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Observations

Eight Years Ago

I love watching Robin. I really do.

Sure, I know most people like to look at him because he's a good looking kid or because he's such an incredible athlete or even because he's become a celebrity and I don't deny those facts but mostly I like to watch him when he's being himself...you know what I mean, when the walls are down, when he's saying what he really thinks or when he doesn't know anyone is watching. That's when you get to see a little bit of the kid behind the mask, the one his friends and family know, that's when you get to see what he's really like without the layers between him and the rest of the world. And make no mistake about it, the layers and walls are there, big, tall and thick.

I'd love to know who he lets get through them, if you want to know the truth. I'd really like to know what happened to this kid to set those walls up in the first place.

On Tuesday I was assigned to a press conference down at Police headquarters to hear the details of a large drug bust Batman and Robin had closed for the GPD. Over twelve tons of pure cocaine were intercepted just inside the US line outside Gotham Harbor—a huge haul. The importers were arrested, the guys running the boats were arrested, the men who were waiting for the delivery were arrested, it was a slam dunk for the good guys.

The press conference was the usual; the drugs were set up on display off to the side, Commissioner Gordon, Chief O'Hara and Batman and Robin were sitting at a long table facing the room full of reporters and cameras. There were the usual introductions, compliments and platitudes about this and that but I kept my eyes on the kid sitting down there at the end in the last seat.

He wasn't paying all that much attention, he looked tired and I caught him stifling a couple of yawns but straightened up in his chair when the Bat tossed him a look that would freeze anyone's blood but which merely served to make Robin put on his public face. He pretended to care about the Q&A but I caught him glancing at the clock a few times while he fiddled with his water glass.

He looks like he's maybe fourteen, fifteen and I wondered if he had to be up early for school or if he has a tutor or is home schooled or something. I noticed how the overhead lighting and the camera lights from the TV guys highlighted the muscles in his arms and wondered how many hours he spends in a gym and if it's his choice or something which is expected of him by his parents or whomever he answers to.

Is Batman his father is something? I've no idea but they seem to have similar builds and their basic facial structure seem like they might share a gene pool. Or not; Robin's skin tones are different, his chin and nose are a little different and he seems slighter built, smaller. That could just all be because he's not fully mature yet, but who knows?

It also struck me that the boy seems to have an attitude that a teenager would have with a parent; that semi-snotty but controlled attitude which says he's growing up, leaving childhood behind, is developing his own ideas and opinions and isn't going to jump just because he's told to.

So I did some research before the coke bust press conference thing and tried to find out what I could about Robin, where he came from and why he does what he does.

There's a lot of speculation but there isn't much fact.

His age is a guess.

No one knows where he lives, other than the obvious assumption that he's somewhere in or near Gotham.

His training, the crime stuff, is assumed to be from Batman but the physical side of it? The kid is more advanced that the Bat in a number of areas and that seems to say that he either has a different trainer or coach or he started when he was probably still in diapers. Or he simply has tons more innate ability and talent; maybe all of the above.

He's bright, that's apparent. Very bright, sure, but is he what my brother calls scary smart? Is he one of those 'graduates from MIT at twelve' kids? I doubt that, but he's still pretty damn smart.

So while I was watching him sitting there, half listening to the back and forth between the reporters and the cops, it looked to me like his mind was wandering; he kept smiling to himself. 'Seemed to be having trouble keeping a straight face about something and I caught a couple more sharp looks to the kid from the Bat, trying to rein him in. I don't know what it was, but something was striking him as funny—probably us, I guess and I don't blame him, either.

Finally someone, not me, asked him a direct question. "So, Robin, do you ever catch any flack from people for being a cop? I mean, like from kids your own age or kids who are afraid of you in case you bust them or something?"

The laugh he'd been keeping to himself came out and it was a good one, the kind that can give you a stomach ache if you let it go. He kept in under control, though, looked like he was counting to ten and then gave the answer you'd expect; "No, my friends know why I do this and they're okay with it and the rest, scr...that's their problem."

"'You think you'll still be doing this ten years from now?"

He shrugged, gave the reporter a look like 'What are you, an idiot?' then said "I dunno, ask me in ten years." He also gave the Bat a sideways look and put a lid on himself—I suspected that he had to explain himself later about his answer.

Now, don't get me wrong, the kid was polite the whole time, modest and well-behaved, it was clear to a blind man that he wanted to be anywhere other than where he was and was counting the minutes before he could leave. I think Gordon caught that, too and ended the the interviews right after that but I caught up to Robin as he was leaving the room, put my hand on his arm and asked if I could schedule a one on one interview with him in the next couple of days.

"Why? I mean, what do you want to talk to me about?"

"Just a chat, get to know you a little, ask you why you do this, how you like it; background stuff, a personality piece."

