History Main / KidSidekick

** ComicBook/SpiderMan started as a deliberate subversion of this trope. Creator/StanLee had grown sick of teen sidekicks, so he decided to create a series that featured a teenager as the main star, rather than as support to an adult hero. Everyone thought that ItWillNeverCatchOn... but it did. Marvel eventually gave him his own teen sidekick, "Alpha", for a MilestoneCelebration storyline. It didn't last, as the [[SmugSuper powers went to the kid's head]] and Spidey had to depower him before he became a threat.

* Miles 'Tails' Prower, sidekick of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'', is of the GadgeteerGenius variety and has abilities that complement Sonic's. Later games introduced Cream the Rabbit (who has her own {{Sidekick}}, the [[{{Mon}} Chao]] named Cheese), who serves as more or less the [[DistaffCounterpart female counterpart]] to Tails (hence why they are often [[ToyShip shipped together]], despite almost never interacting). She started as a sidekick to Amy, but in ''Sonic Rush'' she acted in this capacity to Blaze. In ''Sonic Rush Adventure'', Blaze gets her own sidekick in [[LandDownUnder Marine the Raccoon]].

A character, often an adult or sometimes teenager, has a considerably younger {{Sidekick}}. Traditionally the kid will often act as TheWatson for the main character, and/or as [[KidAppealCharacter someone for younger audiences to identify with]]. Sometimes the kid acts as a MoralityPet or as a WishFulfillment personification, which goes some way to explaining the [[FridgeLogic implausibility]] of a responsible adult putting a young child in dangerous situations. Sometimes the sidekick will be a TeenGenius or ChildProdigy in an attempt to justify their presence, or even a CuteBruiser. Other times, they're TheLoad and a DamselInDistress. May overlap with JuniorCounterpart.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** ComicBook/BuckyBarnes was this to ComicBook/CaptainAmerica in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, following Robin's debut less than a year earlier. He served with Cap in ComicBook/{{The Invaders|MarvelComics}} as well; the latter also introduced the first [[Characters/InvadersFoundingMembers Human Torch]] sidekick Toro, with near identical powers. The character, as depicted in that era, has become TheArtifact for Cap as essentially a ChildSoldier in modern eyes, which requires some convoluted justifications from the writers.

** ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}: Played with in ''ComicBook/Hawkeye2012'', as [[Characters/HawkeyeClintBarton Clint Barton]]'s teen sidekick [[Character/HawkeyeKateBishop Kate Bishop]] is also [[LegacyCharacter Hawkeye]]. Aside from sharing the same superhero monicker, Kate is actually the better Hawkeye of the two.

* ''WebVideo/UnwantedHouseguest'': Melody fills the role for the Houseguest in the ComicBookAdaptation.

* The ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' themselves are to some extent a deconstruction of this trope, Dean being intelligent and eager-to-please but timid, Hank energetic but rebellious and invincibly stupid. Their father, an ex-sidekick, blames his seemingly inexhaustible supply of character flaws on the experience. His participation in a support group for "ex-Boy-Adventurers" doesn't seem to have helped him much, but it ''has'' introduced us to the likes of an ex-Wonderboy (one of Captain Sunshine's multiple such dropped at eighteen years of age) who memorably claims that it left him unable to get an erection unless he were 'tied to a chair with a bomb strapped to [his] chest'.

** Aqualad to ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}.
** Kid Flash(es) to ComicBook/TheFlash.

** ComicBook/WonderGirl only ended up being an example of this through retcon. She was originally introduced in the ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]] comic as Diana herself as a teenager, in flashback stories set during her youth. Because of her popularity, there were then a few "[[{{Elseworld}} Impossible Stories]]" written in which both versions of Diana teamed up. When the ''Teen Titans'' comic was created as a team book featuring the Kid Sidekicks of the main Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica members, the original writers assumed that Wonder Girl was an ordinary kid sidekick to Diana, and treated her as such. The attempts to sort this out and give Wonder Girl a separate identity and backstory as "Donna Troy" ended up creating one of the most notorious {{Continuity Snarl}}s in superhero comics history.

** ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}}: Played with in ''ComicBook/Hawkeye2012'', where [[Characters/HawkeyeClintBarton Clint Barton]]'s teen sidekick [[Character/HawkeyeKateBishop Kate Bishop]] was also [[LegacyCharacter Hawkeye]]. Aside from sharing the same superhero monicker, Kate is actually the better Hawkeye of the two.

** Played with during Matt Fraction's run on ComicBook/{{Hawkeye}} where the titular hero's teen sidekick was also [[LegacyCharacter Hawkeye]], specifically Kate Bishop from the ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers''. Aside from sharing the same superhero monicker, Kate is actually the better Hawkeye of the two.

** ComicBook/BuckyBarnes was this to ComicBook/CaptainAmerica in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, following Robin's debut less than a year earlier. He served with Cap in ComicBook/{{The Invaders|MarvelComics}} as well; the latter also introduced the first ComicBook/HumanTorch sidekick Toro, with near identical powers. The character, as depicted in that era, has become TheArtifact for Cap as essentially a ChildSoldier in modern eyes, which requires some convoluted justifications from the writers.

* ''ComicBook/{{Stray}}'': In his youth, [[TheProtagonist Rodney Weller]] was the Rottweiler, kid sidekick to The Doberman, his father. Sadly, he gave it up when they had a falling out.

* ComicBook/{{Robin}}, sidekick of ComicBook/{{Batman}}, is the UrExample, and is retained in almost every incarnation of Batman, no matter how DarkerAndEdgier, simply because [[GrandfatherClause of tradition]]. These days the concept is subject to ReimaginingTheArtifact, justifying Robin's presence by saying that either the kid is so psychologically damaged that he'd become self-destructive (or just plain destructive) without Batman supervising his crimefighting (probably the case with Jason and definitely for Damian), or that ''Batman'' is the damaged one and needs a surrogate son to keep him grounded (all but said was the case for [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Tim]]).

* Okay, ComicBook/JimmyOlsen is more of a Teen Sidekick for most of his appearances, but he's still much younger than his [[Franchise/{{Superman}} hero]].

** ComicBook/WonderGirl only ended up being an example of this through retcon. She was originally introduced in the ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]] comic as Diana herself as a teenager, in flashback stories set during her youth. Because of her popularity, there were then a few "[[{{Elseworld}} Impossible Stories]]" written in which both versions of Diana teamed up. When the ''Teen Titans'' comic was created as a team book featuring the Kid Sidekicks of the main Franchise/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica members, the original writers assumed that Wonder Girl was an ordinary kid sidekick to Diana, and treated her as such. The attempts to sort this out and give Wonder Girl a separate identity and backstory as "Donna Troy" ended up creating one of the most notorious {{Continuity Snarl}}s in superhero comics history.

** ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s various sidekicks, usually of the young girl type (ComicBook/KittyPryde, Rogue, ComicBook/{{Jubilee|MarvelComics}}).

** Franchise/SpiderMan started as a deliberate subversion of this trope. Creator/StanLee had grown sick of teen sidekicks, so he decided to create a series that featured a teenager as the main star, rather than as support to an adult hero. Everyone thought that ItWillNeverCatchOn... but it did. Marvel eventually gave him his own teen sidekick, "Alpha", for a MilestoneCelebration storyline. It didn't last, as the [[SmugSuper powers went to the kid's head]] and Spidey had to depower him before he became a threat.

** In the [[Anime/DragonBall original series]] technically Goku himself was this to Bulma being 11 while she was 16 although of course unlike other examples he was [[PintSizedPowerHouse vastly more competent than her]] and soon set on his own adventure.