More from Nightwing #0

[icon_uk]

As I posted a preview page, I'm limited to three pages, so I picked three which highlight different aspects of the story.



First off, a nicely dynamic little scene which explains what Dick did for fun at the circus between shows, and why he was at the Police station as mentioned in the preview.



(Raymond is Dick's best friend who would grow up to be Saiko the assassin) It's because Raymond didn't realise that the guard was off balance and thus liable to fall into the path of an oncoming train (Which Dick managed to pull him out from in front of) that they were taken down to the station.

I won't dwell on the murder of his parents, that's pretty much as we know it. On the other hand things are very different. Dick doesn't come and live at the Manor. He remains a ward of the state, but at the Wayne Care Centre (I assume it's a children's home. Bruce has no plans to make him a partner, but Dick keeps sneaking out of the center at night (in jeans and a hoodie, no costume) to comb the streets, looking for Zucco. He's a more than able street fighter, does a lot of detective work to track down leads and has physical agility like... well, like Dick Grayson. There are times when he gets in over his head, and on those occasions, Batman comes to his rescue.

Batman isn't aware of it, but Dick more or less instantly deduces that Bruce is Batman, since he has an incredible gift for reading people through body language, he spots the same micro-expressions in Batman's face that he did on Bruce's the night they first met and puts two and two together. He also researches Bruce's past and realises they have something in common.

Ultimately, since he's going to be getting into trouble anyway, Bruce tries to help him by giving him and outlet, a job in the Batcave running systems (Ironically, sort of a proto-Oracle) and training him in more combat skills, the cover is that Bruce gives the poor lad a part time job at the Manor. Alfred is not happy about this, but given Dick's past behaviour knows that Bruce has a point, if he doesn't go out with batman, he'll go out on his own and who knows how THAT might end up.

But Dick realises something as the months of training pass, he's still motivated by the loss of his parents and wanting to stop anything like that happening to someone else, but he's not completely obsessed by it... and this bothers him. Leading to this nice little scene...



And it's some time later, when Bruce is tracking down the assassin known as Lady Shiva, who has a contract in Gotham, that Dick makes his choice. Bruce is hit by one of her poisoned weapons and that means it's time to prove that...



"....I'm more of a Robin!"

Shiva makes short work of him, though his skills are very impressive (even she admits that), but it's enough to distract her from Batman and for her to make her escape, leaving them both alive (She offers to train Robin when he's ready to leave Batman's shadow... presumably leading up to her appearance next month in #13)

It ends on a note I don't much like, that Dick knows from the outset that "Robin" would not be a permanent role for him. I don't see Dick viewing it in that way at all. This is his future, the fact he's already planning beyond that doesn't work for me.

As you might imagine I mourn the loss of the classic Robin costume from continuity, but this isn't a complete disaster. Like so many DCnU outifts, the new Robin costume is overdesigned and fussy, a few fewer lines on the torso would improve it. There's nothing wrong with a bold, simple(r) costume (especially for a kid character), this is just... complicated.

Still this, and some elements that are missing (Dick not being in Bruce's care is bad... just BAD for the character interaction) didn't have me banging my head against the wall, and the entire thing not mentioning the bloody Court of Owls or Dick being a descendent of a Gothamite was a welcome respite.

I will post a proper tribute to the old Robin outfit at a later date I think

Comments

[silverhammerman]

Well the costume isn't great, I get why they'd stay away from the classic design, but I think borrowing Tim's costume would have worked fine here. I still don't like the age change though, and I totally agree that making him not Bruce's ward is an infuriating idea. It's kind of the core of the relationship, that's they're father/son (though I've always figured that Bruce and Dick would bee more like brothers) and a totally unnecessary change. This feels like more editorial mandate too, because I can see no reason why the actual writer would do this, other than editorial wants to keep piling on how "special" Damian is for being Batman's "only son." Gah.
The writing is competent though, if weighed down by stupid editorial decisions.

