One final comment on Nightwing #30 - What COULD have been

[icon_uk]

As may, or may not, be known, the planned issue of Nightwing #30 by Kyle Higgins and with guest art by Meghan Hetrick was set aside to make way for the King and Seeley Nightwing #30 that came out last week, and despite having Bruce and Dick half naked for much of the time... did not exactly set the fanbase aglow with positivity.

Meghan has now posted all the approved, though unlettered, art pages, and has put them up for sale, so we can see what the original issue would have looked like



And it would have looked bloody spectacular!

As this is a "never to be published" issue, and all the art is available at the link at the end of the post, I'm sticking to the 1/3 rule, rather than the four page rule...

It's a series of scenes as various important people in Dick's life deal with his "death" (Yes, the "everyone thinks Dick is dead" is still intact, but at least we see a lot more genuine emotion about it),

There are interviews with people he helped, and people come together to talk about him and the impact he had on their lives.

Amongst those are Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock... who offer a special tribute to Gotham's lost son...



Check out the blue line art, for one night at least, Gotham doesn't have a Bat-signal, it has a Nightwing-signal

There is an open casket funeral (That's something that's a hell of a lot more of a big deal in the US than the UK, I've been to quite a few funerals in my time, but never even one open-casket one) where Dick is in costume, but unmasked, as seems apt.

Barbara (at a guess) talks about the first time she met Dick...



Jason and the Outlaws pay their respects, and it's finally acknowledged that Dick still knew Roy in the New 52...




And that Starfire and Dick Grayson were an item at one point.



We also get confirmation that Tim was still a Dick Grayson fan pre-his own Robin-hood, though looking at the pages, it appears that he went to the circus, got his autograph and then saw that the Grayson's had been killed through a TV news report later, so it might not have been the actual night of the deaths as it was pre New-52.



And finally, we have the burial, where the JLA show up to pay their respects.



All the pages were for sale at Wednesday's Heroes, (though there's only one left now) but the whole thing can be seen at Bleeing Cool, and I'd encourage you to go take a look, because as a culmination of Higgins run, which had it's problems, but had decent moments too, it works so much better than the angst-fest we got.

Comments

[drtechnobabel]

While I do think all the tribute and reminiscing scenes are heartwarming and better than what we actually got, I can't help but wonder just how Batman would have managed to fake an open-casket funeral for Dick without someone (and by someone I of course mean Superman) figuring out that he wasn't really dead.

[icon_uk]

If you look at the other pages, you'll see there's a duplicate corpse. Possibly Bruce called in a favour from CADMUS, grew his own, or used a John Doe, and explained any discrepancies as being due to the enbalming process.

[drtechnobabel]

Oh, you're right. Well, now I'm embarrassed that I jumped the gun with the criticism before actually looking at the link you graciously provided (And just because I've had this problem before, I'll state for the record that I'm not being sarcastic here).

Now that I have looked at them though, I have to ask: in the panels where there seems to be an argument between Batman and Tim, does anyone else get the feeling that the reason they're arguing is because he figured out the body was a fake? I say this mostly because the flashback revealing the deception is placed smack-dab in the middle if the argument. Can't say for sure though, because without any narration or dialogue present, they could technically be arguing about anything and we'd never know the difference.

[crimsonmoonmist]

It certainly wouldn't be out of character considering Tim's whole shtick used to be his keen deductive skills. He's more of an all-rounder in the Nu52 from what I've seen,
but it wouldn't be surprising if some writers would continue to have an affinity for emphasizing that aspect of his character.

[darkknightjrk]

I thought the stuff with Roy and Starfire was already well established in Red Hood & The Outlaws?

Oh well, the pages look amazing, but I didn't really hate what we got, so...yeah. I'd be interested in what comes after either way.

[icon_uk]

We knew that Dick and Starfire had met, and may have been lovers, but it was left rather vague (IIRC when she first met Jason, he found one of Dick's old costumes in her spaceship and she confirmed they'd been close)

Roy meeting Dick may have been confirmed in RH&TO but it's never been mentioned in Nightwing, so it was news to me! :)

[darkknightjrk]

In the same scene you're talking about we see Arsenal with Dick and Starfire fighting some sort of enemy.

[jaybee3]

So wait I'm confused did Starfire know Roy before RH&TO takes place (it seems he didn't) or did Dick know both separately (along with Jason) and had deep relationships with all three that are apparently not worthy enough to be mentioned in any conversation?

I loathe the DCnU timelines but it would have worked before if they hadn't tried to be coy or wink-wink at at previous friendships prior to the reboot (and of course Vic didn't know Dick well at all anymore).

[darkknightjrk]

My way around that is that Roy knew of her, but didn't really KNOW her. She was probably inseparable from Dick (insert pun here) and probably didn't really interact much until Jason inadvertently brought the two together.

[darth_cloudo]

This art is really, really nice! Dick's and Bruce's interaction seems a lot more believable. Kind of sad this won't be printed, it looks pretty refreshing, despite all the issues with keeping Dick's not-death a secret.

