Dick Grayson: Robin, Nightwing, Batman, Agent of Spyral Appreciation 2019

[Lazurus33]

NIGHTWING #70
written by DAN JURGENS
art by RONAN CLIQUET and TRAVIS MOORE
cover by MIKE PERKINS
variant cover by ALAN QUAH
How many Nightwings does it take for one Joker to strike to get to the real one? Four Nightwings. And that’s not even the punchline—how will Ric interact with the Joker when he’s not quite sure which one of his two memories is the real one…and exactly how dangerous this clown standing before him is?
ON SALE 03.18.20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | DC
This issue will ship with two covers.
Please see the order form for details.

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ROBIN 80TH ANNIVERSARY 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULAR #1
written by MARV WOLFMAN, CHUCK DIXON, DEVIN GRAYSON, TIM SEELEY, TOM KING, JUDD WINICK, JAMES TYNION IV, AMY WOLFRAM, ROBBIE THOMPSON, ADAM GLASS, PETER J. TOMASI, and more!
art by TOM GRUMMETT, SCOTT McDANIEL, MIKEL JANÍN, KENNETH ROCAFORT, FREDDIE E. WILLIAMS II, JAVI FERNANDEZ, NICOLA SCOTT, DUSTIN NGUYEN, ANDY KUBERT, FRANK MILLER, and others
cover by LEE WEEKS
1940s variant cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
1950s variant cover by JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO
1960s variant cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN
1970s variant cover by KAARE ANDREWS
1980s variant cover by FRANK MILLER
1990s variant cover by JIM CHEUNG
2000s variant cover by DERRICK CHEW
2010s variant cover by YASMINE PUTRI
blank variant cover
DC Comics celebrates Robin the Boy Wonder’s 80th anniversary in style with an all-star creative team representing each iteration of the iconic character across eight decades of history! From the high-flying adventures of Dick Grayson to the tragedy of Jason Todd, the enthusiasm of Tim Drake and the arrogance of Damian Wayne, the persistence of Stephanie Brown and the rebelliousness of Carrie Kelley—the mantle of Robin has been worn by many, but always represents one thing: a hero.
ONE-SHOT
PRESTIGE FORMAT
ON SALE 03.11.20
$9.99 US | 96 PAGES
FC | DC
This issue will ship with 11 covers.
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[Restingvoice]

Jim Lee live stream sketch for a fan

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[Schumiac]

Do we really believe DC will kill off the fake Nightwings? I am pretty sure they will just get knocked out or something as Joker goes after the real deal. I WISH they did get killed because honestly amateurs like them should be way over their heads, and it would highlight how Dick Grayson is the only one suitable for the job as Nightwing and how it is not something any fool who happens upon a costume can do, but that is expecting way too much from DC. They will probably keep them around and claim they have crated a rich environment for Dick with many new popular side characters...

[king81992]

Do we really believe DC will kill off the fake Nightwings? I am pretty sure they will just get knocked out or something as Joker goes after the real deal. I WISH they did get killed because honestly amateurs like them should be way over their heads, and it would highlight how Dick Grayson is the only one suitable for the job as Nightwing and how it is not something any fool who happens upon a costume can do, but that is expecting way too much from DC. They will probably keep them around and claim they have crated a rich environment for Dick with many new popular side characters...

The Nightwing impersonators aren't Titans characters so DC won't kill them off.

[Waterfall]

I strongly disagree. Bludhaven is a creatively bankrupt dead end and its main purpose is to act as a holding cell for Dick's character when they want him out of the way. Nothing about it is integral to the character the way Metropolis is to Superman or Central City is to Flash.

I've said this a lot, but I kind of love repeating it because it really shows just how little a connection Dick has to the city. Dick wasn't born in Bludhaven and isn't from there, none of his family is from Bludhaven either, he didn't create any of his superhero identities there, none of his major love interests are there, none of his close friends are there, no teams or organizations he is part of are there, he has no job or career that requires him to be there, and he generally has no strong ties to the city. You can't compare Bludhaven to other cities where their heroes were born and raised there, or that is where they debuted for the first time.

Superman lives in Metropolis. He has far more history with Superman, going back to the 50s, than he does with anyone who has ever lived in Bludhaven. He, Batman and Superman are arguably the original Trinity, not with Wonder Woman.

Seeley did ok with Bludhaven, but he didn't even want to use it in the first place. it was kind of foisted on him by the larger "back to basics" approach of the Rebirth initiative. It's pretty telling that his best arcs, the first and the third and which had a heavy Grayson/Morrison flavor, had little to no Bludhaven in them. That was where his interest lay as a writer.

What makes it "creatively dead end"? A hero having their own city makes the potential limitless.

Wally was born in Blue Valley, he grew up in Central, spent a lot of his time in NYC, Manhattan (Titans) or Washington D.C.(JL) but he still had Keystone for himself. He didn't have a steady job like Dick either but it still worked. It's actually being in Gotham that hurts him the most. You could see in New 52 Nightwing where his status quo would be constantly ruined by Bat-events.

What Dick needs is to get away from Bat-office. None of your examples justifies getting rid of Bludhaven.

[Godlike13]

Bludhaven isn’t inherently bad, but it is a crutch in ways. It’s suppose to make it easier for different creators to come in and out, and there is sense in having that, but they have no standards with Nightwing and so it becomes a double edge sword. Bludhaven inadvertently has become a breeding ground for mediocrity. Where boring creators can come in and tell boring by the numbers factory like stories. Gotta protect my city from random bad guy of the month, cause that’s what other popular heroes do.

