DC Comics Needs to Test the Robin-Superboy Relationship

Doomsday Clock may be the biggest, but it isn't the only event DC Comics is releasing this winter. In addition to the universe-wide affecting Watchmen-themed storyline, the publisher will debut the mini-event "Super Sons of Tomorrow," a four-part arc which will begin in December and spread across the Super Sons, Teen Titans and Superman comics.

As the title implies, the focus will be on the Super Sons, aka 10-year-old Superboy (Jon Kent) and 13-year-old Robin (Damian Wayne). The boys will go up against a group of former-Teen Titans and a Batman from the future who’s convinced them the Boy of Steel must be destroyed before he grows up and becomes powerful enough to kill millions in the future. Having recently fallen into a pretty strong friendship, it comes as no real surprise that Robin will opt to protect Superboy from his unexpected assassins.

When you’re a superhero living in a world of other superheroes, it’s only natural that a bond is formed between the offspring of two major icons. For the Bat-family, their strongest bond--or one of them, given the Flash/Nightwing dynamic--is generally with a member of the Superman family. Dick Grayson has Superman, whose homeworld of Krypton gave Dick the inspiration to become Nightwing; Tim Drake had Superboy (Conner Kent) in the pre-New 52 era, who he founded Young Justice with and wore the colors of following his death. Jason Todd recently found his Super in Bizarro in the Red Hood & the Outlaws comic, while Stephanie Brown had a great relationship with Supergirl as well, pre-New 52. Whether their relationship began with friction free or through trial by fire, each pairing helped shape their individual characters in some way.

While the other Robins met their Supers when they were adults (or at the very least, not in the beginning throes of adolescence), Damian had no such luck. He met Jon when he was 12 going on 13, which is generally the worst time of your life to make friends, because you're figuring out who you are and what kind of friends you want. To further complicate matters, as the son of Batman and Talia al Ghul, Damian doesn’t do bonding, much less friends. He has kindred spirits in Dick and Jason, sure, but he doesn’t have friends, a discintction he even notes in the first issue of his Teen Titans book. (The exception being his giant furry friend/transport Goliath, of course, and his frenemy Maya Ducard, both of whom he met in his 2015 solo book.) That statement has no doubt changed over the course of Rebirth, thanks to his team of Teen Titans, but even more so, Jon Kent.

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Boy, alternate universes sure are fun, aren’t they? Where the other Robins were able to make friends with Supers of their own world, Damian wasn’t so fortunate. He had to deal with the young son of Superman, and one from a completely different universe at that. Much like how Batman was initially distrustful of the pre-Flashpoint Superman, Damian had similar trepidations about the Boy of Steel -- but Damian, being who he is, took it to a whole other level of paranoia.

Superman’s solo comic marked the first meeting between Damian and Jon... and it did not go well. The biggest hurdle came from Damian outright kidnapping the Boy of Steel and attempting to study him before Superman and Batman show up. They couldn't have gotten off to a worse start, and when they briefly started to bond over the various Bat-animals, Damian's taunting of Jon killing the Kent family pet sent them into another brawl. Like two kids getting a feel for each other at school, they just couldn't stop arguing or fighting, even during moments where they were clearly gelling with one another, much like their fathers.

While the Titans have done Damian some good, and Jon’s adventures with his family is teaching him about power and responsibility, the real development for these characters is happening when they’re together. Jon’s youth brings out the childish nature of Damian that he tries to hide, and Damian’s determination helps ground and mature Jon. Despite the initial misgivings of their first encounters -- both of which ended with something on fire -- the two do indeed make a good team, just as their fathers hoped for. What helps is how isolated the two of them feel from their respective families. Damian is literally at a crossroads between a life of heroism or villainy, along with just feeling incredibly lonely. Jon, meanwhile, has spent years living in secret with his family, much to his chagrin, and only recently had his powers emerge, not long before meeting Robin for the first time. They couldn’t be more perfect for each other.

Even though neither of them wanted to be friends, they're pretty clearly flirting with the idea of it when they reunite in Super Sons' first issue. Damian clearly cares enough about Jon to pose as his bus driver and substitute teacher, while Jon sticks with Damian through the night despite not wanting to get roped into the adventure in the first place. It’s a big change in character development for Damian in particular; he considered Jon a threat at first, and now he's willingly taking him training at night and letting him join in on a mission with the Teen Titans. How far they’ve come.

Still, as great of a pair as they are, they’ve yet to have a true bonding or something solidifies their friendship or bring them over into best friends territory. Super Sons of Tomorrow looks to be like the arc that’ll do that. Thanks to Injustice 2 and the Batman Beyond comic, we already know what an evil Damian Wayne would look like. Using Superboy as the source of their newest struggle is for the best, because despite how good-natured Jon is, there’s something off about him. Everyone, from the Titans to Goliath to Kathy and her family have all liked Jon, for better or worse. As the son of a Kryptonian and a human, there was bound to be interest in him, with villains such as the Eradicator and Mr. Myxzptlk paying special attention to the kid. (And that’s without getting into the kid’s passive powers as a cosmic tether.) Whatever apparently makes Jon snap in the future must have been really bad for him to go full evil, and only someone as close to him as Damian can pull him out of the fire.

DC has been positioning the two boys to be exactly like their fathers. Clark and Bruce have been through a lot in order for their relationship to get to best friend status. Super Sons has been laying the groundwork for a similar bond, and Sons of Tomorrow is in a prime spot to solidify bond the newest Robin and Super. And after this, who knows? Maybe they’ll put an end to fighting each other... and stop setting things on fire.