I’ve weighed in before on the idea that Batman shouldn’t have another Robin for a while, but that’s kind of difficult when you have a title that is literally called Batman & Robin. Without a Robin, the title will be filled by others, like Red Hood, Nightwing, Batgirl, etc. However, the time will obviously come for there for someone else to don the mantle of Boy Wonder so that the title will eventually return to the original title. Or perhaps even don the title of Girl Wonder. Peter Tomasi weighs in on this and about Carrie Kelley, beloved Robin figure from The Dark Knight Returns that has recently been added to the DCU proper, in an interview he did with Newsarama the other day.
Carrie’s a beam of light in a time of darkness in Bruce’s life. I like her spunk and I’m looking forward to exploring her creative streak, which is something you don’t see as much in comics. There’s some other stuff coming down the pike with her of course, too, but not much I can get into this early.
Now I don’t know about you, but Carrie Kelley is pretty popular in certain Batman circles. She was the perky 13 year old girl from The Dark Knight Returns, a classic ‘What if’ story, that showed a world if Batman retired after the death of Jason Todd and came back a great deal of time later. Without her help, Old Man Wayne might not have survived the events of the book, as his new protege breathed a lot of life into ‘The mission’, as Batman calls his never ending crusade on Crime, as well as providing the aid he needed to survive, proving that Batman needs a partner in this kind of business. Understandably, most people would be slightly skeptical about bringing in that character into the mainstream DC Universe, which Carrie’s never been a part of. Apparently, Peter Tomasi is not most people. When asked about if he had any kind of hesitation about bringing her into the main universe, Tomasi replied pretty clearly.
None whatsoever. Introducing a character like Carrie into the current continuity is a win-win. You can never have enough strong supporting characters especially ones that a lot of readers are familiar with and have a connection to.
Quickly following that up, he was asked about how Carrie fits in this new equation as well how she is as a character. She’s clearly not the 13 year old girl from the future we all knew and loved, but a college aged girl in the modern era. How does she fit into Batman’s world now that she’s been introduced?
It’s a New 52 revamp but not so drastic that she’s unrecognizable. Obviously her physical template hasn’t changed much; we did make her taller and a little older, but anyDark Knight Returns fans would recognize her immediately. Her background will also be different but that discussion’s for another day…At the moment Bruce is looking at Carrie as someone who reminds him of what he’s lost.
A reminder of what’s he’s lost. With destruction of the trust in the Bat Family circle from Death of the Family, and the death of his son, Batman has lost almost every bright spot in his life. Carrie, as this bright young woman who had tutored Damian, reminds him that all of that is now gone. After this, Newsarama jumped for the throat so to speak and asked the question we all have on our minds in regard to the title. Is there a new Robin coming? Who will it be? Carrie Kelley is one person that is certainly a candidate, but so is Harper Row from Scott Snyder’s Batman. Tomasi’s answers were cryptic, but heavily hinted that yes, there will be another character named Robin on the horizon, but was coy about actually confirming it.
Bruce is psychologically nowhere near letting anyone take over the role of Robin and rushing into that situation again — but I’d be remiss in saying that sometimes a situation presents itself that can change your mind…Let’s be honest…Robin is a character with a long publishing history and it’d be crazy to think that any company would leave such a much-loved and commercial character lying fallow for a great deal of time. I can reasonably look into my crystal ball and say that one day there will be another Robin, and who, when and where is anybody’s guess.
Now we know that the Batman team up issues will continue until at the very least, issue 23 with Batman & Nightwing. That’s about four months from now, so that’s plenty of time for us to wait and hear if another Robin is coming. Question is, who’s it gonna be? Is another Robin even what we want?
Source: Newsarama
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