Update on Nightwing plans post-September...

[icon_uk]

From Comicvine


Comic Vine: Do you feel it's a step back for Dick to go from Batman to Nightwing?

Kyle Higgins: You know, I've been getting this question a lot lately and I have to admit I don't see it that way. Here's the reality of the situation-- Batman was NEVER Dick's identity. It was Bruce's, and it'll always BE Bruce's. Dick filled in, eventually becoming more and more comfortable in the role, but deep down he knew it was going to end-- it had to. And the question of "is it a demotion" is silly-- is it a demotion to go back to being YOU?

Well, okay, actually, everything suggested that Bruce really WAS dead this time, and Dick and even Alfred felt that Bruce was dead for sure. Since Bruce came back, that might be the case though, since Dick knows Bruce has control issues with Gotham, regardless of Batman Inc..

This isn't an ego thing for Dick. WE, as fans, view the situation differently because we want our favorite characters to be "A-listers." We want them to be in more books, we want them to be popular, and to a lot of people, Dick Grayson has never been more popular than he was as Batman-- I mean, he was BATMAN!

That's a fair point I think, I don't think it quite justifies switching him back and NOT being an A-lister, but it's fair... ish. :)

KH: Now, where I WOULD say it runs the risk of being a demotion-- if I don't do my job right-- is in the villain area. As Batman, Dick went up against the best of the best-- he went up against a rogues gallery (new and old) that put him to the ultimate test. And a lot of those characters are Bruce's villains-- they're villains of Batman. So my job is to come up with new threats that will test Dick as Nightwing just as thoroughly.

Thank God, Dick really does need some quality villains. I still think he should inherit some old Titans villains as his own (Less, The Flips, more, The Gargoyle, perhaps)

CV: The solicit for #1 mentions Haley's Circus coming to Gotham, does Dick plan on sticking around Gotham or will he try to find a new "Bludhaven"?

KH: Dick will still be "based" in Gotham, but we're getting him out on the road again with Haley's Circus. The way I look at it is this-- Dick just spent a year being someone else, upholding their legacy, as Gotham tried to break him. When Haley's comes back for the first time since the death of Dick's parents, it provides an opportunity for Dick to rediscover and explore HIS legacy (and what his life SHOULD have been)-- which is all part of him being able to grow as both a hero and a person.

Have to say, that actually kind of impresses me, the notion of Dick trying out the circus life again because it's the life he might have had.

(Of course, it should still be in continuity that Dick OWNS Haly's Circus now, I wonder if that will be addressed?

KH: And again, I want to assure people-- this isn't Dick running away because Bruce is back. To me, he's not narcissistic or vein in the way that he'd turn his back on a place just to spite Bruce (not at this point).CV: How much of Dick's civillain guise will we see?
KH: A LOT. We've got a ton of supporting characters, a lot of circus members, some love interests..

I still want to know how the Damian/Dick partnership is left (Best version I've heard so far is a fanfic, which has Dick talking to Damian as he is about to go out on his first proper patrol with Bruce; "Just remember, everything you learned from me, I learned from him, he really IS the best") but I'm a little more confident about this than I was. (Yup, Blue Lantern charged to 200% here!)

There's more from the interview at the site of course.

And for legality, the rather nice pencils to the new Nightwing issue 2, by Eddie Barrows.

Comments

[18lemons]

I have mixed feelings about this. I'm not entirely sure that I'm sold on it.
Perhaps I'm just biased because I only really got into DC comics as a real fan when Dick became Batman. Dick and Damian are my Batman and Robin. I'm all for Dick expanding as a character, but I don't want to lose my Batman and Robin either.

[celestialchild]

I prefer Dick as Nightwing. But I still wish that he and Damian could continue to be partners. I think Batman and Robin is going to be relatively boring when it becomes Bruce and Damian. The Dick-and-Damian partnership was a bit fresh air for the Batverse, just as Stephanie Brown as Batgirl was.

And I'm still trying to figure out how Damian is going to be the Robin to Barbara's Batgirl. I don't know that it's going to be as fun.

[junipepper]

(Of course, it should still be in continuity that Dick OWNS Haly's Circus now, I wonder if that will be addressed?