Do we really believe DC will kill off the fake Nightwings? I am pretty sure they will just get knocked out or something as Joker goes after the real deal. I WISH they did get killed because honestly amateurs like them should be way over their heads, and it would highlight how Dick Grayson is the only one suitable for the job as Nightwing and how it is not something any fool who happens upon a costume can do, but that is expecting way too much from DC. They will probably keep them around and claim they have crated a rich environment for Dick with many new popular side characters...

No because the right thing to do for the brand, books, and main character would be to kill them off. So that’s exactly what they won’t do. These out of touch bums will protect their ****. And of course it won’t be that the work done with Ric was obvious lazy garbage pulled out of their ass at the eleventh hour. It’s readers just aren’t open the change .

[Astralabius]

A lot of stories would improve if writers let other heroes shine even when Batman shows up in their book.
I can't stand it when there's no tension in a fight, because I know the current fighters (no matter how big their numbers or how skilled they are) stand no chance against their opponents because Batman still needs to get a shot at them.
Every single time a member of the batfamily shows up that isn't Bruce or Selina I know they're going to get dunked on by Tom King. It's not even a question. I know it's going to happen. Even if it makes zero sense.

[SiegePerilous02]

What makes it "creatively dead end"? A hero having their own city makes the potential limitless.

Wally was born in Blue Valley, he grew up in Central, spent a lot of his time in NYC, Manhattan (Titans) or Washington D.C.(JL) but he still had Keystone for himself. He didn't have a steady job like Dick either but it still worked. It's actually being in Gotham that hurts him the most. You could see in New 52 Nightwing where his status quo would be constantly ruined by Bat-events.

What Dick needs is to get away from Bat-office. None of your examples justifies getting rid of Bludhaven.

Wally being born in Blue Valley and spending time in New York doesn't really count. He had Central and Keystone to himself because those are the cities the Flashes before him were associated with. He is carrying along their legacy so it's easy to slide him into those cities, as the Flashes had always been there. Bludhaven was invented for Nightwing, there is no Bat-family history for it before he arrives.

There are a multitude of reasons for the harm Nightwing's brand has sustained. But Bludhaven is just going to keep him connected to the Bat-Office. It was created when he was brought back to the Bat-office, is a discount knock off of Gotham City and is located literally right next to it. None of your examples justify keeping it, I'm sorry.

[Badou]

What makes it "creatively dead end"? A hero having their own city makes the potential limitless.

Wally was born in Blue Valley, he grew up in Central, spent a lot of his time in NYC, Manhattan (Titans) or Washington D.C.(JL) but he still had Keystone for himself. He didn't have a steady job like Dick either but it still worked. It's actually being in Gotham that hurts him the most. You could see in New 52 Nightwing where his status quo would be constantly ruined by Bat-events.

What Dick needs is to get away from Bat-office. None of your examples justifies getting rid of Bludhaven.

Dick's had his own city for decades and did the whole "solo hero protecting his own city" thing and it hasn't lead to anything substantial. If anything it limits his potential by putting him in a city he has barely any connection with and forcing the character into this generic street level hero box that feels so watered down. Characters like Batman, Daredevil, and Spider-man all do this better in cities they have far stronger attachments to anyway.

Also there is no evidence that Bludhaven protects Dick from Bat-events or changes in direction outside his own book. The Ric story is an example of that. When Dick got his ID exposed to the world in Forever Evil Bludhaven didn't really exist during the New 52. So DC and the Batman office had to think of a creative way to try and get Dick's character out of the way so they wouldn't have to deal with his ID being exposed. That lead to the wonderful Grayson series. Had Bludhaven existed they probably would have just dumped the character in there like they did with with the Ric story to deal with it.

The idea that Dick "needs his own city" is such an antiquated and dated idea too. He's better off being free, which is fitting for a kid that grew up in a traveling circus, and be able to go anywhere in the DCU where he is needed instead of being tied down to a city with no interesting villains, characters, or stories to support it even after years and years of stories. No creator is chomping at the bits to write about Bludhaven, and the reason every new creator tries to retool the city is because its foundation is so weak and ill-supported they feel like they have to.

When Dick is in Bludhaven they always feel the need to give him some worthless day job and tell the same retread stories over and over copying what a Daredevil already did. His character would be better served having no worthless city to hold him back and he can go where he is needed and creators are free to tell more variety of stories. If you desperately need him to have a "home base" then Gotham or the Titans headquarters is more than enough.

[AmiMizuno]

that would be interesting he stays from city to city living off the land. I mean if he needed a job why not teaching people acrobats

[Rac7d*]

The Nightwing impersonators aren't Titans characters so DC won't kill them off.

New 52 jokers was not afraid to murder his childhood crush, associates and burn down his circuses

[Restingvoice]

New 52 jokers was not afraid to murder his childhood crush, associates and burn down his circuses

I think they meant DC doesn't care enough to kill them off, unlike Titans characters who are perceived as making the League look old. They don't matter as much.

[AmiMizuno]

How do we make DIck's city important to the character? Do we make him get a job? Make him a cop again or make him help those less fortunate?

[bearman]

Moving to Metropolis would give Dick a chance to interact with Clark and family, plus expose him to all the weird science that happens there, reminiscent of his Spyral days.

[AmiMizuno]

Moving to Metropolis would give Dick a chance to interact with Clark and family, plus expose him to all the weird science that happens there, reminiscent of his Spyral days.

I don't know wouldn't that also cause him to run into Superman's legacy and shadow too? Maybe the best would be somewhere in the middle. That he is in a darker part of Metropolis where Superman doesn't go much because he looks okay. The only issue is Supergirl and a few others are there so Dick being that might be a little over crowed.