Batman #07 - now with Dick

[sherkahn]

Dick Grayson (the birthday boy), that is.

Prelude to the Batman arc "Night of the Owls".

With revelations about who the Bat-clan is facing.
*SPOILERS BEHIND THE CUT*



Batman is saved by someone (sorry, I know it is someone we have met before, but I don't recognize) with battery jumper cables, and a wounded Batman makes his way through the sewers to one of the satellite Bat-caves. Of course, Batman's Batman finds him and takes him in, and the Bat does what he does best.

Prepare to engage the enemy with tons of prep and research to kick their butt.

Nightwing comes down to the Batcave as Bruce is doing an autopsy.
Bruce wanted to keep some info close to the vest, but with this and new revelations from the Nightwing book, the deeper threat and danger comes to light.


A Wolverine healing factor? Not regeneration ability?
Wow....



Of course this is just one shoe to drop. Dick knows Bruce is still holding out on him, and starts pushing buttons to get the truth out of him, since everyone has been worried for some time now as Bruce was in the maze of the Owls.

Of course Bruce responds the only way he knows how.


It's not like Bruce is going to get that with his tongue, now is he?
After knowing Robin so intimately for all these years, Batman, how could you have missed that?

All those talented people who have died in Haly's Circus (Grayson's family) and previous versions of said circus over the centuries... that's who Batman is fighting.


Meanwhile, the Court activates ALL of their Talons, and they take flight prepare to take over Gotham.

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

did he do that to prevent the tooth from activating? also did he know how to hit him to get that ONE SPECIFIC tooth knocked out?
It's not like Bruce is going to get that with his tongue, now is he?
now you've done it... the fanficers/artists can you hear you you know?

[darkknightjrk]

Isn't it convenient that the one tooth that comes out of Batman's punch is the exact one with the Talon spark? That plan could go so wrong so fast.

"...Okay, wait, that isn't the one. Stay still, old chum--"
*WHACK*
"...Sonuva--okay, Dick, I promise, once this is over, I'm taking you to the best dentist in Gotham."
*WHAM*

"sorry, I know it is someone we have met before, but I don't recognize"

I think Snyder's said somewhere, maybe Twitter, that this was a new character, possibly one we saw earlier in a one-panel cameo in the first issue of this run.

[aeka]

Talon looks like a vampire out of an Anne Rice novel. I don't think the whole "living dead" part helps. :o

[icon_uk]

Batman couldn't give his own kid some sodding anaesthetic before smashing a tooth out by punching him in the face?

Not impressed.

And though they're not in the book, does this mean that Flying Graysons are possible Talons too?

[shadowpsykie]

... is the Talon also a sexy sexually ambiguous sexy man?

[sherkahn]

Activating the tooth may be one thing, but I think Dick would need to be "conditioned" after his death to become a Talon. When Talon's are activated/brought back, they are at their physical peak of their youth, and possibly even stronger (as seen on other pages of the issue).

Get your minds out of the gutter...

[shadowpsykie]

though they're not in the book, does this mean that Flying Graysons are possible Talons too?

from the readings i have been lead to believe that only the owners were aware of the dead. at least that the Grayson's themselves were unaware. thoughi mayhave missed somethign

[shadowpsykie]

Get your minds out of the gutter...
you are aware where you are posting right? you HAVE met Icon_uk right?

[sherkahn]

And though they're not in the book, does this mean that Flying Graysons are possible Talons too?


Possibly. But after Blackest Night who knows....

[icon_uk]

Yeah, but prior to new 52, Dick had been co-owner of Haly's circus for years, so history-wise, I think things are up for grabs

[icon_uk]

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
- Oscar Wilde

And I think I resent being singled out there....

[shadowpsykie]

we ARE talking about Dick grayson... but to be fair i singled out the group first, were this tim or miguel i would have singled Me. if this was Peeg or Helena i would singled out Aekea :D

[jaybee3]

It's strange how I think Snyder is a gifted writer (probably the best on the Batbooks right now and I'm counting Morrison) and yet some of these plot points seem too soap opera-ish convenient and "on the head" for me. Does everything in Bruce's world have to be connected? James Gordon Jr. just happens to turn out to be a sociopath. Haly's Circus just happens to be deeply connected to Court of Owls. What next? Tim Drake's dead dad (who was a blue blood) was a member as well?