Excuse me, did you just say, "continuity?" Dude, it's DC! They've had their Continuity License revoked -- they're strictly a BYOC operation these days...

I actually think this could be a lot of fun. My only potential gripe is that it seems like it pulls Dick out of the BatFamily sphere, and I've really been enjoying that connectedness lately.

Heh. What's great about the pencil there is NO RED.

[big_daddy_d]

I knew Dick might go back to being Nightwing. I honestly wished he was still Batman and quite frankly, I still believe he is a good role model for Damian and one of few who actually gives the boy a chance.

[turtlefu]

1. Batman is a symbol. Dick was practically groomed from a young age to be Batman when Bruce can't. Batman was always Dick's. I hate the idea that he was a just a placeholder until the REAL Batman showed. That is such bullshit. It's the bullshit legacy crap that DC pulls on us so they can bring back Hal, or Barry, or Ray Palmer.

2. I may be in the extreme minority, but I'm kind of sick of constant new supervillains. How many supervillains must the DCU have now? I highly doubt it makes any sense, from a creative standpoint or an in-universe standpoint, for there to be CONSTANTLY new threats.

[detective_deathman08]

I do not mind new villains, just give them interesting powers. Its like all of the new bad guys want to be deathstroke. Good martial arts skills, guns out the wazoo, and blades blades blades. Maybe Justice League dark can bring back evil wizards.

[junipepper]

OK, that's true in a sense -- if anyone was going to take over as Batman, it would always have been Dick. But in this case, did anyone really think Batman wasn't going to come back, and sooner rather than later? I don't think bringing back Bruce is on the level of bringing back Barry Allen -- which has to rank as one of the worst creative decisions of all time. (I'm using the word 'creative' loosely here.)

I don't have the sense that it was ever Dick's specific goal to become Batman. Honestly, I think his motives are purer than that; he's always been out there to fight crime, not to get the Big Star role. I'd think he'd be happy to go back to being Nightwing, which is his own thing.

I think Dick's time as Batman has been good for him. It's been a hard time and he's done well, and that's helped increase his confidence. I just don't see him feeling like being Nightwing is a demotion.

[thehefner]

If you're in the extreme minority, I'm right there with you. Batman has the best rogues gallery in all of comics, and yet they're all getting seriously neglected in recent years in terms of focus and development. These days, Bat-writers seem far more interested in the Bat-Family and new villains, and that's even being reflected in fandom.

I'd much rather see people try to do stuff with the characters they already have than just throw new ones into the mix who will almost certainly end up being tomorrow's cannon fodder whenever they want to kill off a handful of D-Listers.

[detective_deathman08]

I am just tired of dick getting the crap kicked out of him in the main bats books.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, I do have an underlying sense in the Batbooks that Dick has rarely actually had a clean win as Batman. Even in Morrison's B&R it's tended to be Damian who is shown as magically super-competent, whereas Dick gets shot in the head by Dr Hurt (and again here, just as an example)

Still better than he was as Nightwing, where he jobbed for every bloody new character to show up just to show how badass they were.

[detective_deathman08]

Someone actually wrote a letter about this, and it got posted in the back of the most recent issue of batman. The fan wrote basically that dick as a character always fights as if someone is watching his back, because he never really had that much time as a solo hero. He went from teen sidekick of batman, to member of the teen titans(now justice league). He also noted a few instances where he had to be saved by Tim and Robin. It was ironic because in the very issue the letter was in, it showed Dick waking up being treated by Alfred after Damian pulled him into the batmobile before the fire department got there. I do not know if valid but it is an interesting theory.

I do not think writers do this on purpose, I just think Dick does not get the Batgod powers Bruce does.

[star_of_airdrie]

Here was the penultimate question of the interview:

CV: Will you be using characters (like James Gordon Jr, Sonia Zucco, etc) and story elements from Scott Snyder's Detective run?

KH: I'd love to use those two in particular, and certainly I love what Scott's been doing-- like I said, my choice to base Dick in Gotham (when he's not traveling) is because of Scott's run. But there's also a big push for "new," regardless of the Bat books maintaining a lot of their continuity. This IS the DCnU, so we're really looking to the future instead of mining the past.

Oh noes, we can't do that 'mining' from the past! It might involve continuity and messy stuff like that!!!

