Batman #55 Discussion

[Grayson - The Dark Heir]

Anyone who thinks King's Nightwing in this issue is anything like the way Dick as Robin has been written for the past 3 decades...please actually read some comics starring Dick as Robin.

King was obviously trying really hard with this issue, his Dick in previous issues was a lot more in line with what you'd expect (just check his interactions with Damian in King's run). So I appreciate the intent, and Daniel's pencils definitely make certain panels a lot more tolerable. But this is easily something I will never read again. Besides repostable or memeable panels, there's nothing else of value in this issue. No character work and pretty boring character interactions, no real story, and then yeah, the only noteworthy thing about the issue was a character getting shot in the head.

[Grayson - The Dark Heir]

I think part of this is to remove Dick from the Bat-Family.

It seems completely in-line with the Bat office's intention to take the whole family in a darker direction. There's a whole page in DC Nation #4 that advertised the new Batfam directions (I say advertised, but the way they did it sounded like threats. "...Grayson fans better steady themselves for Nightwing #50. You've been warned" is a direct quote about Nightwing's new direction).

Bruce is at his most boring now that he's going to be angry Batman, Dick is an amnesiac, Jason is super-edgy now with Artemis and Bizarro stuck in some other dimension, the new dark Catwoman book, Batgirl's getting her own edgy direction with her spinal implant going out and living in her dad's house, Tim is irrelevant except maybe HiC, Damian has his new darker Teen Titans where he's torturing criminals in his basement, Kate is irrelevant except the Red Hood book, Steph is completely absent, etc. Only Duke and Cass have lucked out with Hill's Outsiders.

[Restingvoice]

Only until the whole Bane thing is over. The big theme is Bane's revenge on Batman, so he's going to make him as dark as possible, and because most Bat Family members have their own book, editorial decided to make them in line with the tone of that story.

I'm just... sitting it out... because while I know it's a long game... it's gonna be... really long. 50 issues.

[Cmbmool]

IF this issue leads to Nightwing regaining his PRE-52 memories of being a better hero and standing up to the JUSTICE LEAGUE, then I'm all for it if that is the end result.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

On one hand, King can't write Dick. On the other hand, I love puns so there's that. I did enjoy some of the banter, but let's not act like have have not worked together for years since Dick became Nightwing, the dialog is almost like they hadn't been together since then.

Bright spot was Daniels art.

[Nite-Wing]

I love how all of a sudden King can't write Dick Grayson but on the same note half the people in this thread criticizing the man won't stop heaping praise at him and Seeley for writing the Grayson series.
Not to mention Seeley is now "not so good" as his Nightwing run was pretty average compared to Grayson.
No need to overly criticize the writers DC editorial controls them a lot more than let on(unless you are King or Snyder)
Is it that hard to admit you just don't like what DC is doing? I mean Dick is never going to supplant Bruce, He's never going to replace him as Batman, and he's never going to replace him on the JL,Outsiders, etc
If you only enjoy yourself with the distant thought of that happening one day give up. DC made a firm decision about legacy characters after James Robinson's JL run ended.

Frankly DC is only guilty of recycling the same plot as this is almost the same set up that Dick got from Forever Evil.

[Scott Taylor]

IF this issue leads to Nightwing regaining his PRE-52 memories of being a better hero and standing up to the JUSTICE LEAGUE, then I'm all for it if that is the end result.

Yah, as much as its been interesting what has been done with Dick Grayson over the past few years, I'm down with this.

[byrd156]

You'd think King would be more aware of throwing Dick under the bus for a "shocking moment" given he wrote Grayson, which came about from Johns throwing Dick under the bus in Forever Evil and having no desire to anything with it. You would think that if King was going to do something like this he'd at least have a plan for the character and want to follow up on it, but no, there is no plan. He shot Dick in the head for shock value and is going to throw it over to the Nightwing writers to deal with the fallout. Just like Johns did. Percy didn't like this story being forced on him and cut off his own story so he bailed (rightfully so) and DC scrambled to dump Lobdell on the book to deal with this fallout in the most boring and unimaginative way possible with a writer very few readers like. It is just so distasteful, imo.

