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Robin and the Making of American Adolescence by Lauren R. O'Connor

2022; Comics Studies Society; Volume: 6; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/ink.2022.0016

2473-5205

Stephen M. Zimmerly,

Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies

Reviewed by: Robin and the Making of American Adolescence by Lauren R. O'Connor Stephen M. Zimmerly (bio) O'Connor, Lauren R. Robin and the Making of American Adolescence. Rutgers University Press, 2021. 209 pp, $69.95, $29.95. "Batman and Robin" is a phrase as ubiquitous in the American cultural lexicon as any other. But perhaps it would be more accurate as "Batman and Robin(s)." Lauren R. O'Connor's Robin and the Making of American Adolescence challenges the unconscious perception of what "we" think we all know and take for granted about this most prototypical of superhero sidekicks. The text is not without its problems, but still represents a valuable look at Robin's influence through a number of theoretical lenses, comic titles, and character incarnations. O'Connor begins with a rather ambitious foundational claim: Robin is both a product of the American adolescent experience and an active participant in producing the American adolescent experience (19). As the character has existed and evolved over its roughly eighty-year history, parts of this central claim certainly ring true (the former more than the latter). O'Connor presents this conceptual framework in the introduction and uses chapter 1 to provide a historical, psychological, sociological, [End Page 222] and somewhat anthropological study of what is meant by "the American adolescent experience." Indeed, chapter 1 provides a well-chosen literature review of adolescence-formation theory, and it reads as one of the strongest elements in the text. Knowing how turn-of-the-century theorists helped develop the notion of adolescence as a period of development and/or as a state of being, O'Connor opens the doorway onto how Robin embodies these theories as they are recognized and challenged, often in semi-real time. While the text moves historically and chronologically through the development of Robin's multiple secret identities since 1940, the four subsequent chapters build less upon each other than they stem directly from these introductory considerations, allowing readers to follow whichever consideration of Robin most directly relates to their research. Wisely, O'Connor chooses to narrow the focus to only four of the individuals who have been considered Robin: even as the text showcases the seven characters who have been Robin, this number is in contention and could balloon as high as fifteen. The legitimacy of these fifteen is questionable, as most in that count come from alternate Earths (remember Robin the Toy Wonder from the 853rd Century?) and shortrun comic arcs (Tris Plover, anyone?). The four Robins studied by O'Connor are Dick Grayson (chapter 2), Carrie Kelley and Stephanie Brown (chapter 3), and Duke Thomas (chapter 4). All are chosen specifically and intentionally, as they represent and reflect the existing political atmosphere(s) in question during their publication. Dick Grayson begins the conversation, as he rightly should. Introduced into the Batman comics nearly from the beginning (Detective Comics #38), Dick Grayson was Robin first, was Robin the longest, and still exists in the Batman mythos as Nightwing (and even sometimes Batman). For O'Connor, and many other scholars before, the point of interest is how Dick Grayson was eventually "allowed" to grow older, albeit after decades in print as Batman's sidekick. O'Connor frames her consideration of Grayson as a product of the expectations of American adolescence, most pointedly looking at the external political concerns that Batman and Robin might have homosexual tendencies. This resulted in shoehorned plots where Dick went on dates with girls, or had the occasional girlfriend, eventually culminating in his long-term sexual relationship with Starfire, a female member of the Teen Titans. One of the results of this need to show Grayson in a physical relationship with a woman was to age him to a point where physical intimacy would not be considered aberrant. Much of this chapter covers ground considered in other scholarship, which is unsurprising given the amount of scholarly history involved, and O'Connor handles the material adeptly. Carrie Kelley and Stephanie Brown, the Robins of chapter 3, offer myriad ways to question and problematize being Robin: a feminist reading is the obvious choice, and functions as the dominant theoretical lens utilized in this chapter. O'Connor...