The Joker meets Nightwing

[lego_joker]

Out of the three Dixon/Beatty Year One storylines, I think that I might like Nightwing: Year One best.

Now, general consensus is that this is the least liked of the three - but more often than not, those complaints tend to be about elements that I can't really bring myself to care about (the Teen Titans, Kory vs. Babs, Jason, etc.). Plus, there's the art - in my mind, Scott McDaniel is the Nightwing artist, and though the loss of his usual Nightwing inker Karl Story is regrettable, I still consider it leaps and bounds over the art of the other two.

(That's not to say I hated the art on the other two - but often, it struck me as a poor man's Bruce Timm or Darwyn Cooke. Still, there's a really nice scene from Batgirl: Year One that I need to post here sometime, that really shows off the benefits of minimalism.)

Chapter four, in particular, is probably my favorite. Dick's back in Gotham, going out and about and getting in the faces of every lowlife he can find - gotta spread the new Nightwing identity somehow. Throw in a date with Babs-as-Batgirl, plus a slew of appearances from villains that Dixon always writes beautifully (in other words, Two-Face and Freeze are nowhere in sight), and you've got one gem of an issue.

Sadly, since this issue is so popular here on scans_daily, I will not be able to post the awesomesauce Penguin sequence. It's somewhere on the Internet, though - you'll have to find it yourself. Instead, let's skip forward to Arkham Asylum, where a certain green-haired clown is about to join in on the fun.


Note: Two and three-quarters pages from Nightwing v1 #104.







Oh, Eddie. To think that there was once a time when you had the balls to taunt the Joker...

That said, some of you probably find it grating that it's yet another Babs-as-Batgirl appearance that seems bent on foreshadowing The Killing Joke. All I can say is: at least it's more subtle than the end of Batgirl: Year One.

Slightly more disturbing, IMO, is the fact that Dick is going out of his way to torment criminals that are still incarcerated. Most of this story was spent on kicking around hoods who were out and about - but Joker, for the time being at least, is utterly helpless. Yes, I know that the argument is he's the Joker, but it seems kind of petty of Dick (come to think of it: if he really is just doing this to spread Nightwing's name around town, does that mean he's banking on Joker to escape again?).

As for the Joker himself... it's not the best portrayal under Dixon's pen, but I'd take it over Morrison's (and maybe even Dini's) any day. In any case, it's certainly not Dixon's weakest. We'll be seeing that (hopefully) sometime next week, when I finally trot out the first part in my series of reviews for Every Chuck Dixon Joker story. Ever. Whoops! Spoiler warning. Nothing to see here. Move along, move along... *whistles*

On a completely different note: anyone wanna help me write a parody of "We Didn't Start the Fire", chronicling the history of superhero comics? Anyone?

Comments

[lucean]

I was always surprised by Dixon's Joker in this story, as he usually wrote him to be a much more threatening presence than that.

I am also very much looking forward to your series on Dixon's Joker stories, although that will be quite a feat as there are so many of them. I've always felt that Dixon hasn't been given enough credit for the current incarnation of Joker, as he was one of the main writers who managed to add a very deep psychological level to the character, making him someone who can destroy people from the inside.

I am perhaps saddest as one of my favorite Joker stories from Dixon, the Aftershock one, is also one of his last ones, so it will take time before you get there.

[kurenai_tenka]

Hahaha, 'riddle yourself'. xD That took me a few seconds.

[zabilac]

Every time I look at that outfit, I think "Disco Fever"! XD

[alan_smithee]

In the new 52 - why is Nightwing called Nightwing?

[icon_uk]

So far? No idea, since the only interaction with non-Bat heroes has been one scene in the JLA recruitment drive. We have no real idea how Dick is perceived as a hero by Superman, or any of the other heroes in the DCU. Since he was only Robin for a year, and never led the Teen Titans, we still have no sense of his position as a hero in the DCnU

[superfangirl1]

That is a very good question and hope for a explanation in Nightwing's comic one day.

[icon_uk]

Ignoring the Titans when doing a Dick Grayson transition to Nightwing story misses the whole point to me. They are a major part of the reason he did outgrow the role of Robin and become his own man.

