Why do superheroes have sidekicks

So superman took superboy in as his sidekick. So another reason why heroes need sidekicks is because they need a hero who can keep other crimes stopped that other heroes can't do. Now I know it sounds confusing but what it means is they have sidekicks to do there rather Sid missions like there secret back up plan and a example for this is green arrow and speedy! After red arrow left few to not liking green arrows rules and tactics-green arris sought out a new sidekick one who can understand rules and understand how to complete a side mission so he found Mia dearden aka Speedy!

This team worked well together as they still are a archer team while green arrow takes down dark archer or any of his foes speedy handles street thugs or villains who are out that speedy can take down while green arrow is on a mission. So a reason why to have a sidekick for this is common in comics so that's pretty cool dudes.

So another yet final reason why superheroes need Sidekicks is well.. When Flash aka Barry Allen went threw the time streak he noticed something within other worlds and dimensions a sidekick aka kid flash to be his sidekick. So when kid flash was present flash was fully prepared and aware to take him in as his successor and bond pall. And if you want me to mention impulse or the others dudes So do sidekicks do anything fun and awesome sort there mentors?..

This website saves cookies to your browser in order to improve your online experience and show you personalized content. Read our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy to get more information and learn how to set up your preferences. The original version of the character had been a pretty shameless riff on the Shadow, to the point where Bruce Wayne's debut story in Detective Comics 27 had been, to put it charitably, "inspired" by a similar adventure for the mind-clouding, gun-toting pulp vigilante.

When Batman finally got his origin story six months later, though—arguably the single most important thing about the character—it was built around a fear that kids could very easily relate to. Creators like Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson were already pushing Batman closer to a character that would appeal more to kids, and in Detective 38, they cemented it by introducing a character specifically designed to do just that. Only 11 issues after introducing Batman himself, the same month that they'd spin him off from the lead character of an anthology and into a solo title, Finger, Robinson, and Bob Kane introduced the Sensational Character Find of Robin, the Boy Wonder.

In the absolutely essential The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture , author Glen Weldon cites Robin's arrival as the final element in making Batman the character that we recognize today, and refers to Batman and Robin as the two-man team that redefined the very idea of what a two-man team was. He's not wrong, either. It worked beautifully, and to say that Robin was a hit is underselling it by quite a bit.

The secret of that success was simple: as much as kids could look up to characters like Superman, it was a lot easier to see themselves reflected in a kid their age. Fifty years later, that's absolutely how it worked for me when I was a kid watching the Batman TV show. I never imagined myself as Batman, but Robin? Batman's biggest fan, who got to hang out and fight crime alongside his hero? That's who I always pretended to be, riding around the neighborhood with a yellow bath towel tied around my neck and a pair of green dishwashing gloves.

I've got a pretty good guess that my experience wasn't unique, either. If you really need an indication of how successful Robin was as a character, consider this: not only did he stick around as a major part of the Batman mythos for the next eight decades, he also wound up being such a hit that he even appeared in solo stories without Batman.

In , he became the lead feature in Star Spangled Comics , and stayed there for the next five years until the series was rebooted as Star Spangled War Stories.

And, like Batman and Superman before him, he kicked off a massive wave of imitators. After Robin, having a kid sidekick was about as necessary as a costume for a new superhero. In his first appearance in , Captain America was teamed up with Bucky Barnes, who would wind up being one of the most important characters in Marvel's roster in the 21st century when he unexpectedly came back from the dead.

The Sandman got a less pulp-inspired costume and a sidekick named Sandy the Golden Boy that same year. In , Green Arrow acquired an orphan of his own named Speedy, and the Guardian started hanging out with an entire gang of kid sidekicks called the Newsboy Legion, all in the name of giving kids a viewpoint character that would help sell them on the hero.

They served another important function, too, in that they added some much needed diversity to a genre whose stars were overwhelmingly white. Admittedly, most of these characters were ill-considered, poorly presented, and rooted in stereotypes, like the Spirit's young sidekick Ebony or the Crimson Avenger's chauffeur turned sidekick, Wing, who predated Robin and Batman, for that matter , but only became a superhero sidekick in There were, however, very fortunate exceptions to that rule, most notably Stuff, the Chinatown Kid.

Appearing alongside the Vigilante in , he's remarkable for not being rooted in a racist caricature, which puts the "everything was like that back then" defense of some of the other, more unfortunate characters on some pretty shaky ground.

There were even a few characters who attempted to flip the script. The Star Spangled Kid, who had originally been the lead feature in Star Spangled Comics until Robin came along to knock him out, was a kid hero with an adult sidekick named Stripesy.

An interesting idea, but nowhere near as well-received as another character who did something even more interesting with the idea of giving readers a superheroic kid to relate to. Captain Marvel, better known these days as Shazam, might be the best idea of the entire Golden Age. He's literally just a more fun version of Superman, replacing the alien origin story with a magic spell that makes Billy Batson the kid and the hero at the same time. The power fantasy of a being able to say a magic word and turn into an all-powerful adult is every bit as easy for a young reader to relate to as the fear of losing their parents that connects them to Batman, and the stories that he starred in are years ahead of their time—largely because Otto Binder, the primary writer of Captain Marvel Adventures , would go on to be the most definitive Superman writer of the century.

But while you'd think that Captain Marvel would've just cut out the middleman of having a sidekick entirely, that's not actually how it worked out. Even though he was a kid himself, Billy's relation to Captain Marvel wasn't quite the easy sell that you'd think. He and Captain Marvel were often written as two separate characters who'd do things like surprising each other with Christmas presents, and a year after his creation, he'd wind up having sidekicks of his own.

In fact, he'd wind up having more than anyone else. But there were also the Lieutenant Marvels, three other guys named Billy Batson who found out that they could transform if they said the magic word too; Uncle Dudley, who had no powers and ran around in a homemade costume; and Tawky Tawny, a tiger in a plaid suit who would serve as the template for Jimmy Olsen's later adventures. Even a character who had that built-in appeal to kids still had to have a sidekick.

After Robin was introduced, that was just the way it was. Forgot password? Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password. Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

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