Poe’s Point > Nightwing R.I.P.

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The “Battle of the Cowl” is over, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, Dick Grayson has won the twin thankless tasks of being Batman until Bruce Wayne inevitably returns and being partnered with the awful Damian Wayne as the new Robin.

Meanwhile, Dick’s other identity, Nightwing–the one he created himself and grew into, eschewing the idea that he inevitably had to inherit the Bat-mantle–is gone, and now Chris Kent, General Zod and Ursa’s son, is running around using the name.

Everyone knows Bruce will be back. You can’t take Bruce Wayne out of the equation for twenty years like Barry Allen. The question is, when he comes back, what happens to Dick? Does he go back to being Nightwing?

Look, I’m interested–I won’t go so far as to say excited–to read what Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely do with Batman and Robin. But part of me wishes they’d just done it in non-continuity, like All-Star Superman. Maybe they’ve sort of made an ersatz non-continuity with this twelve-issue run (which sounds like it’ll end with Bruce coming back), but the whole thing still seems odd.

What I’m most excited about from this whole thing are the two new Paul Dini-scripted titles, Streets of Gotham and Gotham City Sirens. Both Dr. Mrs. Ghostal and I are big Dini fans, and Dini’s run on Detective Comics is one of the best I’ve read, on par with Batman: Strange Apparitions.

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20 Comments

  1. Frogster

    @Frowny: You can’t be referring to as in the “New X-Men” going leather and maskless in early 2000s comics? Could you? πŸ˜‰

  2. Frowny McBeard

    @Frogster: It really bothers me when they try and shoehorn the “HEY, THERE’S A MOVIE OUT!” exposure into what they’re doing in the comics. At least he wasn’t being a dick to all his friends at the time, like Tony Stark. (Any more than usual, anyway.)

    Besides, doesn’t the return of Barry Allen mean the time treadmill is open for business again? Or has that gone the way of the Afterlife machine Reed Richards used to meet Jack Kirby?

  3. Scott

    He was DOING the painting. He wasn’t the painting itself. πŸ™‚

  4. Paddy Fitz

    Morrison can't get back to writing Batman – ANY Batman – soon enough. After 70 years of stories, continuity is basically meaningless, so I'm on board for whatever story he wants to tell next. Battle for the Cowl was practically unreadable.

  5. jim

    Damian as Robin? Sucks.

    This is just another “Knights End” storyline from me. lol

    Thanks for the comic world update Poe! Haven’t read comics in a while. I’ve just been reading up on certain characters on wikipedia for updates.

  6. Andrew

    Past poor execution shouldn’t preclude giving things a new go. Brubaker, after all, has done extremely well with this very idea in making Bucky Captain America.

  7. jim

    @Scott: LOL Thanks for the clear up man! πŸ˜€ I could've sworn i saw a comic panel online of him painting in cave.

  8. David

    Of course only Bruce can really be Batman, which makes Dick trying to fill his shoes all the more dramatically interesting. And I don't feel this is a rehashing of previous stories. Thematically, it's similar on the surface to "Prodigal," but they've already referenced that in the story. In "Prodigal," Dick became Batman because he was asked to, and only temporarily. Now, Dick has had to embrace the role on his own because he feels it's his responsability, and it will be indefinate as far as he knows.

  9. prfkttear

    Bruce Wayne *IS* Batman… anyone can put on the cape & cowl and “call” themselves Batman, but they will never truly be the Dark Knight…

  10. J_Stone

    Huh. Dare I ask what happened to Tim Drake?

  11. Frowny McBeard

    @Frogster: Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmaybe. Other than that I really dug Morrison's run. Not anything they did to 'correct' it afterwards, (Xorneto, Sublime vanishing completely) but the run itself was dandy.

  12. Replicant

    Isn't Tim Drake Red Robin now?

  13. jim

    @Frogster:"resurrected as a bohemian fingerpainting bat symbols in caves"

    Batman was resurrected as a paiting? What the…I really need to wikipedia this.

    Does he talk? lol

  14. Frogster

    On the Batman subject:

    Didio and DC did not really capitalize on the Dark Knight hysteria of last year to try and do something really special with Batman. And no, having him fried by Darkseid and resurrected as a bohemian fingerpainting bat symbols in caves is not what I mean.

    Bruce already went away for a year; ie One Year later and all the Crisis stories. Gee, let's screw him up again during a movie year no less.

    It's also Bat's 70th Birthday this year, and that has gone practically unnoticed.

    My question is, when Bruce inevitably comes back, what will happen to Dick Grayson. Go back and be Nightwing again I guess.

  15. Poe

    @Andrew: As I said, I'm willing to give Morrison's comic a chance.

    But while Bucky may be Cap for years, I have a hard time believing Bruce won't be back within a year or so. Morrison has more or less admitted that, talking in his interviews about how B&R is largely about how "nobody can but Bruce can be Batman."

    Of course, I wait for trades anyway, so the critical consensus on all these titles will have developed by the time I actually read them.

    This post is more just a lament for Dick Grayson as Nightwing.

  16. Frogster

    Hmmm…Where did I read this storyline before? Oh yeah that's right Knightfall and Prodigal in the 1990's, in the aftermath of Bane breaking the Bat. Morrison was awesome on JLA, but on Batman stories…not so much.

  17. Poe

    @FB: I haven't, but I'll definitely look into it.

  18. Frowny McBeard

    @Poe: At this point I'll just buy anything Brubaker writes when I can. Have you read any Criminal?

  19. Poe

    @J_Stone: He's now Red Robin, and will be globetrotting trying to find Bruce in a new Red Robin solo series. I actually like this idea, though I don't know much about writer Christopher Yost.

    @Frowny: I love Gotham Central. One of my favorite comics ever.

  20. Frowny McBeard

    I'm always willing to give Morrison the benefit of the doubt. And yes, despite not being much of a DC fan (though I'm really digging the first book of Gotham Central) Strange Apparitions is one of my favorites as well. Same team that brought back the Silver Surfer in the 80s, and that was pretty great too.

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