The best explanation of Kory/Dick 'ship I've ever seen.

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

A single panel from the two-page "Origin of Starfire" backup in 52 Week 41.

Comments

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

See, that's cute, but missing the point to me. Kory's primary character trait wasn't being bombastic (Where on earth did they get "high-sounding; high-flown; inflated; pretentious" from Kory???) or intimidating, it was in her complete and utter emotional honesty.

Back before they met, Dick was seriously uptight, he was reaching a point where he wanted a life of his own, but was too tied to being Robin as in "Batman and Robin" for that to be easy, and he felt guilty for wanting that.

Ultimately it was Kory's completely uninhibited nature which helped him see it really WAS okay to have and express feelings, including resentment of the being in Bruce's shadow, and that helped him mature to the point where he no longer needed to be Robin, and indeed, couldn't be.

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, it's funny that this kind of implies that she was more like Batman when really she was not like him in ways that Dick also wasn't by nature? He couldn't very well "find himself" as his own man with yet another Batman to intimidate him. As an adult it seems like that comes up a lot. If I was thinking of a girlfriend he had that was more like a female Bruce I'd say it was Barbara.

[freddylloyd.insanejournal.com]

Kory shares some traits with Bruce: great power, utter commitment, loss of family. But she also showed Dick that those qualities don't mean you have to shut yourself down emotionally.

As I recall, Marv Wolfman and/or George Pérez has said that one reason Kory is immediately attracted to Dick in The New Teen Titans is the bare legs. She can see that in some ways he's already open and not easily intimidated.

Plus, of course, there's the sex factor. They were both around twenty years old when they became an item, and the two sexiest people on the planet.

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

If I was thinking of a girlfriend he had that was more like a female Bruce I'd say it was Barbara.

Absolutely. I always found that scene hilarious in Nightwing-Huntress, where Babs is telling Dick "I get that she reminds you of -- I get that she feels familiar," like Dick sleeping with Hel was some Oedipal thing... when Helena is pretty much nothing like Bruce and Babs is a few smiles a year shy of his clone.

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

LOL! Totally! Especially since I can somehow also imagine Bruce trying to write off a hook up of Dick's that disturbed him in a way that seemed to say more about him than Dick.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Indeed, Batman's "consoling" of Barbara (staring forlornly at Dick's Robin costume in it's display case) with "The thing with the alien... it won't last" irked me no end!

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

Oh, the things an analyst would do with just that panel. If an analyst could ever get anywhere near Batman.

[kamino_neko.insanejournal.com]

What's that from?

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

IIRC it's the "Gotham Knights" which has Bruce calling in Barbara for her assessment of Jason's suitability to continue as Robin.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Do you happen to know who wrote it? I'm just curious...
That's too weird.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I think it's Gotham Knights #43 (http://www.comics.org/details.lasso?id=163736) which was written by Scott Beatty

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Post-crisis Batman 'consoling' anybody? A little offputting. 'Consoling' under those circumstances, and in that way? Creepy.

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

Bats' whole "that alien princess" attitude toward Kory has always been weird to me. I mean, he may not approve, but this is/was a definitive relationship in his "son"s life as well as a fellow member of the cape fraternity, you'd think he'd have forced himself to come to some kind of terms with her existence.

Maybe he didn't like the fact that by definition she opens Dick up to the existence of not only a world beyond Gotham, but an entire universe? Bruce does tend to like his little Batlings deeply rooted in Gotham. (Why else would Jason stick around, after his training tour of the world and his Countdown tour of the Multiverse?)

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

Bruce does seem to have a prejudice against aliens sometimes. Though in Kory's case it's just one more thing he can use to distance her from everyone else. I do think it's a thing, though.

[ladymirth.insanejournal.com]

Batman - racist?

The first thing I thought of when I read that in Gotham Knights was that Clark would be quite hurt to hear Bruce put it like that. Or maybe that's just my slash running away with me.

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Bats' whole "that alien princess" attitude toward Kory has always been weird to me.

It's weird to me, too. I wonder if it's influenced by that speech he gave Dick--wish I knew what it was from--where he's telling Dick never to trust Superman because he's an alien.

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

Do you have a picture of the scene?

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

Maybe Babs was talking about Kory?

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Agreed on the Babs is most like Bruce.

[freddylloyd.insanejournal.com]

I think the writer meant "boobtastic."

[kenn_el.insanejournal.com]

See, I always hated Dick/Kory because it seemed like Junior/Moon Maid in Dick Tracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Maid_(comic)), and added a sci fi element to the Batverse that couldn't as easily be avoided as Superman or Darkseid.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Except that at the time, Robin WASN'T in the Batverse per se. He wasn't working with Batman regularly, he was having solo superhero adventures at Hudson University until he dropped out (just prior to NTT#1), and the Titans was his real home.

Limiting Dick Grayson to the Batverse always seems to miss the point of his outgrowing the role of Robin.

[kenn_el.insanejournal.com]

I understand/understood why they did it. I'm just saying that it didn't serve the character as well as they'd hoped. Dick will always be tied to the Batverse, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Kory adds a facet to Dick's history that's on par with the 1950s stories that are currently being re-included in the Bat History, just as the moon folk are forever tied in to the Tracy history.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I'd say that was a problem with the editorial decision in the 1990's to STOP referencing Dick's time with the Titans and downplay it in his own title to the extent he never even mentioned them.

Dick was FROM the Batverse, no argument, but until the lauch of his own title he hadn't been a regular part of it for years, so him living in New York and dating Kory was perfectly reasonable as he wasn't impacting on the Batverse in any way when he did.

He was the successful son who grew up and moved away from home; always welcome for holidays or famiuly situations requiring him, but with his own like. Dixon's run metaphorically brought him back to more or less living in his Dad's basement and being at his beck and call at all times. It undid many of the fundamental areas of growth Dick had managed, such as freedom to have cosmic adventures in his own title with his alien ex-girlfriend.

[kenn_el.insanejournal.com]

I agree in general. I was in college when I read the "Titans" issues, and applauded his 'growth'. I DO think he benefits most when his past experience is acknowledged. I'm far more entertained by the 'lighter' Bat than by Cosmic Dick. YMMV of course.