I'm fascinated by the creation and evolution of the sidekick.
The first sidekick, Robin, was created so young readers would have someone with whom to identify. But setting aside the fact that I couldn't really identify with anyone whose family was killed before their eyes, be they twenty-nine or eight years old, I didn't know anybody who wanted to be Robin. Hell with that, we all wanted to be Batman. Robin just kinda got in the way. For what it's worth, as a kid I didn't know anybody who would have chosen to be Luke Skywalker over Han Solo.
Future sidekicks were simply younger knockoffs of the main character (Supergirl, Kid Flash), or even the main character herself at a young age (Superboy, Wonder Girl).
Sidekicks became discarded as the years went on - when Stan Lee created the Marvel Universe he considered them an outdated relic. Not only did none of his new heroes have a kid sidekick, but he killed off (in flashback) the most prominent one from World War II.
For their own part, DC creators dealt with changing views in their own way. Denny O'Neill used Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy to explore social issues. In a ground-breaking late 1960s storyline, Speedy (feeling abandoned by his father figure) turns to smack!
The cartoon series "The Tick" had a fascinating look at second-citizen second bananas (as did "Doctor Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog") - might provide some visual interest.
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