User blog comment:Jamie/Episode 15 - Sidekicks/@comment-1895174-20140718062709/@comment-1895174-20140719011143

All rules have exceptions. There are a few times where the sidekick is older (Uncle Marvel, maybe?), but the overwhelming majority of the time the sidekick is a teenager. I suppose you could just as easily swap out "younger" for "less experienced."

There was a time where a sidekick would just be the non-white helper to the white hero. Tonto, Kato, and Ebony White all fit that description. But modern interpretations of those characters try to make them more legitimate partners than simple sidekicks. Some even over-correct, like last year's Lone Ranger movie making Tonto out to be the real hero while the Lone Ranger is, well, his bumbling sidekick.

So that's a question, I guess. How has the modern role of a sidekick changed from when they were introduced in the Golden and Silver Ages?