It fucking sucks. I really think that there is a contingent at DC that wants to undermine Dick's character given the long list of things that have been done to him since the New 52. All his history and stories that were taken away from him and given to other characters, constantly being thrown in other stories and forcing new directions on him, so much creative turnover and the amount of writers that have been frustrated with writing him. It all is so disheartening.

I think writers are aware and will be vocal about until the second they get a bigger character like Batman and suddenly forget the message they were just telling.

[DGraysonWorldsGreatestSpy]

I love how all of a sudden King can't write Dick Grayson but on the same note half the people in this thread criticizing the man won't stop heaping praise at him and Seeley for writing the Grayson series.
Not to mention Seeley is now "not so good" as his Nightwing run was pretty average compared to Grayson.
No need to overly criticize the writers DC editorial controls them a lot more than let on(unless you are King or Snyder)
Is it that hard to admit you just don't like what DC is doing? I mean Dick is never going to supplant Bruce, He's never going to replace him as Batman, and he's never going to replace him on the JL,Outsiders, etc
If you only enjoy yourself with the distant thought of that happening one day give up. DC made a firm decision about legacy characters after James Robinson's JL run ended.

Frankly DC is only guilty of recycling the same plot as this is almost the same set up that Dick got from Forever Evil.

Actually YES, King can no longer write Dick Grayson it’s not like it’s happened to other writers. Nastolgic appearances that are set up to getting killed by Bane. Dick Grayson should be dead honestly from getting shot point blank in the head but his last appearance he was hanged by Bane, Scott Snyder wrote the best Dick Grayson story and since he got Batman has distanced the Batfamily. Very few here care about Dick being better than Bruce but just not getting his story derailed.

[blunt_eastwood]

This too.

(Sorry, don't know how to do multiple quotes in one post.)

Just click the Multi-quote link that's to the right of the Reply with Quote link and then reply to the thread and all quotes messages will appear.

[BruceWayneJr.]

King can't write dick.

[byrd156]

I hate it when writers have Bruce act like a brooding dick to Dick. Like come on, he's one of his few weak spots where he will actually banter and occasionally crack a smile.

[Naked Bat]

King can write Dick better than most writers who wrote him lately. Humphry wrote hime like a depressed loser, Percy wrote him like and old man afraid of technology, even Seeley wrote him like an angsty teenager for most of his run. When Grayson was over (the worst decision DC made in a long time imo), I was glad to have Seely on the title. And he did deliver with his first arc and the spyral arc, but apart from that, the bludhaven stuff has been really really boring. Also, the themes of his run were boring and had Dick going backward.

King is the only writer, lately, who writes Dick without making him angsty. Did he go overboard with the jokes/pun? Maybe. Was it intentional? I think so. In real life, when people are trying to cheer up a depressed buddy, they will often go overboard with the jokes etc. It does make sense that Dick would act like that. I agree, though, that him using "like" every two words is irritating.

But from what I've read of King, the way Dick acted during Grayson has more to do with him than with Seeley.

[adkal]

It was a little annoying that everybody knew that Dick was gonna get headshotted weeks in advance.

I honestly had no idea - I rarely look at previews so, for me, even though I had an inkling it was going somewhere along those lines, it was a wth moment. I even considered it might be Gordon who would get shot


Art-wise, there were a lot of throwbacks to Hush and Jim Lee's work in general, and Batman looked a lot leaner than he has done for a while.

[failo.legendkiller]

King can write Dick better than most writers who wrote him lately. Humphry wrote hime like a depressed loser, Percy wrote him like and old man afraid of technology, even Seeley wrote him like an angsty teenager for most of his run. When Grayson was over (the worst decision DC made in a long time imo), I was glad to have Seely on the title. And he did deliver with his first arc and the spyral arc, but apart from that, the bludhaven stuff has been really really boring. Also, the themes of his run were boring and had Dick going backward.

King is the only writer, lately, who writes Dick without making him angsty. Did he go overboard with the jokes/pun? Maybe. Was it intentional? I think so. In real life, when people are trying to cheer up a depressed buddy, they will often go overboard with the jokes etc. It does make sense that Dick would act like that. I agree, though, that him using "like" every two words is irritating.

But from what I've read of King, the way Dick acted during Grayson has more to do with him than with Seeley.

I agree with you on everything.
I've enjoyed these last two issues and found a Dick very close to the one written in Grayson.