The Dark Knight Strikes Again - Batman and Grayson

Batman and Grayson

The Dark Knight Strikes Again also explores the relationship between Batman and his original Robin, Dick Grayson.

In Dark Knight Returns, Dick Grayson is noticeably absent, which Bruce Wayne explains by saying that they are not on speaking terms. He does reminisce about Dick when confronting the street gangs known as the Mutants in the tank-like Batmobile, and before meeting Carrie Kelly, who has taken up the Robin mantle on her own volition. When Grayson eventually confronts Batman in DKSA, it is revealed that Batman sacked him "For incompetence. For cowardice". He shows Grayson little in the way of sympathy, understanding or affection, and sets into motion the means of killing him there and then.

In Miller's Dark Knight Universe the connection between Wayne and Grayson is changed from the usual image of Batman and Robin as an idealized father-son relationship into an Oedipal nightmare.

After completing The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Miller launched a series of what he referred to as prequels with All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder. In this series, the sadistic and psychopathic Batman takes the young pre-teen acrobat in as a potential sidekick, but berates and abuses him, preventing the boy from coming to terms with the recent killings of his parents and keeping him a virtual prisoner in the Batcave. He even withholds food from Dick and suggests that the boy eats the rats and bats that "present" themselves to him. He is also furious with Alfred for later showing a more humane treatment towards the boy.

In Bob Kane and Bill Finger's original meeting of Batman and Dick in 1940, the Caped Crusader was much more friendly and sympathetic towards him, and only jokingly threatened to put him across his knee when Robin took a risk-too-many while dealing with those who had killed his parents.

Comics historian Peter Sanderson states, "It is easy to see how Grayson might end up hating Batman after the way that he is treated in All-Star Batman and Robin #2."

There are also various parallels between The Dark Knight Strikes Again and the DC Animated Universe feature, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, as both feature a former Robin emerging as a "copy" of the Joker years after a bitter falling out with Batman and the original Joker's death, though with some notable differences.