DC Finally Addresses 1 Of Batman"s Bad Habits

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for the Gotham Knights pilot.The premiere episode of the Gotham Knights show confronts the idea that DC Comics' Batman actively seeks orphans to train as sidekicks. The matter was treated as a joke for years in superhero parodies, with it being humorously suggested the best way for an aspiring superhero to recruit a junior partner was to go to an orphanage and ask about any children whose parents died violently. Somewhere along the line, the joke was taken seriously by some writers who handled Batman, though most portrayals of the Dark Knight are sensitive towards the safety of children. This is certainly shown to be the case in Gotham Knights.
Robin the Boy Wonder was the first child superhero sidekick, setting the mold for a horde of pretenders in the Golden Age of Comics before World War 2. Since that time, Batman has recruited dozens of young sidekicks in the comics. Many of them were orphans or otherwise without loving parents. In almost all of these cases, Batman either stumbled across these young people by chance or they sought him out for help. Despite this, the idea that Batman actively seeks out orphans to recruit as new superheroes persists.