Robin John Blake was an officer in the Major Crimes Unit of the Gotham City Police Department. He was orphaned at a young age and grew up in St. Swithin's orphanage, which was visited by Bruce Wayne. By look on Bruce's face, he spotted a rage in Bruce that matched his own feelings at losing his parents, and knew that the rage must have driven Bruce to become the vigilante Batman. When Batman disappeared after the death of Harvey Dent, Blake eagerly waited for any news of his return.
Blake was put onto the case of a missing councillor, and informed his boss James Gordon of it. He was later called to a body found in the river, and recognised it as one of the boys from St. Swithin's. He visited the orphanage to investigate and found out from Father Reilly that they no longer received funding from Wayne Enterprises. Later the councillor that the police were tracking was found in a dive bar after his cell phone was used by Selina Kyle, so Blake and other officers swooped in on the bar. The men they found there disappeared into the sewers, and after Gordon pursued them Blake tried to get officers to follow him. Captain Foley overruled Blake, so the officer went to one of the sewer outlets where he found Gordon in a bad way.
Gordon was taken to hospital and Blake went to Wayne Manor. He told Bruce that Wayne Enterprises had stopped funding the orphanage, and also that he knew that he was the Batman. Blake told Bruce that Batman had to return. Later, a mercenary named Bane infiltrated the Gotham Stock Exchange so Blake arrived with other officers to seal off the building. He tried to get a concrete truck to move out of the way but the driver refused, allowing Bane and his men to escape over the police barricade. They gave chase, and the Batman appeared to help them. Foley ordered the police to chase Batman rather than Bane, to Blake's disapproval.
A short while later, Blake noticed the concrete truck that caused trouble at the stock exchange. He confronted the driver, but was attacked and ended up killing two men. He then noticed that the concrete in their truck was laced with explosives, so quickly radioed in the emergency. However, it was too late and Bane detonated explosives all around the city and revealed he was holding the city hostage with an atomic bomb. Blake dodged explosions and arrived at the hospital to rescue Gordon, but got there to find Gordon had dealt with his would-be assassins already.
Gordon and Blake then formed a secret society and planned to overthrow Bane from his grip on the city. They tracked the three trucks that transported the bomb, but when doing so were caught and taken before the Scarecrow to be judged. He decreed that they be exiled across the frozen river, and so they were sent out. However, Batman appeared and knocked out the guards making them walk across. He had Gordon light up a bat signal, and then Blake went to evacuate as many people from Gotham as he could.
He arrived at St. Swithin's and sent the children to spread the word of an evacuation. He took a busload of children across the bridge and tried to convince the soldier at the checkpoint to let them pass. The soldier would not listen and detonated the bridge, making it impassable. Blake then told the children to get on the bus as it would protect them from the bomb, so that they would not die in fear. They watched as Batman flew out of the city with the bomb and detonated it safely away from the residents, apparently dying as a result.
Blake attended Bruce Wayne's funeral and was told he had been left something in Wayne's will. He was given a duffel bag which contained an envelope with his own personal inheritance, a GPS locator containing the co-ordinates to the Batcave and all of Batman's equipment, so he could carry on fighting crime as the new Batman.