He looked like he'd rather eat raw sewage. "I dunno, I don't have too much free time, y'know."

"You name the place and time and I won't keep you too long. 'Promise."

"Umm..." He was stalling, looking for an excuse.

"You have some time tomorrow afternoon, at three-thirty." Cripes, the Bat could scare a corpse but the kid took it in stride. I guess he's used to the man, but...cripes.

"I have that paper to finish."

"You'll get it done." Period. "He'll be here at three-thirty tomorrow for half an hour."

"But I have..."

"Tomorrow at three-thirty."

But it didn't happen. The kid called the next morning and said he had things to do, was too busy and would have to reschedule and then even apologized. I asked when would be a good time for him and he was pretty vague and we left it hanging.

Okay, sure. You don't have to send me a telegram, kid, you don't want to do the interview, I get it. Fine, whatever, it's not like I need you to write a piece about you, right?

Okay, that's not true. I know a lot of reporters, so called reporters, write without talking to their subject but in this case it wasn't what I wanted and to tell the truth, I wanted answers just for me. I was that curious.

Then I got to thinking, really thinking about what kind of parents would allow their adolescent to be put in harm's way on almost a nightly basis. Robin deals with some of the baddest bad-asses on the planet—he did tell me that he's usually assigned to work violent crimes— and then goes home and does his algebra; it makes your run of the mill professional kids look like they they're loafing and we know that's not true.

* * *

Present Day

The interview was never rescheduled and this story, or the beginning of it was shoved into a file on my hard drive and forgotten. About a month ago I was transferring my old files to a new computer and came across it again, read over the rough draft and realized that I still have the same questions about Robin I had back when I was at that press conference.

Who lets Robin be Robin?

What idiot adult thought it would be okay and a good idea to let a ten year old get started in apprehending dangerous and violent criminals?

Why hasn't anyone reported these morons to Child Protective Services?

What would happen to him, where would he end up?

Okay, 'Robin' is now some other kid and the original, the one I was and am still so intrigued by is now a young man of probably twenty-two or twenty-three. He's still a vigilante but has moved on to a different persona—Nightwing—something which fascinates the hell out of me.

I started seriously researching Nightwing and he made his first appearances about four years ago when he would have been around eighteen or nineteen. At about the same time when there were a lot of reports alluding to an estrangement or break between Batman and Robin. I'm willing to assume—and admit I may be wrong—that the two are related. A boy, a young man grows up, wants to flex his muscles, spread his wings and fly on his own, making his own way.

Actually since all kids grow up, I think that sounds pretty reasonable.

Nightwing is a different kind of bird than the old Robin; darker, more serious, taking on more violent crimes and seems to work alone more often than not.

I suppose that's inevitable; most of us don't laugh as much or as easily as we get older once we're faced with responsibilities and the day to day chore of being an adult. And let's not forget that Nightwing/Robin has been playing this gig for at least a decade, on top of however long his initial training took when he was probably like eight years old.

So why did he sign on for this and why does he still get up and pull on the spandex just about every night?

My own suspicions? I think he was a crime victim or a close relative of one—I think he saw or experienced some seriously bad shit when he was a kid and that set his course for him. It makes sense.

Why would any sane parent let their kid be shot at by the Joker and Two-Face on a weekly basis? Well, what if his parents weren't around to stop him? That would tie in with the crime victim theory.

It would explain why he was taken in by Batman as a protege, why he seemed as obsessed as the big guys in the hero world. As Robin he was on the cover of every major magazine in the world, the subject of TV movies and had/has a fan club bigger than the Beatles. When you couple this with the fact that the JLA—or at least some of the members—seemed to look at the then young boy as a favored nephew (talk about your ego lifter for a ten year old!) you have plenty of reason for a youngster to want to be a crime fighter.

Plus he made the old Bat, the 'dark avenger', the dark knight' almost human. Young Robin was the only one we ever saw who could make the Bat smile and that was quite the accomplishment at the time—still is.

Why continue when he grew up? The simple answer is because he's good at it, he gets a tremendous amount of positive reinforcement in the form of fan letters and publicity and—on a basic level—it's something he's good at.

He sees bad stuff, bad people and he stops the bad.

Two plus two equals four. Easy. Simply as pie when you look at the surface.

But I still have to wonder about a couple of things; do we ('we' means the public, the 99.99 percent of the population who don't dress in masks and spandex) really want to trust our safety and the safety of the planet to people whose arrogance extends to believing that the continuation of the world depends on them? Seriously, think about it. No matter what abilities they may have, what powers, we're talking people with pretty healthy egos.

It's like do you really want to vote for president for a person who has the gall to think that they should be president? It's the old Catch-22.

And secondly, what gives a Nightwing or even a Superman the right, the balls to think they know what's best and where does one go to hero school to learn the 3-R's of Herodom?

