Warning! Major spoilers for Robins #1 ahead!
The debut issue of Robins is already setting up a massive showdown between Batman's five previous Robins and an anonymous assailant challenging Nightwing for the title of "The Very First Robin." Robins #1 sees Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne joining forces to fight a terrorist cell in Blüdhaven before retiring to an apartment for a Bat-Family "Robin Roundtable." Their meeting doesn't last long though, with their unknown assassin throwing down the gauntlet early on.
Batman's legacy of taking in struggling children and molding them into fighting protégés has received a lot of negative attention recently, with many wondering if other heroes should intervene on the Dark Knight's unhealthy pattern. Besides all of the day-to-day trauma that comes with being Robin, Jason Todd, who goes by the Red Hood, literally died for the mission (although he was famously resurrected with a Lazarus Pit). Dick Grayson, who now fights independently as Nightwing, has always been referred to as Batman's "First Robin," but what if there was someone before him?
Robins #1, written by Tim Seeley with art by Baldemar Rivas, sees the five current and former Robins meet to discuss and finally decide, whether being Batman's sidekick, "...Was a good thing or not." Each of Batman's sidekicks reflects on their own experiences of being Robin, coming to different conclusions about how their time under Batman has impacted them. Simultaneously, while in a crowded park a hooded figure returns a fallen robin chick to its nest, in a seemingly compassionate action, before suddenly detonating a grenade, killing the family of robins as well as several innocent bystanders. She references her replacements as Robin by saying, "That's what we do to the boys who kick us outta the nest."
The meeting of "The Green Underwear Squad" is quickly interrupted after Tim Drake notices that his Bat-Computer has locked him out, before the front door is kicked down by a harried man. This man reports that someone got him out of the prison Blackgate before he is identified as Delcaine, a member of the first gang that Dick Grayson ever took down as Robin. Delcaine mentions that others were let out as well including, "Garzonas, that Innocente creep, the Shadid Girl." The Robins quickly realize that each of these names represent their "gauntlets," or the first major enemies they took down as their respective Robin. Delcaine is about to warn the gathered heroes of an even greater threat, before he is shot and killed with a sniper bullet through the head.
While the gathered Robins don't know this yet, their assailant is a young woman dressed as Robin, who declares herself to be "the very first one," indicating she was Robin before Dick Grayson ever was. There are countless possibilities as to who this woman could be. Batman fought crime for years before taking in Dick and training him to become his (supposedly) first Robin, so there is a chance that there is a yet unrevealed sidekick before Nightwing. This woman also resembles King Robin from the Dark Multiverse, potentially revealing that the Dark Multiverse still has agents on Prime Earth. Be sure to pick up Robins #1 and its ongoing issues to solve the mystery of who the true "First Robin" is.