WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Robins #2, available now on DC Universe Infinite.
While Robins may be famous for teaming up with Batman, Damian Wayne, Nightwing and all of Batman's previous primary sidekicks are working a case of their own, as their very first villains have returned to target them.
And in Robins #2, by Tim Seeley, Baldemar Rivas, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Steve Wands, the Robins' investigation into who is targeting them led to an encounter with the Junior Supercriminals, a group of sidekicks modeled after villains like the Joker, Cheetah, Penguin, and Poison Ivy. Although technically they have appeared in SuperFriends comics before, this is the first time they have appeared in the DC Universe properly.
An earlier incarnation of this team debuted in 1976's Super Friends #1, by E. Nelson Bridwell, Ric Estrada, Joe Orlando, Vince Colletta, Jerry Serpe and Milt Snappin. They were an admittedly useless bunch of sidekicks who tried to help their respective bosses take the Super Friends. But here, Chick, Giggles, Guffaw, Honeysuckle and Kitten seem to be much more sinister and perhaps a tad obsessive than they used to be.
The Junior Supercriminals were formed when Dick Grayson was still sporting the Robin mantle. But his perception of them is that they're fairly useless, something seemingly confirmed by their recent actions, allowing the criminal Lou Delcaine to escape them. And while readers never got to know too much about them, what they said in response to this failure was very telling. Mistakes of any sort were apparently met with abusive retaliation from their former employers, ranging from verbal to physical abuse and even potential maiming for Giggles and Guffaw, who worked for the Joker.
Prior to this, the Junior Supercriminals' most noteworthy action was letting Chick, the Penguin's sidekick, be captured and taken to the Hall of Justice. That way, his allies could infiltrate the building and ambush the Super Friends. Unfortunately for him, Wonder Dog sniffed him out, and then the Junior Criminals were betrayed by one of their own: Kitten.
In this issue, the group was hired by the First Robin to capture the various criminals each of the Robins faced in their first gauntlets laid out by Batman. They slipped up towards the end, allowing Lou Delcaine to escape and warn the Robins. Surprisingly, the First Robin was not too upset, merely accelerating their plans. But they did honor an unknown agreement of payment, something each of the Junior Supercriminals seemed ready to fight over.
The question laid out was what could they have been offered? Money was the obvious answer, but the way they all scrambled for it, even saying outright they needed it implied it was some kind of drug to them. And this was only partially correct, as Red Hood would find out by the end of the issue.
The Junior Supercriminals had been stationed as guards, to prevent the Robins from ruining their new boss' plan. However, the collective Robins made quick work of the lot of them. Still feeling resentment towards the Joker, Red Hood chased Giggles and Guffaw into a warehouse, where they explained that they were obsessed with the Joker, as were all the other Junior Supercriminals with their respective mentors. And with the drug the First Robin gave them, these two Junior Supercriminals transformed into two new Jokers right in front of him.
Despite their lackluster history, that transformation suggests that this team could still be a serious threat, so the Robins can't let up on Dick's old foes yet.