[mrstatham]

Yet of course, it's going to be business as usual for Geoff Johns, who gets to pick up his story where it's leaving off.

[thatnickguy]

Nightwing's first new villain?

BANEVERINE!

[icon_uk]

Indeed, though with the 2 claws I was thinking X-23.

[newnumber6]

Wait, so Nightwing's going to be travelling around with Haley's circus?

"Hey, Joe. Ever notice how every time we do a run of shows in a new town, Nightwing's fighting crime in that city at the same time?"
"Weird. Maybe he's a fan."
"Seems like it started right when Dick Grayson joined up."
"Maybe it's not the circus he's a fan of..."

[icon_uk]

I liked the notion in this story, that at least some of the circus folk might not be as clueless about Robin as they make out.

[rordulum]

Yeah.

Not keen on a 'Dick joins the traveling circus' storyline. Smacks of him being shoved to the periphery even more now Bruce is back. First, it was "Dick's still in Gotham", now he's "based out of Gotham". What's the bet that, after the first few issues, he only ever appears in Gotham when backing up Bruce.

Still, this is probably the only DC book I'm going to be picking up after the reboot, so I guess I'll persevere.

[twospirit.blogspot.com]

Just throwing in my two cents here...I don't often buy comics anymore, but I bought all the Batman and Robin comics by Morrison, not because I felt like they were the best quality (I dislike Professor Pyg, and Dr. Hurt as villians...but that's a different rant), but because I wanted Dick as Batman and Damien as Robin. I liked the flip side; the joking, freewheeling Batman and the stoic, determined Robin. I liked that Damien was a prat who only Dick could have enough optimism to even attempt to reform. In short, it didn't feel like he was in Bruce's role...it felt like he had graduated to Batman.
I thought they might actually keep him as Batman when Bruce announced Batman, Inc. I thought perhaps they were taking a step in a direction that would leave different compelling characters - Bruce as the ultimate detective running a global network of crime fighters. Bruce grows as a character (no longer a shadowy punching machine), Dick continues to grow as Batman (responsibility for the Batman mythos and Gotham), Damien gets a little character growth, Tim stays Red Robin and finds his own path.
In some ways, Dick being Nightwing will always stem from the teenage breakaway that he had with Bruce - the falling out. His assumption of the Batman mantle is becoming a man and putting that behind him. Bruce's assumption of the CEO/man behind the machine is his practical side coming out, the side that has matured and realized punching the Joker isn't going to keep Gotham, or the world, as safe as someone who can orchestrate and deal with society on the level, rather than in the shadows.
I can't say I'm surprised, but I feel it's a huge misstep...the same way retconning Dick into being Robin after he was Nightwing would be a misstep. Just my $0.02

[insectposse]

Yes to all of that. Oh well, I guess if they screw with things too much and I lose interest, I won't have to keep buying new Batman trades.

[rordulum]

I agree with all of that.

The only problem is, Dick never got to be treated as Batman by writers and editors. He was always seen as a stand in, hence Batman barely appearing in Blackest Night, not really turning up in many other books. Bruce Wayne would have been all over Blackest Night, if he's been around.

And then, as soon as Bruce was back, Dick was shuffled even further to the periphery. I always point out Generation Lost as the perfect example of it. Dick appeared in several issues, helping out Power Girl, Booster Gold and pals. Then Bruce appears, explains everything to Dick and sends him off to do something or other. Dick doesn't appear again, and Bruce is there at the climax.

So it wasn't workable to keep Dick as Batman, thanks to the fact that the writers wouldn't allow him to BE Batman, outside of the core books.

Anyway, I was picking up Detective, Batman, Batman & Robin, Streets of Gotham and JLA because Dick was Batman. I was also picking up Batgirl, Red Robin and Power Girl.

Of the DCnU launches, the only one I'm sure to pick up is Nightwing. Possibly Batgirl, depending on what the premise is, but after Cass and Steph, I'm not particularly interested in seeing Babs back in the costume.

After reading Dick Grayson as Batman, I'm honestly not even remotely interested in Bruce Wayne anymore.

[freddylloyd]

A possible benefit of Dick spending more time with the traveling circus might be him connecting more often with heroes outside of Gotham—particularly heroes from the Titans and Outsiders whose status is now unclear.