Summary
- Batman wanted to reveal his secret identity to Harvey Dent, but couldn't when he became Two-Face.
- Without many allies, Batman initially worked with Gordon and Dent to fight crime in Gotham.
- Revealing his identity to Dick Grayson changed Batman's life and led to the creation of the enduring Bat Family DC readers know today.
One of the most iconic and important parts of Robin. The introduction of Robin is a major turning point in Batman's history; it is where he found a new family and started taking the first steps to escape the darkness that he had been lost in for years. However, DC revealed a long time ago that Robin wasn't Batman's first choice to share his secret identity with.
Batman: Dark Victory #10 – by Jeph Loeb, Tim Sale, Richard Starkings, and Gregory Weigh – features the Caped Crusader revealing his identity to a young Dick Grayson. After the boy is injured trying to find the men who killed his parents, Batman takes him back to the Batcave.
Here, Batman decides to unmask, making Dick Grayson the second person to ever learn Batman's true identity, though that wasn't always the plan. Batman its during his inner monologue that the second person he truly wanted to share his secret with was Harvey Dent, which became impossible when he transformed into Two-Face.
Batman Is Calling Out Robin's Biggest Flaw - & It's Pretty Unforgivable
Damian Wayne has been trained to be an assassin his entire life, but now Batman really needs to train the young Robin how to be a human being.
Batman Wanted To Reveal His Identity To Harvey Dent
Batman and Robin are an iconic duo, but Robin wasn't Batman's first choice for a partner. When Batman first started, he was a complete loner. He was a dark crusader who fought crime without any partners, his only confidant being Alfred. While Batman did work with Gordon, Batman could never reveal his identity to him due to the complications with Gordon being captain of the GD at the time. This meant Batman really only had one choice before Dick Grayson showed up, being Harvey Dent. Batman its several times, both to Alfred and himself, that he fully intended to reveal his identity to Harvey, but this never came to be due to Harvey's tragic fall.
During the early days of Batman's career, without many allies or a large Bat-Family to him, some of the first allies he turned to were Gordon and Harvey Dent. Together, this trio worked to bring down the mob and arrest Carmine Falcone, who at the time was the untouchable leader of the Gotham Mafia. While Carmine was eventually brought down, it wasn't what the group wanted. After a gangster called Maroni threw acid in Harvey's face, he became the villain Two-Face. This new supervillain killed Carmine and betrayed his former friends, which was an especially hard hit for Batman.
Reveals His Identity To Dick Grayson Changed Batman Forever
After Harvey Dent fell into villainy, he obviously was no longer a suitable candidate to learn Batman's secret identity, even though the villain would go on to learn it later eventually. Because of this, Batman seemed willing to simply keep his secret to himself, but this all changed when Dick Grayson came into his life. Seeing the same tragedy that he'd gone through in this boy, Batman knew that if anyone would understand his trauma it'd be Dick. So, while Batman's original "sidekick" ended up becoming a villain, it paved the way for the most iconic sidekick in comic books, Robin.
Batman: Dark Victory #10 is available now from DC Comics!
