I mean, Batman's Batsuit has his underwear on the outside, but why didn't he give Robin some pants for his costume?
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3Does Batman really have his underwear on the outside? scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/13264/… – Taladris Oct 3 at 2:40
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Totally off topic, but I recommend reading Boy Wonder: My life in tights – Peter M Nov 21 at 15:57
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Robin isn't just wearing underwear, he is wearing a leotard. Dick was part of a circus and his mum and dad were the trapeze act which he was also training in. After his mum and dad are killed in their act because of local mobster Tony Zucco taking revenge on the circus owner, Batman finds Dick. Dick convinces him to let him help and becomes Robin the Boy Wonder. His outfit consists of his leotard because of his circus background. As such he is essentially wearing clothes he is comfortable in for the role he will perform. This all happens in the first few pages of Detective Comics #38.
Click image to enlarge.
Of course it's worth noting that over the years there have been different Robins and different costumes. Most of the newer ones include trousers/tights in them.
answered Oct 2 at 12:29
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I recall an issue of Teen Titans from back in the 80s, where Dick/Robin rides to the scene on his motorcycle, in costume, and muses about his decision to have bare legs back when he first donned the Robin outfit. No idea which issue. – Earl Jenkins Oct 2 at 21:05
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3Holy crap, that's basically 3 or 4 movies in a single page, by today's standards. – ChatterOne Oct 4 at 6:20
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The page shown above covers the origins of Robin, but not the costume or name, and the costume raised eyebrows from day one, so it was explained in a later issue. But Robin's costume, as well as his nom-de-guerre, come from a fictional (I think) organization called the Sea Robins. It was supposedly a marine-oriented boys group, like an ocean-going Boy Scouts, that Dick had belonged to. He liked the uniform so much that he designed his costume based on it.
So, it's not underwear; it's a Speedo-type swimsuit. And, as mentioned there are also tights involved.
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Thanks to Yasskier for proving once again that Google is not the source of all knowledge. I once owned a book on the early days of comics that included reproductions of the origin stories of all the "Golden Age" superheroes. It was a nicely produced book, probably from the 70s, but not very interesting. Most of it was well-known and well-documented. Robin's story was the exception and I was as incredulous as some of you are, which is why it has stuck in my memory all these years. – DaveInAZ Oct 11 at 14:42
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According to the creators, it was based on Robin Hood
The name "Robin the Boy Wonder" and the medieval look of the original costume were inspired by The Adventures of Robin Hood. {Jerry} Robinson noted he "came up with Robin Hood because The Adventures of Robin Hood were boyhood favorites of mine. I had been given a Robin Hood book illustrated by N. C. Wyeth ... and that's what I quickly sketched out when I suggested the name Robin Hood, which they seemed to like, and then showed them the costume. And if you look at it, it's Wyeth's costume, from my memory, because I didn't have the book to look at."
Source: The Comics Journal #271
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2Hi, welcome to SF&F. Two things: you shouldn't just link to a page and say "the answer is over there;" you should quote the relevant portion of the page (with attribution, of course). Otherwise everyone reading this page needs to go somewhere else to find the actual answer (meaning that a link-only response isn't really an answer), and it also protects against link-rot. Also, if information on Wikipedia is attributed, it's better to link to the original source of the information rather than Wikipedia itself. – DavidW Nov 20 at 18:05
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I edited in some info from the link. @DavidW - not all original sources are linkable. – KorvinStarmast Nov 20 at 19:28
