Batman 416 [7 scans]

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

Pretty sure this hasn't been posted.

This is Dick and Jason's very first meeting from Batman 416. Say hello to Discowing. This is also the issue when Bruce says he took on Jason because he missed Dick, which results in Dick giving Jason his old costume (how many of these things does he have?!) in a sweet moment at the end, which I included.

Best moment imho: Dick descending on a bunch of bad guys saying My name's Nightwing! I may not be the gent you were expecting but let me assure you , like him, I'm the stuff of nightmares."
















Credits: Jim Starlin (plot, script); Jim Aparo (pencils); Mike DeCarlo (inks); Adrienne Roy (colors); Agustin Mas (letters); Dennis O'Neil (edits)

Comments

[taggerung301.insanejournal.com]

the stuff of nightmares . . . .
oh dick, how can anyone take you seriously wearing that disco uniform?

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

Fashion nightmares, I guess? It's the crazy butterfly domino that gets me every time.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Seriously, in that outfit.

Oh, Dick, I know you mean well. But circus acrobats are not the stuff of nightmares.

Clowns, yes. Maybe he should have dressed as a clown. Oh, wait, that's taken.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

Ah, but remember when the 'wing had the google and hood ?????

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I assume you mean goggles? :) Google is more Babs area than Dick!

And the hood and goggles were only there for about a page and a half in the New Teen Titans Annual where Nightwing was properly introduced, and even then only because it was snowing heavily, and were never seen again.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Hmm, Starlin's actually written a Batman issue worth a damn? Wow.

[sir_razorback.insanejournal.com]

*Looks at the very last panel by itself* that's possibly the most perverted thing I've ever read coming from Batman.

[islwyn.insanejournal.com]

Awwww, Jason's look of sheer horror on the first page. He's all like, "OH MY GOD WHAT IS HE WEARING!"

Nightwing: stuff of nightmares, terror that flaps in the night! Criminals of the world wake up with surprise boners. I absolutely meant cower in fear.

Also, last panel. Bruce, get your mind out of the gutter.

Jason not hated by whomever is writing him at the moment (?) is always full of so much woobie win. Look, the streets don't automatically turn you into a murdering sociopath! Sometimes they -- gasp! -- reinforce abandonment issues, among others, and these are issues to which Batman's communication skills may not be the best therapy. The fact that Jason is scared of failing Bruce and/or having the Robin mantle taken from him (which is basically a motivating factor, a flaw that tends to bring less-than-the-best from the character and an angst source) was so often swept under the carpet or lazily ignored makes Winick's take on the resurrected that much better. Because here is a broken boy whose fears were, to the best of his knowledge, quite sound. So what do we need some Very Special Episode childhood trauma for, again? Right, because every single writer after Winick completely disregarded Jason's characterisation. Oops.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

I will disagree slightly in that EVERY writer has messed up Jason since JW. Don't get me wrong, JW is my Jason homeboy and no one writes him as well but I think it was Geoff Johns who wrote him in Teen Titans and that was all perfectly in character for me, if not the epic that is Jason by Winick.

See, there is this thing about the VSE trauma that gets me: Jason has enough trauma. He has a father that was killed by Two-Face, a mother than died on him, some time on the street, a mother that let him be beaten in front of her, died, dug himself out of a grave, existed damaged on the streets for a year, came back to be 'rejected' by his father figure who then dies on him. If Jason has trauma, they may just be using one of those. This is what I'm hoping. I don't think so, but I'm hoping. There's so much to choose from!

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

"He has a father that was killed by Two-Face, a mother than died on him, some time on the street, a mother that let him be beaten in front of her, died, dug himself out of a grave, existed damaged on the streets for a year, came back to be 'rejected' by his father figure who then dies on him." Also, depending on how much of Countdown has or hasn't been retconned, he also saw alternate universe versions of Bruce, Babs and Dick die, IIRC.

Oh, and also, had his throat slit by said father figure who later died on him in order to stop Jason from killing the man who murdered him.

Seriously, we're just one mysterious past abuse away from a trauma conga line- oh, wait.

[islwyn.insanejournal.com]

I agree that Johns' Jason was probably closest to Winick's, who is the One True Zombie Jay. But then I remember what he actually did in that issue, and I want to facepalm my way into oblivion. Then again, at that time Jason was able to wipe the floor with Tim, which was consistent with Winick's Jay being basically on par with Dick. THE INDECISION.

That's exactly it! Does he seriously need something else to fully explain his psychoses? As if the emotional trauma of DitF and later wasn't enough. But no, no underclass kid in the DCU is allowed to not be a junkie hooker. Which says pretty much a lot, when added to DC's general glaring class issues.

[daggerpen.insanejournal.com]

"Right, because every single writer after Winick completely disregarded Jason's characterisation."

Well, I wouldn't say every. I mean, there was- oh, no, nevermind. But there was- no, wait. Okay, what about- no, no, not him either.

Umm...

... well, fanon seems to get him okay most of the time?

Oh, and there was those pages in Countdown! Several! Well, okay, like, 5 panels...

...nonconsecutively...

... but it counts!

*might be just a little bitter about canon!Jay's characterization*

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

Awwww. The brothers who might have been if not for bizarre plot happenings.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

I saw the picture of Dick and Jason hanging out in Nightwing post-last laugh and had to go back to this, really.

[jlroberson.insanejournal.com]

Though obviously it would be better to wait till the actual coke arrives for a bigger bust(and these guys are now tipped off, so nuts to that), I have to wonder: wouldn't there be residue they could test in that processing equipment?

[the_jeff.insanejournal.com]

It's not well known, but Bludhaven, home of the largest starch manufacturing plant on the east coast, was actually undergoing a serious economic recession when Dick moved there. He developed the 'disco' costume, and funded by access to the Wayne fortune (through untraceable cut-out accounts set up by Babs), he single-handedly kept all those people employed through the ludicrous amounts of starch needed to keep that collar erect.

Let the Dick/erection jokes commence!

^_^

[the_jeff.insanejournal.com]

Also, goddamn - love me some Aparo pencils! Off to try to find some on the intarwebs to practice my inks on!

[lover_youshould.insanejournal.com]

Mr. Nightwing and Mr. Robin. Oh, my heart. <3333

[thanekos.insanejournal.com]

... well, atleast it's not Deathwing's PLEASE STAB ME HERE outfit.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Very true! That one's just painful to even look at, though to be fair, he had been driven to madness by evilLesbian!Raven's S&Mpathic powers.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Other than the collar, it's not really that bad an outfit, but that may be my Aparo bias showing.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I have to say I still like the Discowing costume, it's nut's, but it's being designed by a former circus acrobat who found nothing outré about the Robin costume. It's not the costume of a grim or obsessive avenger, it's Dick Grayson.

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

My favourite thing about this version of Dick and Jason meeting is actually Jason being scared that Dick might want Robin back. When he wasn't busy trying to get Jason killed, Jim Starlin couldoccasionally write such a good Jay. And Bruce watching them from rooftops and smiling. Awww.

Otoh, there's the usual legal crazy and the fact that I hate this version of the Dick-Jason transition so much.

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

My favourite thing about this version of Dick and Jason meeting is actually Jason being scared that Dick might want Robin back.

Motto.

[adder_twist.insanejournal.com]

Ohh, Dick. Don't you know cleavage is for girls?