That's actually why I prefer DC books. Every storyline, every plot, adds to the legend of the characters. Batman has Robin. The original Robin left when he figured out that Batman was never going to retire and let him take things over.
Then Batman met a new kid- a smart-mouthed violent kid who had the balls to try and steal hubcaps off the Batmobile. So Batman recruited him, trained him, and it turned out that this kid wasn't quite as collected- he wasn't nearly as good a Robin as the first one, and then he ran off to Africa to rescue his Mom, and got himself killed.
I LOVE that. That's a permanent part of the story now. Although it sucks, because some writers (Like McFarlane's Batman: Year Two, where Batman carries a gun, finds the guy who killed his parents, shoots him, and then fights "another" vigilante who looks curiosly Spawn-like) screw up the storyline in ways that don't even make sense.
-kv