When Robin Met Superman - Dick, Jason & DCAU!Tim.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

I think it's been established that there are a lot of Superman fans in the DCU. A lot of people wear the t-shirts, love autographs and generally wanted to be Superman when they grow up.

I decided to post this when going through some old issues, I realised that a few of the Robins get thoroughly excited when meeting the man for the first time. These are from Legends of the DC Universe #6 [6], Action Comics #594 [4] and Gotham Adventures #36 [2]




Let's start with Dick from Legends of the DCU #6.










Sometimes, Superman needs a Robin too.



Let's move on to Jason, who is really enthusiastic, so much so that I almost thought this was pre-crisis!Jay.







Don't worry, Batman. You'll get a Batman Day soon enough.



Now here's where things got tricky. I tried looking for Tim's first issue with Superman but sadly, the earliest I could find, they already seemed pretty familiar with each other, so I'm not sure if it was their first meeting.

So, instead, I bring you DCAU!Tim.

Comments

[hyaroo.insanejournal.com]

Sooo... why IS he there? Just to remenisce about old times with Batman, or...?

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

A Metropolis Hitman was in Gotham.

[filkertom.insanejournal.com]

TSWI.

[ulf_boehnke.insanejournal.com]

DBDDHKP.

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

Robin sense tingling? Disturbance in the Gotham grimness?

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I like Dick replying to Superman's comment about it being nice to have someone who understands from HIS OWN point of view, rather.

IIRC (and I might not) That story though ends a little unfortunately, with Superman accidentally shocking Robin with static energy he'd built up without realising, and it ends with Robin realising that Superman ISN'T really human and is a little frightning, not quite with Batman going "I TOLD you he wasn't like us and so cant be trusted", but just seemed unnecessarily downbeat.

I do LOVE the Christopher Moeller cover (http://www.moellerillustrations.com/Comics/ldcu6.jpg/1.html) cover though, even if it does look like Superman is focussing on Dick's bum, at an age when that would NOT be appropriate, even for Dick Grayson's rear.

I like Jason's wide eyed WOW! face. I must look out an issue of Superman featuring the Doom Patrol which has a similar rather nice little moment with Scott Fischer.

And I also like Superman's patient dealing with the rather hyper Tim!Robin, less impressed by Batman there, that's just plain rude Bruce.

[arilou_skiff.insanejournal.com]

Batman? Rude? THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

DCAU Batman might be brusque, but not often rude per se IMHO.

[freddylloyd.insanejournal.com]

That story though ends a little unfortunately, with Superman accidentally shocking Robin with static energy he'd built up without realising, and it ends with Robin realising that Superman ISN'T really human and is a little frightning

Your memory is correct. The story is titled "Fear of God." That phrase appears as Dick thinks it's time he put "the fear of god" into some crooks the way Batman does. But by the end, that phrase also refers to Dick's awe at Superman's godlike powers. I don't think Dick buys into Bruce's suspicion of Superman as an alien, but he's grasped just how much more powerful this friendly visitor is.

Obviously, we readers come to that story with knowledge of the decades-long friendship of Supermen, Batman, and Robin, so it doesn't negate the relationship we expect will develop. But it adds another wrinkle to it.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

But he does sleep with the article at the end, perhaps showing he still has faith in him after all.

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd think it would just take him a second to embrace him the way he is.

[salamangkiero.insanejournal.com]

..or embrace him, period.

oh dammit.

[nezchan.insanejournal.com]

I'm totally reminded here of that great bit from Countdown to Infinite Crisis (what an awful name) where Ted is doing his internal monologue about Superman. That whole sense that Superman, despite himself, carries an aura of legend around with him, and Ted just doesn't really feel like he measures up. One of the best parts of a great book.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

I'm reminded of the moment in the first Rucka WW issue, where her newly hired administrator on his first day, finds Superman flying in the window of the Embassy to return the first draft of Diana's book. The Admin guy is he's so overcome by Superman's sheer... "presence", that when Superman introduces himself all he can stammer back is "I'm... I'm... I think I've forgotten my name" to which Superman smiles and nods understandingly "It happens."

I'm not even a huge Superman fan and I loved that moment.

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

Does anyone have that bit from the Superman/Batman miniseries where Dick hears about the Nightwing bird?

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

Not sure about that one, but they finally got around to retconning in a link when Clark explained about the legend of a Kryptonian folk hero known only as Nightwing in "Nightwing Year One" (About 20 years after it should have been done, but at least they tried)

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

Are you sure it was Nightwing Year One? I could swear it was in the Superman/Batman limited. Hm. You know the limited I'm talking about, right?

[jcbaggee.insanejournal.com]

The Year One arc in Nightwing had Dick going to Superman for advice after Bruce had fired him, and Superman first telling Dick the legend of Nightwing and Flamebird.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

If it's where Dick hears about the Nightwing legend, yes, it's Nightwing Year One. I read it quite recently.

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

In the World's Finest 12 issue miniseries, there's an issue where Dick (still Robin) complains to Superman that Batman keeps treating him like a kid, and Superman points out it's not Dick he treats like a kid, but Robin, so he might want to consider a new identity.

[thandrak.insanejournal.com]

Aha. Yeah, that's what I was thinking of. Must have conflated the two.

[lover_youshould.insanejournal.com]

UGH THEY'RE ALL SO ADORABLE~

"He's not. Let's go." I lol'd.