Answer me that. Who and what are the checks and balances on these people?

Who puts the brakes on if a hero goes rogue? Who gives them their hero-license? What tests do they pass—and I don't just mean a basic police test, I'm talking about psychological test to make sure they aren't bat-shit crazy. Do any of us really want to consider what a mentally unstable Superman would be capable of?

Maybe I'm getting more conservative as I get older. Maybe I've seen too many well meaning people screw up. Maybe I just don't think that we need that much help solving our own problems. Maybe I don't trust people who think they have the answers for the rest of us.

On the off chance that I might get lucky I sent a message to Nightwing c/o the GCPD asking for an interview. I also sent the same message to both New York and Bludhaven PDs, the Teen Titans (now just 'The Titans'), the Outsiders and the JLA.

I either didn't get responses or was told that my request would be forwarded but, to give him the benefit of the doubt, it seems that the man doesn't get his messages.

Okay, so where did that leave me? Pretty much where I started when he was still a kid; trying to understand and decipher someone who doesn't seem to want to be understood, at least not by the likes of me. Do I sound resentful? Yes. Do I think that these self-proclaimed saviors should be held accountable? Yes.

I filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to get copies of Nightwing's (nee Robin) credentials, accreditation and affiliations. I got back a whole stack of things with about eighty percent of every page blacked out.

Next I called the representatives for the current version of the Titans a well as the Outsiders (both of which Nightwing is known to work with). The response? They have to check their records and will get back to me. I'm waiting.

The call to the contact number for the Justice League went to an automated system which went in circles and was unable to record any kind of a message.

Undeterred, I called Commissioner Gordon, head of police for Gotham and a man who's known Nightwing/Robin since he made his debut a dozen or so years ago.

He took my call, was polite and professional but said that he respected Nightwing's privacy and so, with regret, would be unable to agree to an interview regarding the man but would be happy to meet with me to discuss generalities.

I took what I could get.

I arrived ten minutes early and was promptly shown in, had my hand shaken by Gordon and offered coffee, which I declined. What happened over the next forty-five minutes was a tutorial in evasion, double talk and non-answers.

But:

Gordon believes that the working vigilantes, overall, do a good and needed job of backing up the regular police.

He understands the need anonymity for their own protection and the safety of their families.

Though he readily agreed that ten years old is years too young to begin this kind of work, Robin was an exception; precocious both in terms of maturity, intelligence, dedication and ability.

The 'side kicks' were all well supervised by their mentors and regularly checked by child protective services for any signs of overwork, stress, illness or injury of any kind. They were also emotionally evaluated on a regular basis.

In addition, they were all held to every professional standard, up to and including passing police and detective tests both in their own jurisdictions and (in Robin's case) Interpol and M5.

But what about Robin/Nightwing? Is Commissioner Gordon comfortable with him out and about night after night?

"I sleep easier knowing he's available absolutely. I've known his since he was a child and couldn't be prouder of the man he's grown into if he were my own flesh and blood."

"Does it bother you that he's been known to beat some of his adversaries and that on more than one occasion, to where they were close to death?"

"Every instance of violence involving any member of the hero community have been investigated thoroughly by Internal Review and every case was detirmined to be a situation of self-defense."

That's nice. What would happen if, for the sake of argument, Nightwing went rogue? What if he turned to the dark side of the force some day and became a threat or a danger?

"There are protocols in place should something like that happen. The problem would be contained by GCPD and if we were unable to handle the situation, we'd request back up."

"Like from Superman or someone like that?"

"If necessary, yes."

"Would you authorize the use of deadly force?"

"As a last resort, if it were the only solution I would and every member of the hero community is aware of this."

"So you don't see any situation where having these vigilantes operating could be come a detrimental instead of a positive thing?"

"I try never to say never, but in my twenty-plus years experience working with them, I'd say it's extremely unlikely."

The time was up, the last question; "Do you know Nightwing's real name?"

"No."

"You must have some suspicions or could make an educated guess."

"It would be a guess and I respect the man too much to ever ask him the answer."

Interview over, I left, not much the wiser other than to confirm what I already knew; Nightwing has a lot of fans.

So, after all this what's my conclusion? Confusion, mainly.

Yes, I believe that Robin/Nightwing has done and continues to do a lot of good things. He's effective and fills in a number of the holes and cracks in the system. Without question he's helped a lot of people. He even seems to be a nice guy, the kind anyone would be proud to have dinner with and I suspect that he might even pick up the check if you caught him in the right mood.

I admit it, like Gordon, I sleep easier at night knowing that Nightwing is out there keeping the boogeyman at bay, but I also suspect that I don't want to be on the receiving end if he's well and truly pissed enough to throw caution to the wind.

2/17/10