Robin’s New Powers & Costume Make Him More Powerful Than Ever Before

Warning! Contains spoilers for Batman / Superman: World’s Finest #26!

Summary

• Robin gains Superman’s powers due to a magical costume.
• Robin easily defeats Sinestro with his new superpowers.
• Despite overwhelming abilities, Robin begs to have his powers taken back.

Robin is one of the most famous examples of a superhero who doesn’t have superpowers, right alongside his mentor Batman. But when the world is under threat from fifth-dimensional imps, batarangs and quips aren’t enough to take them down, which results in Robin getting powers — and a new costume — on par with Superman.

Robin’s shocking power-up takes place in Batman / Superman: World’s Finest #26 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora. In this story, the Earth is under siege by fifth-dimensional imps who worship villains. These imps have powered up their favorite villains to ridiculous degrees, and Batman and Robin aren’t enough to bring them down.

To battle a powered-up Sinestro, Robin gets a major boost — and a costume to boot — from long-time Superman fanboy Mr. Mxyzptlk. Since Mxyzptlk is a Superman fanboy, it only makes sense that Mxyzptlk grants Robin the powers of Superman. With super strength, flight, and heat vision, the new Robin-Man is able to easily take down Sinestro.

Robin Gains the Powers of Superman with a Magical Costume

Robin Shatters Sinestro’s Constructs with Ease

Robin is typically a role for characters without powers, but surprisingly, Dick Grayson has broken this rule time and time again. During Beast World, Dick gained powers when he was taken over by a beast spore. While he wasn’t willing in this moment, he also gained powers in Nightwing #103 by Tom Taylor, Travis Moore, and Vasco Georgiev. In this story, Nightwing gained powers from the demon Neron. For whatever reason, Dick Grayson has a history of gaining superpowers, but this story from World’s Finest is, chronologically speaking, one of the first times it happened.

While his tenure as Robin-Man was short-lived, it’s an interesting look at the first time Dick Grayson’s Robin gained superpowers in the DC Universe.

With the fifth-dimensional imps supporting their favorite villains, there isn’t much the heroes can do against them. Even Flash was completely helpless while fighting Kadabra, and Sinestro was overpowering Green Lantern before Robin showed up. Luckily, the heroes have some imps on their side: Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk. Mxy was able to power up Robin to take down Sinestro while Mxyzptlk himself handled the rogue imp. Even with the powers of Superman, Robin still can’t stand up to a rogue imp, but thankfully, he didn’t have to.

Robin’s New Powers Quickly Overwhelm Him

But Not Before He Gets a Good Hit Against Sinestro

While having powers like Superman was probably great at first, once Robin stops punching things and tries to use some of the more complicated powers, like telescopic vision, he’s quickly overwhelmed by all the things he can see and hear. This results in Robin practically begging Mxy to take his powers back, which he does. While his tenure as Robin-Man was short-lived, it’s an interesting look at the first time Dick Grayson’s Robin gained superpowers in the DC Universe, and he did it in response to one of the biggest threats Earth has ever faced.

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #26 is on sale now from DC Comics!