[mrstatham]

I don't see how James Gordon Jr being a psycho is connected to anything, really - if anything, I think it provides an interesting contrast to Barbara (who I can't stand at the moment but that's neither here nor there). The books have always been soap-operaish, though. I mean, the revelation of Doctor Hurt - and like, EVERY revelation, reeks of soap opera jokes like they used to do on friends.

"I, Doctor Hurt, am the guy involved in that isolation treatment you underwent years ago!"

"I, Doctor Hurt, have been empowered by the tool of a dark God of Evil and have come across hundreds of years to destroy you!"

In the revised continuity, though, I don't see how connecting Haley's to the Court of Owls is a particularly awful thing, though. It at least does something interesting with the concept and furthers the notion of Gotham really belonging to the Owls. It gives Dick more of a reason to hate them, and it makes it that much more satisfying when Batman and Co inevitably take them down.

[sistermagpie]

Can I just say Dick looks adorable in these pages? Especially in that first panel with him. You can tell he's still Robin even when he's Nightwing.

Bruce, you probably could have extracted that tooth in a more normal way. Actually, if I were Dick I'd ask Alfred to do it.

How long has it been since Bruce escaped? Has he even taken a nap? Because he's wearing his costume and I can't help but think that if I were Dick I probably wouldn't want to be standing too close to the guy right now.

Still think the Haley's circus thing is ridiculous. What would make it a bit more palatable to me would be if Haley's had come under new management shortly before Dick was born, and the idea was that they went around to different circuses so they didn't have a long-running relationship with just the one Dick's family was with. Though obviously they want the Graysons to be involved--without ever realizing it.

Is that a maternal grandfather for Dick? I'd be happy with Mary coming from circus-folk too. And it's more common for trapeze artists.

[sistermagpie]

Why does connecting them to Haley's further the notion of Gotham belonging to the Owls?

[book_of_daniel]

I've loved this story so far and in 30+ years as a collector I've never cared for Batman before. But this? Punching Dick in the face to make a point? Yeah no thanks. Not unless Dick got up and knocked the old man out cold.

[anothermoviegeek]

So how long has that fake tooth thing been there? If "forever" then how come any punch to the face Dick has ever taken before hasn't dislodged it? How come it has never shown up on xray?

[turtlefu]

I agree with those who feel like this is all too convenient.

Making Haley's Circus into this big giant conspiracy is equivalent to making Joe Chill into this big bad guy. Or taking the Bat through the Window and making it so somebody SENT the bat. You know, ideas that try and take the inspiration of turning somebody into a hero, taking the ideas that "Bad Things Can Happen To Anyone and If You Rise Above It You Can Be A Hero" and turning it into "People Who Are Heroes Are Only Heroes Because of A Giant Convenient Conspiracy"

[biod]

Knowing Batman, he has a seperate punch or each tooth.

[sherkahn]

It's not so much that the Court of Owls is tied into Haley's directly, but more that they have been drawing their talent pool of enforcers from that circus, and previous other circuses (as alluded to in the book) since Roman times.

[turtlefu]

I just really don't like these Secret Origins-style conspiracies. I didn't even like it when Grant did it. (Making the Bat in Batman some kind of huge Gothamite symbol, it all felt so convenient and trite to me)

[whitesycamore]

The 'stars?' Please, we all know where you're looking. :P

[aeka]

So much love for Oscar Wilde. <3

The fact that he had a way of saying things that were clever, yet true was one of the reasons I could never get tired of reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, if not for Lord Henry alone. <3

[whitesycamore]

No. He is Batman, and he must thwack the teeth out of his beautiful boy children. To do otherwise would be sentimental.

Have I mentioned how tired I am of callous, stonefaced drill sergeant Bruce?