I’m a little ashamed at myself that it’s taken this long to notice, but based on what we’ve seen so far in the new DC reboot, it looks like they have completely retconned Robin’s original costume out of continuity! No more pixie boots, no more little green trunks and especially no more horribly outdated costume! This is fantastic news! If true.

What are you so happy about, Legs?

Everybody is familiar with the original Robin costume thanks to the 1960s TV show with Burt Ward. The costume is almost as iconic as Batman’s costume. The red shirt, the yellow cape, the green pixie boots and trunks, and the very bare legs. The costume debuted in 1940, back when ‘laughing boy daredevils’ were common in comics. It’s a product of its time, based on Robin Hood, the Robin redbreast and the uniform of a circus acrobat. The problem is that the costume was so iconic that Robin wore it all the way into the 1980s, when the character of Dick Grayson aged from an 8-year-old boy to a man in his late teens/early 20s.

Sure it was comics, but if you consider the real world implications, he would have had some very hairy legs.

And it wasn’t just the original Robin, Dick Grayson, who wore that costume. The second Robin, Jason Todd, was given the exact same costume. He was younger, but still. It wasn’t until the third Robin in the 1990s that the concept of ‘pants’ finally dawned on DC Comics.

Bright green pants, but pants nonetheless

And Robin has had pants ever since, including in movies and cartoon shows.

Which brings us to the recent DC Comics reboot. For those  unfamiliar with it, back in September, DC reset/rebooted/revamped all of its characters and started over with new #1 issues. They essentially wiped the slate clean of all past stories and history, recreating it with bits and pieces into a more streamlined variation. Everything is sort of the same, just tweaked and altered to better suit a more accessible comic. It’s like when they make a Batman movie and alter certain things from the comics to make the movie version more palpable.

One thing that’s stayed the same is that all of the Robins are still around. Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, the 90s Robin, Tim Drake, and the current Robin, Damian Wayne. They didn’t change all that much in the reboot. With the exception of the current Robin, the first three have all grown up and moved on to their own costumed identities.

Well in November, the latest issues of their comics revealed in flashback that Dick Grayson and Jason Todd did not wear the pixie boot, bare-legged Robin costume! No official word has been given about the change in history, but I think the pictures speak for themselves.

First, Dick Grayson (now known as Nightwing) underwent a psychic assault and had a flashback to this one picture:

Flashback to what, we don't know. Some kind of fall

Clearly you can see that Robin is wearing pants, from the wrinkles on the legs, and those are definitely boots. Unfortunately, no context is given for that flashback. We can only assume that it’s Dick Grayson’s Robin. He gives no indication that he would be thinking about letting some other Robin fall, like Jason or Tim. So I think he’s flashing back to a time when he fell. I think it’s safe to say that is Dick Grayson in the Robin costume in that mental flashback.

And then we have Jason Todd, now calling himself the Red Hood. He stars in his own book, Red Hood and the Outlaws, and the team had some flashbacks in their third issue as well. First, the cover shows Red Hood battling his former self, and right away the costume is very clearly not the bare-legged one.

I love this revamp of Jason's old costume

I first noted this change when this cover was first publicized several months ago, but I didn’t truly understand the implications until now. That’s why I’m a little ashamed at myself. But clearly we can see that Jason Todd did not wear that original Robin costume when he served as Batman’s sidekick. He had a very updated, very angular, very modern look to his costume. Frankly, I love it.

Here are a few more panels from the flashback:

I'm also loving the red mask. That's definitely new and unique for a Robin

So that’s my evidence and I think it’s pretty clear. The old Robin costume with those horrible pixie boots is a thing of the past. It makes sense, since this reboot is supposed to line up all of the heroes with the modern times. And there’s no way Batman of the 2000s would dress a kid up in that sort of old-fashioned costume. Yes, he’d still send a kid out to fight crime. But that’s the subject of a different article.

As a long-time Robin fan, I say good riddance. The original Robin costume may be a classic, but it has always been silly and has only hurt the character in the long run. DC made the right idea in nixing the old costume from continuity. Robin has a hard enough time appealing to modern audiences. So kudos to DC.

This reboot is finally paying off.