How Every Robin in DC Continuity Eventually Died (and What Happened Next)

Few superhero companions are as famous and long-lasting as Batman’s partner. Robin – meaning that every Robin has been through numerous dangerous experiences and hasn’t always survived. While fans know about Jason Todd’s death and return, not everyone knows that every other great Robin in Batman’s history has died and returned as well.

Batman’s classic partner Robin has been a fixture in Gotham since Dick Grayson’s debut in the 1940s. Detective comics #38. While Dick certainly had the longest tenure as Robin – both in continuity and in the history of DC publications – Batman has appointed many other young vigilantes as his Robin.

Besides Dick, there were four notable Robins with great narrative significance: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, and Damian Wayne. While other characters have briefly worn the Robin costume or adopted the name, these five popular DC characters have significant histories with Batman – including, for each of them, serious brushes with death and resurrection.

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Dick Grayson was (briefly) killed by Lex Luthor

Forever evil #6 by Geoff Johns, David Finch, Richard Friend, Sonia Oback and Rob Leigh

Dick Grayson meets his surprising end during the events of Forever evil #6 by Geoff Johns and David Finch. In this story, Dick is captured by the crime syndicate that has invaded Earth. After being strapped to a bomb that will only stop if Nightwing’s heart stops, Lex Luthor makes the decision to kill Nightwingmuch to Batman’s horror.

The Death was the shortest of all Robins, althoughwhen Lex Luthor quickly administered an adrenaline shot to restart Dick’s heart and bring him back to life. Although Dick was only dead for a few seconds, the entire world witnessed and believed it, which later led Dick to join the spy organization Spyral under a different name before returning to public life and the Nightwing mantle.​​​

The murder of Jason Todd is one of the most notorious deaths (and recurrences) in DC history

Batman #428 by Jim Starlin, Jim Aparo, Mike DeCarlo, Adrienne Roy and John Costanza

By far the most notorious Robin death was the death of Jason Todd at the hands of the Joker in cult history Batman: Death in the Family. As the second child prodigy, Jason was a controversial Robin to say the least, and he eventually traveled all over the world to find his mother. What he couldn’t have foreseen, however, was that his mother would betray him to the Joker. The Joker hit Jason with a crowbar before leaving Robin to face a bomb that killed him. Even in his final moments, Jason tried to protect his mother from the explosion, but unfortunately neither of them survived.

During the events of Endless crisis by Geoff Johns and Phil Jimenez, Superboy-Prime hit the fabric of reality so hard that he made waves that changed important features of the DCU. One of the biggest changes was the resurrection of Jason Todd. Instead of lying dead in his coffin, Jason was brought back to life and clawed his way out of his own grave. Jason eventually took on the nickname Red Hood. From then on Jason became a brutal vigilante who had no problem using deadly force. and it has remained that way ever since.

Tim Drake’s encounter with death was quickly lifted

Detective comics #940 by James Tynion IV, Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Adriano Lucas and Marilyn Patrizio

After a group of military drones were unleashed on Gotham City, Tim Drake managed to destroy them by forcing them all to focus on him as their sole target. When all the drones were within range, Tim destroyed them, but he could not stop them from attacking him.. It really seemed as if Tim Drake had been killedwas completely vaporized by the drone attack, but it turns out that Tim’s story didn’t end there. Instead of being killed, he was simply taken somewhere else.

Instead of being killed, Tim Drake was kidnapped by Mr. Ozwho was later revealed to be Superman’s father, Jor-El. Tim was locked up in a prison because Mr. Oz deemed him too dangerous to walk free. Eventually, Tim was freed from that prison by an older, darker version of himself who became known as the Savior. The two worked together to escape from Mr. Oz’s prison, and Tim reunited with his friend’s family after months of believing him to be dead.

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Stephanie Brown was almost killed by DC Editorial

Batman #633 by Bill Willingham, Kinsun Loh, Rodney Ramos, Adam DeKraker, Tony Aviña and Ken Lopez

Stephanie Brown probably had the hardest time as Robin, next to Jason Todd. Although she tried her best, the stories she was told as Robin worked against her, and even the people at DC didn’t seem to like her. She was Robin for a few months, but was fired by Batman after she didn’t follow his orders as well as he wanted. This led to Stephanie trying to prove her worth by staging one of Batman’s contingency plans to wipe out crime in Gotham. Unfortunately, Stephanie underestimated the complexity of the planand she was eventually brutally tortured and killed by Black Mask.

Stephanie was quickly taken to Dr. Leslie Thompkins to try to save her life, but ultimately Leslie informs Batman that Stephanie died on the operating table. Stephanie was supposed to stay dead, but a few years later her death was retroactively changed: Leslie had actually lied and faked Stephanie’s death to prove to Batman that he was using child soldiers in his war on crime. Stephanie had actually been sent away from Gotham to heal her injuriesand she would eventually return to Gotham City to continue fighting crime as a member of the Bat-Family.

Damian Wayne’s death pushed Batman to his limits

Batman Incorporated #8 by Grant Morrison, Chris Burnham, Jason Masters, Nathan Fairbairn and Taylor Esposito

Damian Wayne’s death brought Batman almost to the brink of madness. While Batman IncorporatedDamian and Bruce fought against Talia al Ghul’s Leviathan organization. While they tried to fend off his mother’s soldiers, Damian was impaled through the chest by his clone brother Heretic. It was a brutal death that shocked everyone, as writer Grant Morrison had spent years building up Damian as a true hero, making his death deeply heartbreaking. Damian’s death broke Batman much more than Jason’s.

After Damian’s death, Batman became obsessed with bringing him back. He forced Red Hood to relive his worst trauma to understand how Jason came back to life, questioned Superman about how he was raised from the dead, and dissected Frankenstein to find out how he could exist as a living corpse. Bruce even forced himself to relive Damian’s death over and over again in a virtual simulation to prove that he could have prevented Damian’s death if only he had been better. In the end, Batman traveled all the way to Apokolips and used a mixture of a Lazarus Pit and a Chaos Crystal to bring Damian back from the dead.

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Each Robin has been trained by Batman as best as possible to survive the dangerous life of a superhero. But even the best training in the world can’t prepare you for the absurdly dangerous situations that heroes in the DC Universe regularly face. Although each Robin has managed to escape certain death time and time again, there is always that one moment when they don’t make it out of. While fans will always remember Jason Todd as the Robin who died, he is certainly not the only one. Although each Robin has managed to come back, each Robin has also looked death in the eye and has not always escaped.