Tim Drake as Nightwing by Travis Moore

[Godlike13]

Hobo Ric is this office’s attempt at a shake up. The current people on the book can’t even manage the basics, and so when they try to shake it up this is what we get. They can’t keep creators, they can’t find creators, and they certainly can’t put ideas together. The people behind this book are a joke. So it doesn’t matter if he’s in Bludhaven or not right now. Until they actually sort their current shit out, well be lucky to get even mediocre stories. They are so in hole right now, and all they seemingly can do is dig themselves deeper. Between this next evolution turning into Lobdell regurgitating failed ideas to buy time, and trying to get Esquivel to take over just as he becomes untouchable. This is way beyond Bludhaven at this point.

[Timothy Hunter]

King's story idea made zero sense to me. Dick and Tim really have no relationship anymore where Tim would feel compelled to take up the Nightwing name. They barely interact or seem to know much about each other. It is probably a case again where they have no idea what to do with Tim, especially in the Batman family, and King thought it would be a way to include him I guess.

I'd rather have Tim as Flamebird. There actually is historical precedent for him taking on the mantle as he does have a relationship to the Betty Kane character, however minimal it may be. Also Red Robin reminds me too much of the repulsive fast food chain. I'd actually be fine having him back as Robin, as long as Damian gets a new identity and is not sidetracked

[Ascended]

Hobo Ric is this office’s attempt at a shake up. The current people on the book can’t even manage the basics, and so when they try to shake it up this is what we get. They can’t keep creators, they can’t find creators, and they certainly can’t put ideas together.

If any of you buy me a ticket to comicon, I'll see what I can do about asking Didio for the job. I'll happily do it for free, just to put Dick back on course.

Well....for tax purposes they'll have to pay me something or the IRS will get pissy, but I'll accept the lowest pay rate their accountants can get away with if it means I have a free hand to make Nightwing worth reading again. Not that I'm saying Im a good enough writer to do professional work or anything, but I suspect a lot of us would take my work over what we're getting these days. If nothing else I'd treat the character with respect.

[oasis1313]

If any of you buy me a ticket to comicon, I'll see what I can do about asking Didio for the job. I'll happily do it for free, just to put Dick back on course.

Well....for tax purposes they'll have to pay me something or the IRS will get pissy, but I'll accept the lowest pay rate their accountants can get away with if it means I have a free hand to make Nightwing worth reading again. Not that I'm saying Im a good enough writer to do professional work or anything, but I suspect a lot of us would take my work over what we're getting these days. If nothing else I'd treat the character with respect.

I think you'd do just fine, Ascended. How much are tickets to Comic Con? We could all chip in.

[Badou]

Hobo Ric is this office’s attempt at a shake up. The current people on the book can’t even manage the basics, and so when they try to shake it up this is what we get. They can’t keep creators, they can’t find creators, and they certainly can’t put ideas together. The people behind this book are a joke. So it doesn’t matter if he’s in Bludhaven or not right now. Until they actually sort their current shit out, well be lucky to get even mediocre stories. They are so in hole right now, and all they seemingly can do is dig themselves deeper. Between this next evolution turning into Lobdell regurgitating failed ideas to buy time, and trying to get Esquivel to take over just as he becomes untouchable. This is way beyond Bludhaven at this point.

I don't know if Ric was as much a shake up but them trying to ride King's story to higher sales for a bit. Then after Percy walked they decided to crap out the most lazy and zero effort story they could and drag it out for as long as they could. An amnesia story and other people taking up the hero identity are about as zero effort as you can get, especially in this case.

Also they are in a tough spot now because they have to drag out this Ric story until at least HiC is over because of the situation it puts them in. Either Dick is stuck in a coma after he got shot while HiC is going on or he is bumming around Bludhaven calling himself Ric while HiC is going on or after it is finished. In either case they can excuse not involving Dick in HiC or letting him know Wally and Roy are dead because of it (Bludhaven is a convenient place to isolate Dick's character for them), but once Dick gets his memories back and wants to be Nightwing again he has to find out that his close friends are dead. Like if Dick was getting his memories back next issue then he would have to find out immediately that Wally and Roy are dead, which would spoil any twist HiC might have or just clash with HiC because Dick isn't involved in the event. So we are stuck with Ric well into 2019 because of how bad this management is at planning.

