Dick Gives up the pixie boots V 2.1

[icon_uk]

And for Father's Day, we're back with some father son issues, unfortunately this is perhaps the most "Oh good grief" of the iterations of this story that you'll see..


For some reason Chuck Dixon decided to re-do Dick's Robin to Nightwing transition, but clearly felt that the last time, Bruce hadn't been enough of an utter shit to Dick. Boy was THAT going to change...



We start with Batman tracking Clayface, who has kidnapped a baby... he's having a tough go of it because he's working solo. Robin appears (Wearing a winter version of his costume, with long sleeves and leggings) and manages to freeze Clayface solid.

Robbie apparently has some explaining to do... (The narration is Dick writing a letter to Bruce in the present)





And this is where the problem with the rejigged timeline arises. By removing Dick's college career, it removes his first period of growing away from Bruce, of becoming a solo hero in his own right as Robin, which coupled with his time as leader of the Titans, meant that Robin hadn't really been Batman's partner in a long time. Always a welcome guest in Gotham anytime he was free (or, ironically, being held captive, either worked as a plot requirement), but not a Gotham hero any more.

By the time this story is happening Bruce shouldn't expect Dick to be at his beck and call, and certainly not that he should sideline his own life to help out like this, but this is the Dixon-Bat, whose selfishness with his own family was practically his primary character trait.

Anyway, back at the narrative, Clafface takes advantage of the manly bickering to make his escape, but Robin pursues him and, by himself, stops him before he can hurt the child. If Dick could do that, why couldn't Bruce I wonder?). It turns out that this was actually a custody case, Matt Hagen was the child's father and he would never have harmed his own child. This doesn't help matters. Dick feels it would have been helpful to know this, Bruce feels that he would have told him if he'd been there on time (This Batman has the emotional development of a 10 year old, Batman should be grim faced, not pouting)

They head back to the Batcave, where Alfred welcomes Dick home, and tells him that there is a surprise waiting for him, something Alfred made which he feels Dick has earned. But Bruce doesn't want Alfred in the Cave and sends him out to make refreshments, and present day Dick now realises why.



Love the little flashback as he looks in the mirror, and yet another attempt to justify the shorts.

And note, in passing, that the Neal Adams adult Robin suit makes another cameo appearance.







Bruce is past "dickish" and is really into the realms of "unforgivable prick" here. At least in the 2.0 iteration he was doing it out of concern for Dick's safety. Irrational, unfair concern, but concern nevertheless.

Again, Robin is an identity that Dick created, he has absolutely no right to take it way from him, and in a way that demeans everything that Dick has achieved with his life. Bruce's "If you're not working for me, you're not working for anyone" approach is the action of a spoiled child, not a parent who should be proud of his child's achievements.

I enclose a couple of pages from Nightwing 102, where Dick goes to talk to someone he feels knows Bruce almost as well as he does; Uncle Clark (He doesn't call him that, but I like to think he at least thought of him that way when he was younger)

He doesn't actually wear the costume in the issue (He follows Bruce's orders and never wears the Robin costume again), but a cover with Robin in freefall wrestling with a time bomb is pretty cool.



After helping defuse a suicide bomber situation in Metropolis (Dick uses a hoodie to conceal his identity as the bounding acrobat, which is pretty impressive), he shares his problems with Superman...





Now THIS scene I love, it brings the "Nightwing is a name inspired by Superman" back to the forefront, it highlights that Dick still has a bit of a case of hero worship of Superman, and the answer "Does it matter" highlights without being overblown that if Dick is going to be a hero, then he has to do it for himself, not for other people.

There's one more iteration of this story to show you, but that'll be later.
 

Comments

[lego_joker]

*Cue knee-jerk defense of Dixon*

Okay... I admit that in this story (and in most of Dixon's post-NML Batman stories) Bruce really is a gigantic ass. I would dispute, though, that Dixon always wrote him like this - the bulk of his 90s work had Bruce act largely at-ease with the rest of the Bat-family, and even crack jokes once in a while.

In addition, I think that Dixon and Beatty, at least in this story, were well-aware that their take on Bruce was being a gigantic prick. After all, Alfred pretty much spends the entire story calling Bruce out on his assholery, especially later on with Jason ("And what's this? A remote-control detonator to dismiss Master Jason from afar when HE fails to live up to your impossible standards?").

On a lighter note, I think that this is the only time that Dixon ever wrote any of the Clayfaces. With the hundreds upon hundreds of Batman stories the guy's written, that's pretty impressive, in a weird kind of way.

(Making this Clayface be Matt Hagen probably steps on a few continuity toes, but I don't really care enough about the Clayfaces to pursue it further. I will say, though, that this take on Hagen is probably the most interesting one in the mainstream DCU - the idea of him having a family life, however messed-up, does push him beyond just "greedy asshole with powers".)

[icon_uk]

I'd say pre NML too. The entirety of Knightfall is basically down to Bruce being an asshole control freak, who won't do the sensible thing and ask for help from ANYONE (Not even Nightwing) preferring that a novice Robin and a fairly unstable Jean-Paul Vallley be left to deal with the fall out of his refusal to let any other hero into HIS city.

[lego_joker]

Did Bruce ever give that as his reason during Knightfall? I don't recall him - or anyone else, for that matter - even MENTIONING other heroes during the big Arkham breakout, and the subsequent aftermath. Which, really, is par for the course where any superhero event is concerned - heck, pre-Crisis, Bruce was handling a breakout twice this size (literally, since there were TWO supervillain jails involved) with no one except pre-Crisis Jason and Catwoman as backup.