[icon_uk]

I assume the lack of ward-ship might be due to not wanting to establish too strong a link between them. Bruce adopts acrobat kid, Batman gains an acrobat kid partner had long been a but of an obvious link, but old comics could handwave away such things, the modern ones seem not to want to.

[silverhammerman]

I can see the logic behind it, but I feel like it's just kind of an odd change to make, and it really goes against the central relationship. Bruce is now no closer to Dick than he is to Barbara, which really detracts from the paternal relationship.
In summation, I hate it and it sucks.

[icon_uk]

Oh agreed, though Dick is the first one to actually create such an emotional link.

I suppose it's also possible that Dick moved into the manor after the events shown here, ie once he started being Robin properly, so any injuries he might have would not be so obvious to the workers at the Care Center.

[sistermagpie]

I'm with silverhammerman. How could they not be intentionally making Damian the first son? I'd guess it might be to avoid the idea that Bruce having a ward is somehow pervy, but it's still erasing the relationship in a way that improves nothing and destroys practically everything.

What's also funny about it is that this was supposed to be about bringing back "iconic" things, and one of the few things that everyone knows about the Batverse is that Dick Grayson is Bruce Wayne's ward. To the point where the only reason a lot of people even know the word ward is because of Dick.

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah...I could take Jason or Tim being "Wards of the Wayne Estate" and in their own living spaces, but I think Dick should be at the Manor. But I can live with it, since what is established here is pretty solid overall, at least IMO.

[theflames]

Really? Way better than Circus underwear. Just because there's no circus underwear.

There could be many improvements on this costume, but it's nice.

[alan_smithee]

I think he's not wearing Tim's outfit as Jason seems to wearing that in his zero issue (from the scans I've seen here).

[anothermoviegeek]

I think your second paragraph is missing some words.

[icon_uk]

Umm.... not that I'm aware off. A couple of punctuation issues, but nothing in the way of missing text that seems to leap out at me. Can you elaborate?

[anothermoviegeek]

Your last sentence is "I don't see Dick"

[anothermoviegeek]

oops. should have clarified. second paragraph of your last section.

[icon_uk]

Yeah, that was where I got confused, but you're right there was a sentence missing, which I have now added back in, thanks!

[beyondthefringe]

Am I the only one who can't quite look away from the cute little red arrow pointing down at Dick's... aaaaanyway...

[icon_uk]

No you are definitely not, I was wondering who might be the first to mention it. Given he's 15 or 16 in this, I was not planning on dwelling on it.

[anothermoviegeek]

Which makes me wonder if your previously mentioned typo was correct ;)

[icon_uk]

[darkknightjrk]

They had to know what they were doing with that panel. And I bet they were giggling like twelve year-olds the whole time.

[icon_uk]

A fair proportion of scans_daily probably did, why shouldn't they? :)

[silverhammerman]

I feel like there are quite a few crotch-centric costumes in the DCU right now. It's weird.

[junipepper]

It's not unlike Supergirl's crotch arrow. I find this a disturbing trend, frankly.

[ablackraptor]

I have to say I quite like the new design for his Robin costume, honestly. It might be that it looks more practical than the classic green briefs look, though I admit they went a little overboard in stylizing it. Maybe simply going with a red bullet vest or something like that wold have helped.

Overall though, I rather liked this issue when I read it. The part where Dick feels bad because he no longer obsesses over his parents death was probably my favourite scene because how well it worked. Not being a real ward is kinda weird, but I just assumed he would later be adopted by him.

[wake_the_dragon]

Well, this definitely makes it offical:

Robin is definitely now an internship (except if you're Damien).

[icon_uk]

Damian is in the Remedial Robin course.

[darkknightjrk]

I thought of that in Red Hood #0 when Bruce and Alfred were slyly saying that there's a "job opening" available in their operation.

[icon_uk]

More than that, IIRC Dan Didio said it at a convention panel, when asked how there could be four Robin's in five years, "It's an internship position"

[kenn_el]

It's a Robinternship.

[freddylloyd]

"Impress me, Bat-boy."

"Do you think this R on my chest stands for FRANCE?!"

[icon_uk]

"Impress me, Bat-boy."

