The relationship between a superhero and his/her sidekick is an amazing thing to behold. Why is this person content with living in the shadow of someone else? Is the hero a mentor or a demon? Will the sidekick ever emerge as a hero in their own right? Are there inappropriate feelings involved? It’s all quite interesting, and a dichotomy that gets unending attention in the world of mainstream comics.
Some sidekicks are iconic (Robin) while some are simply absurd (Aqualad), but all of them deserve our respect. To finish out the last week of August, we decided to reflect on some of the most awesome-filled superhero sidekicks in comics.
10. Speedy
Sidekick To: Green Arrow
Speedy, aside from having a pretty lame name and an apparent guarantee of living in shitsville, is a model sidekick. First, let’s get this out of the way: both Speedys, Roy Harper and Mia Dearden, have been bundled with personal traumas like getting addicted to heroin and discovering they are HIV positive as a result of their days forced into being a child prostitute (respectively). And yet, both characters have proved resilient; Roy is currently kicking ass with one arm as Arsenal (briefly Red Arrow), and Mia continues to keep Oliver Queen in check, when he’s not parading around in that ridiculous Star City forest of doom.