[mosellegreen.insanejournal.com]

Aww. Batman seems so jealous of Jason Todd's reaction to Superman.

And considering how many Robins he's now accumulated, he must be awfully tired of it by now. "Might as well get introducing Robin to Superman over with. Yeah, wow, I know."

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

Maybe that's why I can't find one of Tim doing it. Tim is just talking up Batman to him.

[mosellegreen.insanejournal.com]

In Batman: The Animated Series, his reaction to meeting Superman was kind of distracted and defensive. Batman had disappeared and Robin was trying to cover it up, when Supes came along to see what was up and offer his help. At first Robin was all, "Missing? Not at all! He's on business! And I'm doing fine!" No gawking at all.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

Actually, I believe that GA I posted there predates his meeting in Knight Time, as it's never revealed he knows Bruce's identity in the comic and this is how Tim trusts him in the episode.

I was refering to DCU!Tim, who runs into Superman in Superman: The Man of Steel #14.

[mosellegreen.insanejournal.com]

Ah. See, I haven't read those, just seen the series, so I bow to your superior knowledge. ^-^

In addition, the second Robin on the series is a sort of hybrid between Tim and Jason, so he's a whole different kettle of fish anyway.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

I got the collection a little while ago and went through them in 2 days flat. They were really good and I highly recommend them. I have plans to post some of them later on, once I have the time.

I tend to think of DCAU!Tim as not so much a Tim and Jason but as Tim, Jason and Dick because he's Robin. There's no other way to describe it. He's acted like all of them in turn and has aspects of it all. If Robin were a person, he'd be DCAU!Tim.

[bariman1987.insanejournal.com]

Say, did Steph or Cass ever meet Superman? Or post-Crisis Babs-girl? I also vaguely recall that pre-Crisis Congresswoman Babs and Clark Kent went on a date...

[thosefew.insanejournal.com]

So much glee in that face.

[freddylloyd.insanejournal.com]

Anyone recall where this comes from and how it fits in?

[redsilkscarf.insanejournal.com]

Yussss! This is actually my favorite Superman-meets-Robin, though since it's from Darwyn Cooke's The New Frontier and not the mainstream comics I get why it wasn't in this post.

[freddylloyd.insanejournal.com]

Thank you!

[bariman1987.insanejournal.com]

And then while Superman and Batman are discussing IMPORTANT THINGS, Robin is in the background doing flips and cartwheels. It's adorable.

[harmoner.insanejournal.com]

OMG Dicks face is adorable. I love New Frontier so much.

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

I love that I so genuinely believe that Superman loves Robin and wishes he could have one of his own. It must really make him think about Batman sometimes, I mean, thinking about what it says about him that he partners with them.

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

There's this fic I read where Dick is really young, and Superman is trying to make a grudging Batman his friend, so they all go out to a diner for a late dinner. And it has Bruce being a little jealous of how excited and happy Dick is to meet Clark, Dick being jealous when he sees a couple of kids with their mom (the story was meant to take place not long after Dick's parents died, IIRC), and then Clark being a bit jealous when he sees that Dick seeks out Bruce when he's feeling unwell.

It's not big-time jealousy or mean-spirited or anything, but it's that little twinge of envy.

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

That sounds kind of awesome!

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

Found it (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4224175/1/Everyone_Always_Jealous)!

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

Awww! Thanks so much for the link! I love that they're all going through big personal dramas via small talk. And I just about died for Dick and his kid's menus and crayons. He's 9, dammit!

[parsimonia.insanejournal.com]

I know! The way Dick is written there is very believable when when they're at the diner, wrt how a child thinks, reacts and acts when they're upset/sulky.

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

Dick meeting Superman is D'AWWWW upon piles of D'AWWWWWWW tinted by patches of YAY. How great is it that Dick fanboyed Superman? It reminds me of Steph, actually (who, according to a comic I haven't read and I wish I remembered it in the request post, once dressed up as Superman as a little girl and yelled "I'm SOOOOPERMAN!"). Not enough acknowledgment of the Dick/Steph parallels in canon.

On Jason: it's over in Action Comics, so it's not surprising he's not as ~*edgy*~ bratty Starlin-esque potentially explosive as we're used to. His characterization tended to vary wildly between titles; even in Detective Comics, the first issues with Post-Crisis Jason were odd in terms of characterization. At one point, he apparently doesn't recognize a prostitute (the kid who grew up on Crime Alley, yeah), and at another, he complains that Batman always has him checking if people are alright instead of letting him do the important stuff.

The contrast between Robin and Batman's expression in the second panel of the Jason story makes me laugh so much.

The last one never gets old. Oh Batman.

[ozlelila.insanejournal.com]

Awesomeness! I love the way Supes treats Dick like he's an equal right off.

*Hears muse whispering* Hey! I just had a great idea for my massive Teen Titans fanfic I'm scribbling!

*Dashes off to add it to the outline*

[mysteryfan.insanejournal.com]

Okay, this is fab. LOVE the first introductory Clark panel.

I'm reminded of when Clark shows up in the park in NW #141.

Anyway, awesome!

[janegray.insanejournal.com]

Aww, dorky Jason! ♥

[lightbrigade.insanejournal.com]

Do you have a name for the artist who did Legends of the DCU #6? It's absolutely gorgeous.

[lipsofpoison.insanejournal.com]

Pencilled by Dave Taylor and inked and penciled by Kevin Nowlan. I think it's beautiful too.