. Writer and artist Sean Murphy incorporated Red Hood into his popular Batman: White Knight universe in last year’s Curse of the White Knight. Later this year, Red Hood will receive his own spin-off series, tentatively titled Batman: White Knight Red Hood, that will see him take on a protégé, unlike any other Robin before.
The Batman: White Knight universe, masterminded by acclaimed writer and artist Sean Murphy, began in 2017. When the Joker is seemingly cured of his insanity, he becomes a politician, embarking on a quest to clean up and expose the evils of Gotham City. Batman comes into his crosshairs, and the series concluded with both the Joker reverting to his evil self, and Batman unmasking for Commissioner Gordon. Batman: White Knight was well received by fans, leading to a sequel series, Curse of the White Knight as well as spin-off titles featuring Mister Freeze and Harley Quinn, that further expand the universe. Red Hood, introduced in Curse of the White Knight, will be the next to receive a two-issue spin-off series, one that will attempt to “humanize” the character—by giving him his own Robin in a young Mongolian woman named Gan.
In a recent roundtable interview with ScreenRant, Murphy revealed more details about his new title, Batman: Beyond the White Knight #1 (scheduled to release on March 29, 2022), as well as the new Robin to be introduced as part of Jason Todd's story prior to his return to Gotham:
To humanize [Jason] we actually give him a girl in his life, a daughter figure. A Mongolian immigrant who is going to become the new Robin in the spinoff. We wanted her costume to be very pieced together. So she wears like a towel for a cape, and she's stitched her own 'R' on her chest, so you can kind of see the stitching. She has rugby socks, and dirt bike armor on her shins... She's doing her best to be her own Robin, and when we see her she's literally riding around on a bicycle, trying to stop crime in her neighborhood. She's just a big Batman fan. That's when she bumps into Jason and she realizes, "Holy s***, I think this guy used to be Robin, for real." She geeks out, and she begs him to teach her the ropes. And he does.
But I wanted to try something different where she is a larger, thicker woman. She's not good at gymnastics, she's not good at aerial stuff, she's actually afraid of heights. She's built more like a female rugby player. So Jason tries to teach her to be Robin by doing flips and stuff, but she can't do it. Then he realizes the secret to training her will be to work on her ground game. She would rather shoulder check people, you know, and throw her weight around like that, rather than fight in the traditional way a Robin would. [MMA fighter] is a better way to say it. She's more like a Serena Williams body type, so she's really strong and... thicker than most Robins have been, you know what I mean?
Sean Murphy’s White Knight universe has proven popular with fans, largely because the book subverts expectations at every step, be it reframing Batman’s eternal struggle with the Joker, or presenting readers with a bold new vision of Robin. This new Robin is a departure from her predecessors, complete with a new style of fighting; yet she also reflects what might be the ultimate fan fantasy—to not only become a hero, but train with one of the best in the business. Murphy has made it clear that Gan will be star struck by Red Hood, and while Red Hood maybe frustrated with his new pupil, it will also give him new insight into his own relationship with Batman.
Later this year, Red Hood will receive a new mini-series that will see him train a Robin unlike any before: a young Mongolian woman named Gan. Red Hood will help Gan find her way as Robin and she will help heal the scars of his past.
Source: DC Comics