And it does matter because Bludhaven was a problem before Ric and will be a problem after Ric. It is a long term problem the character is stuck with. Where it isn't a setting that attracts creators to want to write Nightwing. If anything it pushes them away and limits their creativity. You had Seeley that originally didn't want to write Nightwing because he didn't care for Bludhaven and Blockbuster, he did his best to fix them but it still fell short, which right there speaks to a major issue with Bludhaven, and then next you had Humphries that left after one Bludhaven arc to go write Harley's book that allowed him a ton of freedom to do what he wanted and he is still on that book telling all sorts of crazy and fun stories and is glad to be away from the Nightwing mess.

[oasis1313]

Maybe Wally and Roy will come back from the dead before Hobo Ric gets his memories back. HR looks like he's gonna be around awhile. We've got four cops who will probably get four issues each to deal with their "origin" stories, and Ric's hair isn't growing very fast. Human hair grows about half an inch per month so Ric needs to start to start taking biotin-containing supplements.

[Godlike13]

They are in a mess of their own making. They wanted to run with this Ric idea, but the people behind the book have now continually proven themselves unable to run with anything, and so they created this Ric mess. Bludhaven is trivial when the character is under management that can’t even managed basic functions and continues to make one poor decision after another. Most recently going out and recruiting an abuser to take over the title, but now that too has blown up in their face.
Like I said they dug themselves such hole, and in their attempt to dig themselves out of it have only made it embarrassingly deeper. Bludhaven might be a problem, but under this kind of poor decision making and managerial issues it won’t matter where he is they are gonna produce crap and struggle to find creators. Nightwing is in such position that they don’t even care about the quality or its response, they’re just trying to get something printed from of this current mess. And what this mess says about Nightwing, and how the character is viewed by DC and the people responsible for his book, is not good. This situation has only gotten worse since it started. Nightwing is so screwed beyond Bludhaven right now.

[oasis1313]

It doesn't even feel like there's a decision-making process at all. It feels like some guys went to a bar, got drunk, then starting tossing out, "Hell, let's do this!" and "No, man, let's do that!" "Yeah!" And there had to be a designated driver in the group who was taking notes of all the drunken notions.

[Restingvoice]

The overall image is skater boy because of those protective gear, but the overall design's not bad, just need long sleeves instead of short so it looks more like a superhero costume.

[Sergard]

Could the "Hobo Ric"-discussion please return to the Dick Grayson Appreciation thread?
I don't see any valid reason why the state of the Nightwing comic has to be discussed off-topic in this thread.

[KrustyKid]

It doesn't even feel like there's a decision-making process at all. It feels like some guys went to a bar, got drunk, then starting tossing out, "Hell, let's do this!" and "No, man, let's do that!" "Yeah!" And there had to be a designated driver in the group who was taking notes of all the drunken notions.

Lol, this scenario is now my head canon

[agentofthebat]

I don't know I kinda like the idea.

[byrd156]

Could the "Hobo Ric"-discussion please return to the Dick Grayson Appreciation thread?
I don't see any valid reason why the state of the Nightwing comic has to be discussed off-topic in this thread.

How is it off-topic? This is a Nightwing thread as well, this idea with Tim was to shake-up the brand just like the hobo-Ric idea. Besides no one in the appreciation thread appreciates the hobo idea.

[byrd156]

If any of you buy me a ticket to comicon, I'll see what I can do about asking Didio for the job. I'll happily do it for free, just to put Dick back on course.

Well....for tax purposes they'll have to pay me something or the IRS will get pissy, but I'll accept the lowest pay rate their accountants can get away with if it means I have a free hand to make Nightwing worth reading again. Not that I'm saying Im a good enough writer to do professional work or anything, but I suspect a lot of us would take my work over what we're getting these days. If nothing else I'd treat the character with respect.

When I get back to LA after my holiday break I'm gonna try to see if I can get a tour of the DC offices.

[oasis1313]

Could the "Hobo Ric"-discussion please return to the Dick Grayson Appreciation thread?
I don't see any valid reason why the state of the Nightwing comic has to be discussed off-topic in this thread.

C'mon, man, let people enjoy themselves--it's all harmless. If you don't want to read it, just don't go there or skip their posts. It's no big deal.