Better that it be an assassin saying it to taunt him that Batman saying it to him in earnest (as Morrison recently had Bruce say it to Damian).

[darkknightjrk]

as Morrison recently had Bruce say it to Damian

What? When?

[icon_uk]

Batman Inc issue, where Damian tells Bruce that he's wearing the Robin costume to impress him, and Bruce replies "Well go on then, impress me", which struck me a dreadful thing for a Batman to say to a Robin.

[darkknightjrk]

Oh god, now I wish they had done that. *_*

[starwolf_oakley]

Part of Dick's "thing" is that he isn't as obsessed as Bruce is, mainly because Zucco got caught and quickly. ("Batman Begins" used that too, IMHO)

Nothing about Clark Kent telling Dick about a Kryptonian Legend in this story, but no "hows and whys" of the Nightwing identity at all. Maybe they're saving that for the annual.

[icon_uk]

Oh yes, Dick is committed to "serving justice" rather than "avenging wrong".

[superfangirl1]

Well good bye bat panties and pixie boots. But hope the dick robin bondage stay at least.

[icon_uk]

These days it's more of a question of when would he have found the time to be tied up given how short a time he was Robin, but at least as Nightwing he's been getting some tie-up time in

[big_daddy_d]

Costume isn't bad..needs work. Looks like someone did a first sketch and decided that was it. Speaking of costumes, I really like Barbara's Batgirl costume before she was shot.

[darkknightjrk]

Totally agreed on Batgirl's first costume. Kinda reminds me of the All-Star Batgirl costume, and that was probably my favorite take on the character in years. *awaits the torches and pitchforks*

[magusfool]

Blerg. That costume is awful. That weird ribbing around the armpits is stupid. The boots are overly busy. The kneepads are... what? And no utility belt... just bright yellow belt loops. It looks like he forgot to put it on. Also, are those little yellow buckles down by his lower ribs supposed to reference the chest buckles on the classic costume? Why are they down there? The gauntlets are funny. That red arrow pointing at his crotch is atrocious.

Also... ward of the state? Recognizes Bats by his facial tics? Anybody else smelling some Dark Knight Rises? Admittedly this is much better handled than that piece of steaming garbage, but still, it seems to be a deliberate correlation to the film.

Also... Lady Shiva, why do you have a hair-whip? You are the greatest martial artist IN THE WORLD, why do you have a hair-whip with an anchor at the end? How does that make any damned sense?

[junipepper]

This is a tragedy. A travesty. Atrocious. I mean, it's not a terrible story in itself, but it takes away so many important things, and I can only think that it's all about Damien and making what's important about him be that he's the Son of Batman (no orphans need apply).

It just kills the Bruce/Dick relationship, which was so important in Dick's development into the character he was (but no longer is).

This hardly seems worth complaining about given everything else that's wrong about this, but... He put his armor together by using the green and red scraps of spare Batsuits?

[icon_uk]

The materials would be scraps, the paint job would be his own I think. (Hey if Peter parker can put the Spider-man outfit together by home-silk screening, I think Dick would be able to produce some impressive results with a fully integrated multi-disiplinary Batcave at his disposal,

[kenn_el]

My biggest disappointment (other than the age change, which had already been established) was the State facility. Bruce had a sensible reason for housing Dick at the Manor (material witness), and his dumping the kid into the 'system' (even if a decent home with his name on it) reminded me of Superman's initial treatment of Kara back in the Silver Age.

[bradygirl_12]

Dreadful. It takes away nearly everything that made the Bruce/Dick relationship one of the most complex and special in the DCU.

Thank God I stopped giving a flying fig about canon a dozen reboots ago.

[junkurosu]

Well at least Dick's fashion sense prior to fingerstripes/redwing regarding costumes is still intact.

Anyone else notice both Dick and Jason wearing red hoodies in these issues?

[thefiretonight]

I'm just hella weirded out by Shiva taking the same interest in Dick that she had in Tim. And also, the whole body language thing seems like a Cass rip off.

[junipepper]

And he still looks twelve...