Alias... Dick Grayson by Dave Goode

I had just started reading Batman and Detective comics a couple of years before the Batman television series premiered. I was introduced to Batman through a crossover story in one of the Superman titles and thought the character was pretty cool. So I started picking up titles that featured this other " caped crusader ". When I did I discovered a character that over the years would become my favorite comic book/comic strip hero. Robin, the Boy Wonder...alias Dick Grayson. Actually I liked him as Robin, Nightwing, or just Dick Grayson. As a kid when playing Batman with friends I got to be Batman because I was the tallest. But I secretly wanted to be Robin.

Honor student, top athlete and wholesome boy next door. Dick Grayson was the ultimate big brother even if there was no Tim Drake or Jason Todd during the Silver Age to look up to him. Seriously I imagined Tony Dow portraying him.

That is until the Batman series premiered.

There is a certain gold standard when it comes to casting comic book /comic strip heroes and heroines. It starts with Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon and continues with Irish McCalla (Sheena of the Jungle) , Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman) and Burt Ward as Robin , the Boy Wonder. Actor Burt Ward as Robin looked like artist Carmine Infantino's  Boy Wonder come to life. Burt Ward (born Bert Gervis Jr.) was a sort of " boy wonder " in real life. At age two he was billed as the world's youngest professional figure skater.








The publicity department for the Batman show had put out some press releases describing him as as a brown belt in karate. As part of his audition he demonstrated some ukemi and tameshiwari techniques so these claims might have had some validity.

The funny thing is that in a 3-part story that ran in Batman No.234 (Aug.1971) , Batman No.235 (Sept.1971) and Batman No.236 (Nov.1971) written by Gary Friedrich and illustrated by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano Robin gives a karate demo at a commune where writer Friedrich describes Robin as being a karate brown belt. Hold the phone! Robin was only a brown belt in karate? This was as bad as Barbara " Bat-Girl " Gordon in her first appearance in Detective Comics No.359 (Jan.1967) written by Julius Schwartz and drawn by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson being described as a brown belt in judo.

I can't understand why any writer would depict someone fighting a guerrilla war against crime in the streets as being anything less than a 5th dan black belt. Perhaps this was writer Friedrich's way of of paying tribute to Burt Ward's martial arts skills. I wonder if there was some story during the Silver Age where Robin was described as a black belt?

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