Nightwing #9

[superfangirl1]

Nightwing is up against his great grandfather William. We get a back story flashback of his great grandfather life and how Dick family lineage connected to The Court Of Owls.



Destitute and without hope, he is recruited into the Court Of Owls and is allowed to bestow vengeance on Gotham.

Comments

[freezer]

I suppose if you've been reading Nightwing, this makes sense. For someone like me, who hasn't, it's panel upon panel of "Whut?"

[xammax]

Really? You have been missing out on the whole of the Court of Owls? My god do you know the awesome being missed?

[turtlefu]

This is truly worse than Morrison's terrible "Wayne Lineage of Batmen" conspiracy.

Since when was Dick connected to Gotham as a whole? Isn't the whole pint of Haley's that it was a traveling circus, and thus the Graysons were not actually from Gotham?

And now we add all this conspiracy with ancestors and family lineage and bullshit.

[darth_cloudo]

I agree. It feels a bit...I'm not really sure of the word I'm looking for, but I'm going to go with "heavy-handed". It seems kind of forced and contradicotry to both Dick's origin and the basis of his character. Reminds me of the time that Dick found out that Wayne Manor was built to be shaped like a bat.

[thefiretonight]

I see the love of redheads runs in the family.

[ensiform]

Apostrophe in Talon's in the last panel makes my head hurt

[darth_cloudo]

Oooow, I cringed. "Its" and "it's" is another one that seems to slip past the proofreading stage pretty often.

[althechi]

I was just going to mention that. Ugh. =P

[blackruzsa]

My god, yes.

[featheredserpent]

Good, good! Let your hate flow! Feel the power of the Dark Side!

[gerardotejada]

I miss Batman Dick, It was so good. I liked how there was Batman Dick and Batman inc. and then Dick went in Batman Inc.

[glprime]

"I miss Batman Dick, It was so good. "

*SNERK*

/is 12

[mommy]

I would like this story better if it wasn't tied to Gotham. I love the idea that there's more to the Graysons, but this takes away from the whole "traveling circus" gig. Why not make their main city be Coast City, or Keystone, or even a real place like Atlanta?

[junipepper]

Seriously? The GRAY SON of Gotham? *eyeroll*

[icon_uk]

Last time I saw that used as a concept was in a 1960's Batman cartoon where the Riddler uses it in a threat against Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.

[icon_uk]

Though this is VERY pretty and I like Dick being shown to be competent in the face of such opposition, I restate my opinion that having Dick's roots be so firmly tied to Gotham removes an important aspect of the character (And you know I normally like my Dick Grayson firmly tied)

[junipepper]

... I think we all know that about you, yes. :-)

[md84]

I dunno. The only ones who really seem to be taking Dick's "roots" and "destiny" in Gotham seriously are the Court. To Batman and family, the Court is just another bunch of lunatics in Gotham that needs to be stopped. Yeah they have history in Gotham, but all that really matters to the heroes is that bad guys are threatening good people, which is nothing new.

And destiny and lineage haven't shaped Dick Grayson at all. Bruce inadvertantly saved him from the Court and he grew to be his own person, albeit one influenced by Batman.

[jlbarnett]

just because the characters aren't taking it seriously doesn't mean it's not written seriously.

Writers seemed to have abandoned, for the most part, the pre-ordained by a higher power for some role or another story. They're replaced it with secret plotting that always goes perfectly until the hero intervenes, which adds up to about the same thing. I'd rather have the higher power idea

[icon_uk]

This is true, but it still alters Dick's backstory. Why tie his history to Gotham City at all? He's never needed such a link in his 60+ years as a character, in fact his LACK of connection to Gotham makes for an interesting contrast to the Gotham-centric Bruce.

Ramming home that his family comes from Gotham seems... ultimately irrelevant, and yet it's being repeated ad nauseam here as important, and based on solicits, looks like it's going to play into his future too.

[damar148]

The look the woman has on the second panel, it looks more like she suddenly remembered she forgot to turn off the gas than shock.

[terrykun]

All I can take away from this is "Yup. Because marrying your cousin is way less squicky than a circus performer."

[lascoden]

Second-cousin. That's the key.

[bewareofgeek]

I'm past the level of caring about these bloody Owls.

I'm just waiting for the inevitable retcons that put the Court behind the shooting of Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd's stealing Batman's hubcaps, Tim Drake's original hairstyle, Damien's conception, and Alfred's hair loss.

[coldfiredragon]

If you read the back-up story in Detective Comics the loss of Alfred's hair may very well be caused by the Court!

[kraesil]

BAH.

Doesn't deserve any harping.

[pyrrhocorax]

What a charming owl statue!