Sidekicks are an important, integral part to comic books, especially when it comes to the world of superhero stories. Much like a king and a jester, a sidekick can add a breath of fresh air to a story. Even if they're not outright comic relief, they still give the hero someone to confide in and help them in tight spots.
This doesn't mean being the hero's sidekick is an easy role to take on. It's often harder than even sidekicks themselves let on.
Storylines revolving around less-than-happy moments with sidekicks can be expected. When living in someone else's shadow, things can get pretty dark.
10 Sidekicks Keep Getting Into Danger
Sidekicks often exist, so the hero has someone to save. They can rush in headfirst to take on the villain, only for them to end up just where the villain wants them. Even if everything turns out all right in the end, the sidekick can expect a chewing out for all their trouble.
One popular variation from monster-of-the-day stories is to have a monster or villain target some unfortunate extra, killing them and alerting the heroes to the situation at hand. The monster then targets the hero's sidekick, allowing the hero to finally piece everything together and rescue their friend at the last second.
9 Sidekicks Can Be Expendable
Batman has gone through quite a few Robins over the years, and Superman has his menagerie of sidekicks, including some super-powered animals. There's a reason for that. Enduring the loss of a sidekick is a dark twist for any superhero story that doesn't end the series, all the while highlighting the stakes.
Even in stories where death isn't permanent, some sidekicks experience death multiple times to protect their hero. This is prominent in stories with heroes who are parts of multiple teams: if they are in some leadership position, they can have an interchangeable roster of sidekicks.
8 The Villains Will Always Use Them As An Easy Target
In superhero stories, the main character dons a costume and mask, so they can protect their loved ones. Yet, the one who knows them best of all — including their secrets — and fights alongside them is the single loved one that the villain already knows about.
Villains might not know who the sidekicks are underneath their masks, but villains don't need that information to hurt them. Because of this, sidekicks are always an easy target for villains. After all, the best way to torture the hero is to get rid of a hero's little friend and make them watch.
7 Heroes Get All The Glory
Sidekicks risk their lives and make just as many sacrifices as the heroes do. Yet, if anyone is going to angst about how they want a normal life and be just like everyone else, it's the hero. If the hero is going to complain about their lonely burden of saving the day on their own, it will be right in their sidekick's face.
If the hero is some sort of chosen one, even the most willing of sidekicks can be treated less like devoted friends and more like busybodies who shouldn't get involved. The sidekick can do just as much to save the day, in addition to all they do helping the hero. But unless the series is named after them, sidekicks aren't allowed to mention it.
6 No One Takes Them Seriously
No one is a prophet in their own home and this rule applies especially to sidekicks. It can be hard for sidekicks to be taken seriously, especially by the heroes they used to work for. The villains hunting them down and the people at large don't have much respect for them either.
In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Robin becomes a solo hero, but Batman still treats him like Robin's the same kid he has to retrain. Despite this, some sidekicks have proven themselves to be tremendously powerful.
5 They Know The Hero's Bad Side All To Well
Sadly, most people aren't heroes to their own valets. Likewise, sidekicks are fully aware of the darker sides belonging to the great heroes they work for. Sidekicks get yelled at for getting involved, yet they are the ones who have to step up to the plate and save the day when the hero is incapacitated.
This truth becomes harder to bare when the sidekick knows the hero's true identity, and recognizes that the hero is a flesh and blood being with flaws. Ultimately, sidekicks are cheated out of the fantasy everyone else gets to believe about their heroes.
4 Character Flaws Are A Luxury (Or It's All Everyone Knows About Them)
Heroes are expected to have a few flaws in the long run, making them more relatable. That said, sidekicks and supporting characters can get away with being generically nice or smart because they exist to support. If not, they're pretty much defined by whatever character flaw they have. There's no in-between.
This factor is especially prevalent in stories where the hero has multiple sidekicks. Oftentimes, one sidekick is meant to function as the "nice one," another as the "strong one," the "smart one," and so on.
3 They Can Do More Harm Than Good (If Not Outright Turn Evil)
Try as they might, there are some sidekicks who ultimately end up doing more harm than good. Captain Marvel has Uncle Marvel, He-Man has Orko, and the Teen Titans have Danny Chase. At least for those heroes, the sidekicks usually mean well.
However, there are plenty of times when the sidekicks turn evil or are revealed to be working against the heroes all along. James "Bucky" Barnes used to be one of those few comic book characters who stayed dead, only to come back alive and with blood on his hands in the Winter Soldier story.
2 They Don't Get To Have Lives Of Their Own
Oftentimes, the hero receives the love-triangles and complicated stories in their lives. Unless the writers are planning to eventually pair off the sidekick with the hero, sidekicks are lucky to get a love-interest of their own in a throwaway line, let alone a serious romance.
One Superman story involving Jimmy Olsen getting married revealed he had a few love interests, but most were either superheroines who were just humoring him or villains who wanted him dead. Even Jimmy's actual marriage was annulled in a convoluted scheme to protect Superman.
1 Sidekicks Who Become Heroes Are Never The Same
There are times when a sidekick is given the chance to become the main character. Maybe they were popular enough that someone thought they could use a spin-off. There are a few times when the hero is just a decoy and the sidekick is meant to take their place all along. However, losing their sidekick status ultimately strips the character of who they are and who the audience has come to know.
A sidekick can get away with having less character flaws than the main characters because they receive less attention during the storyline. Giving a sidekick more focus usually means their darker sides must be explored. More often than not, the former sidekick can turn into a clone of the original hero. Even if they prove to be distinct at the end of the day, they still lose their best, defining feature. To get their own story, they nearly always end up losing their original best friend.