Robin the Boy Wonder is the eager, youthful sidekick of Batman, the Caped Crusader, the vigilante crime-fighting alias of millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. Introduced in 1940 as orphaned acrobat Dick Grayson in the DC comic book series Batman, Robin was played by Burt Ward in the 1966 television series on ABC.
As played by Burt Ward, Robin has a cute, boyish face, clean-cut, brown hair, and a compact, athletic physique which fits perfectly with his character's acrobatic background. His colorful outfit, with his dark green mask, gloves, and booties, his bright, red shirt, his shiny, yellow cape, his tight, green panties, and his form-fitting, flesh-color leggings, certainly catches the audience's attention.
Due to his youth, inexperience, and smaller size, the Boy Wonder is clearly the weak link in the Dynamic Duo, which their opponents often seek to exploit. Robin is also cocky, enthusiastic, and overly eager to prove his independent crime-fighting abilities, especially to Batman. He is often in trouble and in need of rescue.
This week's villains are Sandman and Catwoman.
In the first episode, Robin is separated from Batman, and Sandman uses his sand-blowing stethoscope to put the Boy Wonder to sleep. Meanwhile, the Caped Crusader, fighting alone, is subdued. Sandman straps Batman to a mattress and commands a obedient, sleepwalking Robin to start the machine that is intended to repeatedly stab the Caped Crusader with a giant pin.
In the next episode, Batman uses the giant pin to help him free his hand, which he uses to stop the machine and then release himself.
Favorite shots:
For fans of Robin peril, this is a wonderful pair of episodes.
In the first episode, Robin gets into trouble during a fight when he is knocked off a pile of mattresses. Fortunately, Batman swings to his rescue.
Later in the fight, an apparently exhausted Boy Wonder continues to reinforce his weak-link status by being thrown out of the room and collapsing face-first onto a bed. Taking advantage of the young sidekick's separation from his hero, Sandman uses his stethoscope to blow sleeping sand into Robin's eyes, turning him into a sleepwalking slave.
Meanwhile, fighting by himself, Batman is subdued and strapped to a mattress. Under Sandman's command, Robin starts the machine which is intended to repeatedly stab the Caped Crusader with a giant pin.
Waking up, Robin is informed of Batman's apparent demise, as well as his role in it, and quickly put back to sleep with Sandman's stethoscope and his sleeping sand.
The Boy Wonder is then turned over to Catwoman, who leads him to the entrance of a supposedly inescapable maze. The young sidekick wakes up in time to protest his entry into the maze but is ultimately persuaded by Catwoman to enter, rather than being shot with a pistol filled with acid.
Robin is soon shocked to find that the walls of the maze are electrified.
Finding a female police agent, who was previously detected by Catwoman and thrown into the maze earlier, the Boy Wonder encounters very little confidence from her in his ability to rescue them. Fortunately, Batman turns out to be alive, finds Robin inside the maze, and rescues them all.
The Dynamic Duo chase Sandman to an island, where Robin gets into trouble again during a fight and is forced into a giant pot. Fortunately, Batman again comes to his rescue.
In this pair of episodes, Robin manages to get substantial quality time without Batman. Sandman turns Robin into his sleepwalking slave, orders the mesmerized Boy Wonder to kill Batman, and blames the young sidekick for the Caped Crusader's demise. Turned over to Catwoman, Robin regains consciousness but proves to be almost as helpless as if he had remained Sandman's sleepwalking slave, being forced into a maze, in which he is hopelessly lost, until he is rescued by Batman.
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