Enlarge 20th Century Fox via AP Robin's role as a sidekick was to make Batman seem less dark and isolated. Batman and Robin. Captain America and Bucky. The Green Hornet and Kato. How come so many superheroes come in pairs? It's a familiar trope, the superhero-plus-sidekick, and no accident, say academics who study comic heroes. Nearly every superhero of the comics (except, significantly, the very first one, Superman) and most of the heroes of world literature have subordinate figures to back them up in their adventures. MORE: 'Green Hornet' spinks hero-sidekick dynamic in new ways REVIEW: 'Green Hornet,' where is thy sting? The earliest known literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, which dates back more than four millennia, is the story of a Sumerian king, Gilgamesh, and his close companion, Enkidu, the wild man of Mesopotamia who accompanies the king on various quests. And there have been scores of such pairs ever since: Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Holmes and Watson. Huck and Jim. Tarzan and Cheetah. Ishmael and Queequeg. Lone Ranger and Tonto. (In fact, in the original radio series of the 1930s, Green Hornet is the Lone Ranger's great-nephew, but that's another story.) True, some comic-book heroes besides Superman don't have sidekicks — Iron Man and Spider-Man, for instance. But many do: Green Arrow and Speedy. Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr. Aquaman and Aqualad. Flash and Kid Flash. Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl. Even The Tick has a sidekick: Arthur. There are four kinds of these characters in the comics, says Peter Coogan, director of the Institute for Comic Studies, an American studies teacher at Washington University in St. Louis and co-founder of the Comic Arts Conference at the annual Comic-Con International in San Diego. •The assistant, who is not a superhero with superpowers (example: Batman's butler Alfred). •The partner, a superhero with identity, code name and costume who works as an equal with another superhero (Green Arrow and Green Lantern). •The pal, who has neither superpowers nor a costume but hangs around (Jimmy Olsen and Superman). •The sidekick, who usually has special abilities (but not necessarily powers), an identity and a costume. "Why are they there? In terms of narrative, sidekicks are there to give the hero someone to talk to," Coogan says. Ideologically, he says, they're there to provide a minority figure subordinate to the dominant hero, to soften the image of the hero (as Robin does for the dark, isolated Batman), or to reinforce his superiority. Kato, however, is in most respects smarter than Rogen's Green Hornet — he not only drives the high-tech car, but he also designed it. Nicholas Yanes, who studies the comics as a graduate student at the University of Iowa, says this version of Kato tracks more like the Bruce Lee version on TV in the 1960s; Lee's portrayal helped bring the martial-arts craze to the West. "The new movie "is the first time it's blatantly clear that the sidekick is more competent than the superhero," says Yanes. "Usually the Green Hornet is the superior being, but here we have Kato building the weapon and kicking the superhero as a fighter. He's not only equal but probably better than Green Hornet." Coogan draws on contemporary literary-criticism ideas to explain that the sidekick is sometimes intended as a way to assuage audience guilt about how minorities are or have been treated. "If Tonto is the Lone Ranger's friend, then the Lone Ranger is not guilty of genocide and we don't have to feel guilt, either," Coogan says. "The Kato figure tells fat, lazy, slovenly Americans that we can work with fast, sleek, rising China. We don't have to worry about China overtaking us in technology and resources; it's still subordinate," as Kato is. But The Green Hornet story also is a hero-and-sidekick story reflective of the impulses that first animated human storytelling, says Coogan. "They're about selfish boys turned into responsible men, which is what happens in The Green Hornet," he says. "The cultural function of a hero story is how to turn selfishness into selflessness." We've updated the Conversation Guidelines. Changes include a brief review of the moderation process and an explanation on how to use the "Report Abuse" button. Read more