In current continuity as of 2025, Dick Grayson serves as Nightwing, Jason Todd is the Red Hood, Stephanie Brown is Batgirl, while Tim Drake and Damian both share the title of Robin.

A gangster named Boss Zucco, loosely based on actor Edward G. Robinson's Little Caesar character, had been extorting money from the circus and killed Grayson's parents, John and Mary, by sabotaging their trapeze equipment as a warning against defiance.

Like Dick Grayson, Jason Todd was the son of circus acrobats murdered by a criminal (this time the Batman adversary Killer Croc), and then adopted by Bruce Wayne.

Readers voted "yes" by a small margin (5,343 to 5,271) and Todd was subsequently murdered by the Joker in the storyline, A Death in the Family, in which the psychopath beat the youngster severely with a crowbar, and left him to die in a warehouse rigged with a bomb.

[10] After the continuity changes following the New 52 DC Comics relaunch, Jason becomes a leader of the Outlaws, a superhero team that includes Starfire and Arsenal who had spent years with Grayson in the Titans.

The third Robin, Timothy Drake, first appeared in a flashback in Batman #436 (1989) as a preadolescent boy, introduced by writer Marv Wolfman, interior penciler Pat Broderick, and inker John Beatty.

In addition to establishing Tim Drake as a principal character in Batman and Detective Comics, Lauren R. O'Connor argues that "A Lonely Place of Dying" served as the denouement of a transition from Dick Grayson's "absent sexuality," which earlier incited reader interpretations of homosexuality, to definitive heterosexual presence as a maturation narrative.

Preorders for Batman and Detective Comics issues featuring a revived Joker and Penguin began to compete with, and even edged out, the last three parts of Grant Morrison's and Klaus Janson's Gothic storyline in Legends.

The next year, 1991, witnessed the ascension of Chris Claremont's, Jim Lee's, and Scott Williams's X-Men against Magneto, as well as Fabian Nicieza's and Rob Liefeld's X-Force, into the top of the preorder rankings.

[15] Tim Drake eventually transitioned from late preadolescence to adolescence, becoming the third Robin over the course of the storylines "Rite of Passage"[16] and "Identity Crisis",[17] with all issues scripted by Alan Grant and penciled by Norm Breyfogle.

Story arcs that included Drake only in subplots or featured his training in criminal investigation, such as "Crimesmith"[18] and "The Penguin Affair,"[19] were either written or co-written by Grant and Wolfman, with pencils by Breyfogle, Aparo, and M. D. Bright.

Immediately afterwards, the character starred in the five-issue miniseries Robin,[20] written by Chuck Dixon, with interior pencils by Tom Lyle and cover art by Brian Bolland.

They wisely mobilized the expected adolescent behaviors of parental conflict, hormonal urges, and identity formation to give Tim emotional depth and complexity, making him a relatable character with boundaries between his two selves."

[22] Erica McCrystal likewise observes that Alan Grant, prior to Dixon's series, connected Drake to Batman's philosophy of heroic or anti-heroic "vigilantism" as "therapeutic for children of trauma.

[24] Tim Drake's first Robin costume had a red torso, yellow stitching and belt, black boots, and green short sleeves, gloves, pants, and domino mask.

This costume had an armored tunic and gorget, an emergency "R" shuriken on his chest in addition to the traditional batarangs and a collapsible bo staff as his primary weapon, which Tim Drake continues to use as the superhero Red Robin.

Following 2011's continuity changes resulting from The New 52 DC Comics relaunch, history was altered such that Tim Drake never took up the Robin mantle after Jason Todd's death, feeling that it would be inappropriate.

Conceived to become a host for his maternal grandfather's soul as well as a pawn against the Dark Knight, Batman saved his child from this fate, which forced Ra's to inhabit his own son's body, and thus, Damian was affectionate to his father.

After Batman's apparent death during Final Crisis, Talia left her son under Dick Grayson and Alfred Pennyworth's care and Damian was deeply affected by his father's absence.

After "Battle for the Cowl", Grayson adopted the mantle of Batman, and instead of having Tim (whom he viewed as an equal rather than a protégé) remain as Robin, he gave the role to Damian, who he felt needed the training that his father would have given him.

This series featured a new version of Robin named Drake Winston (whose appearance is inspired by Marlon Wayans, who was originally attached to play the role in the Burton films).

He is initially distrustful of both Bruce Wayne and Batman, but after witnessing his dedication towards helping people and figuring out they are the same person, the two become partners and work together to stop Dent and arsonists terrorizing the city.

In Generations III, BJ's life is greatly extended by the use of the Lazarus Pit so he can help the human resistance battle the forces of Darkseid, but when he is mortally wounded he decides to pass on, feeling that he's kept Kara waiting far too long; the sight of their spirits departing together is enough to make even Bruce Senior shed a tear.

Sometime after his dismissal, he apparently joined forces with senior villains such as Luthor, and underwent extensive gene manipulation to gain a healing factor and shapeshifting powers, but at the cost of his sanity.

Barbara and Graustark fight crime as Batgirl and Robin, though, in true 1960s anti-establishment style, their main targets are corrupt cops, in particular those led by the Two-Face-like Detective Duell and the Joker-like but very feminine Bianca Steeplechase.

In JLA: The Nail, Dick (as Robin), along with Barbara (as Batgirl) is tortured then murdered by The Joker with his Kryptonian gauntlets during a raid on Arkham Asylum, driving Batman temporarily insane after he witnesses their ordeals and death.

As he does so, Superman throws up the past deceased Robins, Dick Grayson and Jason Todd as well as Tim Drake who unbeknownst to Batman is imprisoned in the Phantom Zone along with the surviving Titans.

He, Animal Man and Vixen soon warn their Regime allies about Ra's and Solovar's plan to bring destructions on innocent humans, while Kara herself is not yet prepared to fight against Amazo and must stay in Kahndaq.

As the League of Assassins and their Suicide Squads relocated in Gorilla City to allied themselves with King Solovar, then recently kill the peaceful human civilians in Arizona by dispatching Amazo, Jason starting to doubt about Ra's ideal.

Unfortunately, Damian is snapped by Wonder Woman's lasso on his neck from behind in cold blood, but his death eventually gives original Batman a stronger will to break free from Superman's control.