In comics, mentor figures are critical to the development of super heroes. Batman is by far one of the most famous characters in comics and his origins involves the death of his parents. Despite being considered the "Dark Knight" and usually being considered a isolated character, the Batman mythos involves a large amount of mentoring and parenting within its long history. In many comics such as Scott Snyders new 52 Batman and Batman Earth One, Alfred moves beyond a servant figure to acts as a supportive and mentoring parental figure for Bruce Wayne as he struggles with his role as Batman. This relationship remains a critical and long lasting relationship for Batman. Additionally, throughout his history, Batman has mentored a variety of side kicks including the robins (Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, Damian Wayne, and Carrie Kelly), Batgirls, and others, acting as a mentor figure, and sometimes a parental figure (in the case of Damian, Bruce is his father). I think this is a rich area for analysis and that it would valuable to examine the parental and mentor relationships within Batman comics, there success and failures, as well as how they impact our hero.
This seems like it would be a good topic. I would explore each Robin's backstory and how Batman was able to be a mentor to them aside from making them his sidekicks. – BMartin438 years ago