Boy Wonder
Boy Wonder the Superhero
Batman is the renowned superhero who elegantly appeared on children’s television sets for decades. With his pointy ears, unprecedented strength and persistently altruistic deeds he quickly gained great admiration. However his little helper Robin the Boy Wonder is an equally important character. Robin’s assistance is rarely highlighted and he does not feel he received the credit he deserves. This is where the poem ‘Kid’ by Simon Armitage begins. Robin is fed up.
The poem is a first-person narration from Robin’s point of view. The 25 lines are humorously constructed with Robin fiercely insulting Batman initially claiming him nothing but a “big shot”. The Batman story is by a stroke of the pen completely rewritten. Almost comparable to a rap fight Robin disses his former ‘homie’. He blows the ultimate cover of a superhero, partially revealing the true identity behind Batman’s masked face: “let the cat out on that caper with the married woman.”
He states his stance clearly on line 14: “I am not playing ball boy any longer.” Robin refuses to act as Batman’s right hand anymore and suddenly rather resembles Batman’s arch nemesis The Joker. A change of power is in the air. Robin is taller, harder, stronger and older - ready to be the new superhero in town.
The poem is littered with signs of being written in the postmodern era. The story begins in Medias rest and the narrator writes in a stream of consciousness without consideration for the reader and thereby failing to put the story in the all-important preceding context. Batman is older than Robin and in the original story acts as a father figure on behalf of Wonder boy. So if read from a father-son perspective, the author addresses the disruption of the family structure. Sons no longer blindly follow the rules and norms dictated by their fathers.
The presentation and language-use in the poem is humorous. The jaunty rhythm and the long succession of rhymes give the poem a comic flavor. The
Batman is the renowned superhero who elegantly appeared on children’s television sets for decades. With his pointy ears, unprecedented strength and persistently altruistic deeds he quickly gained great admiration. However his little helper Robin the Boy Wonder is an equally important character. Robin’s assistance is rarely highlighted and he does not feel he received the credit he deserves. This is where the poem ‘Kid’ by Simon Armitage begins. Robin is fed up.
The poem is a first-person narration from Robin’s point of view. The 25 lines are humorously constructed with Robin fiercely insulting Batman initially claiming him nothing but a “big shot”. The Batman story is by a stroke of the pen completely rewritten. Almost comparable to a rap fight Robin disses his former ‘homie’. He blows the ultimate cover of a superhero, partially revealing the true identity behind Batman’s masked face: “let the cat out on that caper with the married woman.”
He states his stance clearly on line 14: “I am not playing ball boy any longer.” Robin refuses to act as Batman’s right hand anymore and suddenly rather resembles Batman’s arch nemesis The Joker. A change of power is in the air. Robin is taller, harder, stronger and older - ready to be the new superhero in town.
The poem is littered with signs of being written in the postmodern era. The story begins in Medias rest and the narrator writes in a stream of consciousness without consideration for the reader and thereby failing to put the story in the all-important preceding context. Batman is older than Robin and in the original story acts as a father figure on behalf of Wonder boy. So if read from a father-son perspective, the author addresses the disruption of the family structure. Sons no longer blindly follow the rules and norms dictated by their fathers.
The presentation and language-use in the poem is humorous. The jaunty rhythm and the long succession of rhymes give the poem a comic flavor. The