Okay, I’m trying to figure out the age range of the batkids and I am getting mixed numbers.
Mostly because of Damian.
What I have:
Dick is five years older than Jason
Jason is two years older than Tim. (Jason (19) attacks Tim (17)) Cass is roughly the same age as Jason. (Save for the one time she’s the same age as Tim)
Duke and Stephanie are roughly the same age as Tim, though sometimes Stephanie is depicted as a year older than Tim.
Now, Damian is introduced as age 10, while Tim is roughly 17. Which should mean a seven year difference between the two (and maybe a fourteen year old difference between Damian and Dick)
Except somehow Damian becomes 13 while Tim only gets to 18/19 sometimes and no older, so it’s more of a four year difference between Tim and Damian?
Because Comic book time is a hot mess.
Anyway, does this look right to you?
You pretty much summed it up! (at least, this is the answer that I see people use most often.)
People smarter than I have pondered the Batfam Age Range Problem for years, but I don't think that a *correct* answer actually exists. It's less about a logical chronology and more about the general vibes, if you know what I mean. The characters' ages are malleable and can be made to fit whatever story DC wants to be telling.
We're working within a loose canon anyway, so some of these contradictory truths are bound to come up, but I think most of the issues arise from the fact that DC doesn't want to let Tim grow up, but then they don't want to let Damian remain a child. As you stated above, the age window between them is swiftly closing and it is indeed a hot mess.
I like to think of comics as a modern mythology, and so there are going to be some logistical conundrums when you're telling and retelling a story that never ends. The characters have to learn and grow in meaningful ways, but in order for the story to continue indefinitely, they can never change too much.
(Occasionally this does happen, and at that point DC just decides to blow up the universe and start over. problem solved.)