sidekicks

Q: There's hasn't been a new sidekick in years. What happened to the concept of the sidekick? -- @RedEarth18 A: I'm not sure that sidekicks are really all that in danger of extinct, but I do think you're right to say that sidekicks aren't as prominent as they used to be, and I think there's a reason for that. And a lot of it has to do with how you define the term.

In the Golden Age of Comics, which ran from roughly the late 1930s until the early 1950s, it was not unusual to see a superhero given either a kid sidekick or a bumbling adult friend, either so the hero had someone to talk to or as comic relief. While a few of these characters—Robin, Bucky, Speedy, Aqualad—have survived in comics readers' consciousness to the modern day, here are some characters whose names alone would make you feel sure you had accidentally hit the “random” button on Urban Dictionary.

As though Spider-Man wasn't already busy enough with the Future Foundation, the Avengers, solo super-heroism and his regular job at Horizon Labs, it looks like he's about to take on yet another responsibility. In this August's Amazing Spider-Man #692, Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos are introducing Alpha: a sidekick for Marvel's flagship hero...

Now on shelves is Captain America and Bucky: The Life Story of Bucky Barnes, a hardcover collection by Ed Brubaker, Marc Andreyko and Chris Samnee detailing the untold origins of Captain America and Bucky Barnes. Bet you thought you already knew those origins, didn't you...

Kid Sidekicks! There's no doubt about it, they're an important part of the culture of super-hero comics, going back almost as far as super-heroes themselves. Without them, kids wouldn't have characters they could easily relate to and Dr. Wertham wouldn't have had something to lose his mind about back in the fifties...