I think that also, at this point, most of the DCU's other heroes were recovering from the big fight with Doomsday they had a while back.

Also, wasn't Nightwing out handling some case of his own during the whole thing? I could've sworn they squeezed in an offhand remark about that at some point...

[icon_uk]

I don't think he needs to give those reasons, it's plain from the story; Bruce is working himself to death, is exhausted, is making bad judgement calls and is ignoring Tim and Alfred's concern and burning himself out because... well, the story doesn't make it clear, but it seems clear his monomania is in charge.

The previous examples you mention, which I assume are 1) the Killer Croc intro story (Where Bruce had Dick, Selina, Babs and Talia all assisting him) and 2) The time Ra's released all the villains in Batman #400, (when he had Jason helping him there and was in peak form), are different scenarios.

At the end of Prodigal there's a discussion between Bruce and Dick about why he selected Jean-Paul rather than Dick, but it comes over as a sweet moment, but terribly contrived, especially when one considers the risk he was also exposing Tim to.

[ozaline]

I think that's more the "Superman stays out of Gotham" trope... it was a Batman story that was concerned only with Batman characters not for any in-universe reason, but because it was meant to explore his mythos only.

Same reason why one time Batman went to go save a kid from land mines and failed... Superman could have gone and found the kid in 30 seconds let alone the time it took Batman to fly there by jet. But it was a Batman story not a DCU story.

[alan_smithee]

A lot of stories from that era are about Bruce being an asshole control freak, Murderer is the same (although that is especially odd as Bruce buys a gun because a 8ft tall Batman tells him to...)

[lego_joker]

Erm... from which era? Murderer was strictly post-NML.

I remember the 8ft tall Batman thing! It was really, really weird, and I think it was Devin Grayson's (or an editor's) awkward attempt to tie the thing into Darwyn Cooke's Batman: Ego... for whatever reason.

[bradygirl_12]

Yeah, I much prefer Bruce acting like an idiot out of irrational concern. This Bruce is just a childish dick.

I do like the Clark-Dick connection for his new name. It seems fitting that Dick, who is connected to just about everybody in the DCU (pre-Reboot, of course), has been inspired by its two greatest heroes, Batman and Superman. :)

[onceaskrull]

Reading Nightwing YO was my first introduction to Dixon, and I was not impressed. And since I find Dixon's politics deplorable, I have never felt compelled to read another Dixon-scripted comic, and outside of what I see posted on SD, I never will.

[lego_joker]

I do hope you'll stick around for my upcoming series on Dixon's Joker stories, then. Dixon doesn't knock it out of the park with every character, and his plots do get a bit formulaic, but there are a certain slew of villains he almost always writes beautifully - with Joker leading the pack.

[ozaline]

He makes a pretty decent GI Joe writer, no Larry Hama but not bad.

[starwolf_oakley]

Batman is a jerk, but his actions here mirror what happened AFTER Jason died. Jason died because he didn't listen to Batman (according to Batman); therefore, everyone has to listen to Batman or they are fired.

Here's a link to the "original" take on that scene with Superman, where he takes Dick all the way to the Fortress of Solitude:
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4006301.html

[blunderbuss]

Man, before the reboot I wished more than anything that Batman would learn the truth of how Jason died, just to prove him wrong about assuming that Jason disobeyed orders. Too late now I guess.

[icon_uk]

Except Jason didn't die because of "not following orders" , and I really don't understand where that comes from., or why Bruce would ever think that was the case.

[starwolf_oakley]

It seems to be one of those things that just happened over time, and became more prevalent when Cassandra and Stephanie entered the picture.

Nightwing #99, Gotham Knights #44, and Detective Comics #790 have been listed as examples of "Jason just didn't listen."

[benuben]

Man, when got to that panel, where Dick is leaving and Bruce comes in and says "Dick" I was expecting that cliche but touching moment, where Dick won't listen to Bruce, as he tries his best to explain himself and just leaves with last panel being Bruce standing ther, sad and regretful... And then the "Leave the new uniform" came. Jesus Christ, I would swear this was a parody. The only way Bruce could be more of a cartoonish dickhead would be, if he gave him a wedgie as he was leaving.

And this is just small nitpick, but was Alfred wearing a wig some sort of a gag, or the artist just didn't do any research?

[icon_uk]

I think it's intended to make you think more time had passed, Dixon was the first to suggest that Dick was as old 26, and that this story is set ten years before the present.

Either that or dealing with Jason REALLY aged Alfred. ;)

[benuben]

I know what was the point, but it just seems unnecessary continuity screw up. Alfred was already bald in Year One. Was he just deliberatly cutting his hair like that?

Now that I think about it, is it just me, or is Alfred kinda out of character here? He's really just gonna awkwardly mind his own business and not call out Bruce on his bullshit?

[gamerguy]

All that diskishness as canon because they decided to fridge Robin in the 70's, since the 'new adult' Batman didn't need a kid partner with him. It was years before we got to see any significant regular Robin appearances, until Batman Family and New Teen Titans started up.

[icon_uk]

Well, he had a regular backup strip in Detective too, and it was less that he was "Exiled from the cave and forbidden from being Robin" so much as "went to colllege", which is significantly less dickish than this.