Also, the "date" with Babs is a wretchedly bad idea, as he was in a committed, long term and HAPPY relationship with Kory. Him getting lovey dovey with Batgirl screams someone just not getting the concept.

[lego_joker]

Eh. I've always been a "Yay for Gotham, rest of the DCU can go hang" kind of guy. Sue me.

I guess it works well from my perspective, since I don't have any prior Titans knowledge to work off of/build expectations from.

But then again, Dixon and/or Beatty squeezes in a reference to Kory somewhere in this issue, so maybe it is that crass and insulting...

That said, would you recommend the original Wolfman/Perez Titans? The only part of that era I ever read was the JMS-penned issue guest-starring Two-Face.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Honestly, I think overlooking the Titans in regards to Nightwing is unfair to Titans as the Bat books pretty much wrote Dick off, and the Titans book developed the hell outta him.

There'd be no Nightwing with Teen Titans. But with no Teen Titans, I'm sure Dick would still be playing sidekick, not equal.

[icon_uk]

With Nightwing in particular the constant tying him down (and not in the fun way) to Gotham seriously limits the character). The editorial mandate which prevented just about any reference to his Titans career during his solo title was absurd, and did nothing to dispel the common myth that Nightwing was nothing more than Batman-lite.

As for the Wolfman/Perez Titans, I think it depends on what you're looking for. The New Teen Titans was very much a superheroic soap-opera with a young and sexy cast that makes 90210 look like a bunch of folks who've been slapped in the face with the ugly stick repeatedly.

There's still the usual superheroic hi-jinks, and it's very pretty, plus it's interesting to see Robin thrive in an environment unlike Gotham, but if you're Gotham-centric you might not get as much out of it.

[ozaline]

A while back I was playing a King of the Hill match on Injustice and two people were chatting over voice chat debating if Nightwing even was a Titan or not... Then the debate became if he was the same character as "Robin"... with one person steadfastly believing they were separate characters... I was even treated to a semi-literate reading of the Wikipedia page "It says here 'In DC's continanty... contingency... cont.. man that's not a real word, Nightwing is a Kandorian superhero who inspired Dick Grayson;' SEE! It says here he INSPIRED him so they can't be the same character."

Really this has nothing to do with the conversation at hand, but I was just reminded of the story.

[icon_uk]

Oooh, painful...

[icon_uk]

I think my other issue here is that the visit to the Joker is absolutely pointless to the story. The Joker was not a part of this version of Dick's transition from Robin to Nightwing, in fact no villain was. So going to visit the Joker just to taunt him highlights that the Joker has gotten under Dick's skin personally in some way which is irrelevant to this story.

It also seems to be both a very juvenile thing to do (When Nightwing should be about the maturing of Dick Grayson) and dangerous (provoking the Joker never helps, and just gives him validation)

[lego_joker]

Personally, I think that this part has less to do with Dick, and more to do with the fact that Dixon and Beatty couldn't resist squeezing in yet another TKJ foreshadowing.

Also, Dixon had earlier mentioned (in one of the Last Laugh tie-ins) through Dick that his take on the Joker went through Morrison-like "phases" in which he shifted from Silver Age/Adam West-esque villain to straight-up murderous asshole. If you want to be charitable, you can say that Dick's current memories of Joker are strictly from the former "phase".

So - I'm just curious here - have you any thoughts on how Dixon generally portrays the Riddler? He's probably my favorite Eddie writer of all time.

[icon_uk]

TKJ foreshadowing would have been Batgirl going to see the Joker, Dick isn't even in TKJ.

I do know the scene you're thinking of, for some reason :)

I don't think I have much in the way of memories of Dixon's take on the Riddler.

[lego_joker]

I dunno - I think it qualifies as a roundabout reference, at least. Sort of in a dramatic-irony "she tried to stay away from Joker, but it didn't do her any good OOOOOO~" kind of way.

And Barbara's "pray they never get out" line seems a bit too similar to Jim Gordon's lines in TKJ (right before Joker comes in and shoots Barbara) for me to brush off as a simple coincidence.