[firstmoonie]

Is it so weird that my heart aches because his closest friends, Wally and Donna are not present?

And also can we count this as canon?

[icon_uk]

This is scans_daily, not the real world, so it's as canon as we want it to be! :)

[kurenai_tenka]

Oh gosh, a love so much of this.

Also looking at the rest of the scans: damn, Barbara hits hard. :| Would love the context, though I doubt we'll ever get it.

Typically that the only time we get nice character moments/old canon is in unpublished material.

[whitesycamore]

On an emotional level I feel like I know *exactly* what's happening on every single page, even if there is no dialogue.

I think this might be what is known as "effective storytelling." It's been so long since I've seen some in a comic book.

[icon_uk]

Indeed, in the Gordon and Bullock scene I find myself wondering if Dick's time as a cop in Bludhaven is still in continuity, because that being a topic of conversation between those two would be fascinating.

[whitesycamore]

I forgot about that. That definitely made a lot more sense than Dick Grayson: Museum Curator.

[icon_uk]

I opted to buy a page of the art, and the one I picked is the one of the Nightwing-Signal... Out of all the pages I could afford (So the JLA graveside scene was right out) I just loved the notion of Gordon and Bullock paying tribute to a local hero, and possibly a fellow cop. I have lots of pretty pictures of Dick Grayson already (Though that Dick/Kory page was bloody tempting) but that image right there, powerful stuff.

[thequipkid]

I checked out the rest of the scans and I remain just absolutely overwhelmed by feelings of bitterness. I think this is a million times more poignant + emotional then the bloody beatdown we actually got.

I really want to know why they didn't go with her pages for the finished work because this would have been a really good issue (and come on, when you can figure out the story without needing lettering, the artist is definitely good at storytelling and nuances in art).

I'm never going to be over this.

[sindra]

Who....who thought what was actually published....was better than THIS?! What bloody, classless moron.....

Oh...wait....Nu52 DC. Right.

Carry on. -_-

[q99]

Too much depth and personal connections?

[q99]

-and despite having Bruce and Dick half naked for much of the time... did not exactly set the fanbase aglow with positivity.-

Not even with the Bold New DirectionTM?

[shadowpsykie]

... oh god... this would have been AMAZING! hell it even had bonding between Jason and Tim! and... oh god... the batfamily is going to HATE bruce after this...

[zapbiffpow]

BONDING BETWEEN JASON AND TIM

Exactly. I would have wanted to see more of this.

[janegray]

Seriously. I want to know what Jason and Tim said to each other!

[icon_uk]

Well, we know that New52 Jason and Tim are on fairly decent terms, more than Jason and Dick that's for sure.

[zapbiffpow]

Has anyone in tumblr tried scripting these pages? They should make it a competition, or something.

[icon_uk]

There's an idea, you could always try it yourself! :)

[whitesycamore]

The Barbara/Jason interaction is perfect. And I'm ashamed to admit it, but her handprint on Jason's face is just plain hot.

Hey, you have your thing, I have mine. >_>

[icon_uk]

I do wonder what he might have said to her to get that rapid a reaction! :)

Something about "Live fast, die young leave a good looking corpse"

or "When he said he couldn't live without you, I didn't think he meant it THAT literally"

or, and this is my personal choice, "If you're still interested in dating a former Robin, I'm free on Thursday"

[whitesycamore]

"When he said he couldn't live without you, I didn't think he meant it THAT literally"

Full on Jeremy Kyle audience noise of OUTRAGE.

[icon_uk]

So we have a winner then? :)

[whitesycamore]

I didn't imagine him saying anything, actually, and I think I prefer it that way. I think that cocky look on his face would be enough.

My favourite part is probably the little hand-wring of regret as she stares after him. I don't know if she feels bad because she lost her cool at Dick's funeral, or because she just remembered the time they had chilli dogs, or because she's thinking that now there's yet another dead Robin.

One of the main problems with comic book dialogue is that there's too much of it, and it's too expository. These pages really demonstrate the value in restraint.

[icon_uk]

Good point, him being silent works, especially if she's demanding to know why he's there since he pretty much despised what Dick stood for.

Wasn't sure about the hand wring of regret, I saw that as being more massaging her hand after the sudden hard slap, which had a LOT of energy thrown into it.

[rdfox]

...am I a bad person for being more happy about Kory wearing her *actual* costume (i.e., the George Perez-designed one from 1980) than anything else? (And, for that matter, being cynical that THAT is a large part of what got it canned--she was wearing more than pasties and a thong?)

[icon_uk]

Not at all, I did notice that it was a hybrid of the two designs, with the Perez-era torso straps, and the New52 epaulette/halter type thingie.

[star_of_airdrie]

Just like putting the Disco!wing costume into flashback canon in the nu52, I guess we (almost) got to have Starwire's NTT costume.

Oh I wish I saw these pages before yesterday. They were so well priced. *sigh*