Dick Grayson: Robin / Nightwing Appreciation 2020

[Flash Gordon]

I liked almost everything about the DC Last Days of the Special. Except the DickBabs stuff. And I'm 100% a constantly awkward in, out, mad, not mad, Sam & Diane Dick & Babs insane chronology, story and I ship them differently and in that on-again/off-again, depends on the story execution way, than I ship other characters. But nothing in this Death Metal event in the slightest, and nothing in any of the recent comic books remotely indicates anything that makes this earned to any degree. There's no recent history of Dick & Babs Escalation in anything and not that much skin in the game of stakes in a "The Universe Might End" storyline to sell it as a concept - even for a get-out-of-consequences-free brief bit of story that goes out of its way to just have it be this "hey it's just one night before another Crisis might happen" shared stress trauma settle things and hash it out gimmick.

But that said there was one thing I did like. I like the concept - not necessarily timed well here - but I like the concept of Dick and Babs falling into Sam & Diane style bickering again once more ... and Bruce entering the picture finally being a little less distant from his close friends and being like "You know what ... I do have personal skin in this game and I'm sick of you two engaging in this cycle or pattern so I challenge you to do something different," sort of thing. It's surprisingly human and switched-on of Bruce to finally stop focusing so much on Crime Conspiracies and Detective Puzzles and Global Contingency Plans and look at his two friends like a person and to ... well, to ALFRED THEM a little.

Seeing Bruce go into "Best Friend Mode" is a delight for me. More of that! More of THAT! More Papa Batman being a straight up PAL, ya know?

[Robanker]

Seeing Bruce go into "Best Friend Mode" is a delight for me. More of that! More of THAT! More Papa Batman being a straight up PAL, ya know?

You're asking a lot, but yeah. I'm tired of "but Bruce died in the alley, Batman is a diiiiick."

Bro. If he died in the alley, some jackass pulling a gun on Bruce in Crime Alley wouldn't piss him off. Bruce is still in there and he's a good person. Stop making Bruce so unlikable.

I doubt it'll ever be referenced again, outside of Metal. It's a throwaway POS scene and nothing more. Pretty much like everything else the last couple years.

Starfire needing to show up and say "and I'm leaving the ship war! Congrats on the flawless victory" really did just turn the whole thing into fanfic.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, and I assume he'll be the head teacher so he'll probably be the "face" of the book in that respect.

At least he has experience as a teacher, which is more than can be said for most of the Titans. When he was Agent 37, his cover identity was as a PE teacher.

That The Last Stories of the DC Universe thing was just awful for Dick, imo.

spoilers:

So Dick decides to randomly leave that big gathering of Titans characters to go and meet Batman, and after he leaves Wally shows up. Donna is the one to confront him and hug him. Then later a zombie Roy comes back to help them with them greeting him back with even Wally and Roy giving a nod to each other, but even after Dick returns and is seen with the Titans again he has zero interaction with Wally or Roy. So no reunion between them or if there was then it happened completely off panel. So that pretty much ends Dick ever getting to address anything that happened with Wally or Roy now. For being the "face" of the Titans Nightwing did nothing and Donna was the one to do everything and give the speech, lol. Then in the Batman family part of the issue Dick is just bugging Babs the whole time because he wants to "tell her something" with Babs doing her best to shoot down anything he wants to say. Then Bruce steps in and Dick then gets to ask Babs to marry him and then Bruce "marries" them before they go into the big battle. Dick just came across as so annoying in it to me, and it is made worse by how Dick in the last issue of Nightwing with all that terrible Bea drama with Dick saying how much he loved her.

end of spoilers

spoilers:

It makes sense that it was Donna. After Dick was shot and abandoned the last Titans team (having forgotten they existed!), she took over as leader.

end of spoilers

DC eats its own tail, what else is new. Dick is still the face of the Titans brand though. For better or worse. He still remains the one they market around, despite not actually doing anything with him narratively. Thats just more of the same problem with him when it comes to the Titans reading it head. “He has a solo” so the Titans refuse to actually do anything with him or use him how they market him, despite him being the brands biggest character. Thats along the same line here. He has another Bat storyline in the issue, so the Titans story has nothing for him.
It’s counterproductive, but that’s how the Titans is for Dick. Do a big Titans reunion, have Hume make an appearance, but write Dick out to go do Bat things. But at least it was Donna. If Dick is the face, Donna’s the heart. Note though how you don’t see Donna on one Future State TTs cover or marketing though. It’s just like how they launched the new Titans direction by having Roy mock and beat him up right before those characters all left and Nightwing had to assemble this new direction.

spoilers:

And Dick propose to Babs even though we just saw him crying for Bea. I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you.

end of spoilers

spoilers:

Donna is dead in Future State, we see her gravestone in the Teen Titans preview.

end of spoilers

[Pohzee]

Starfire needing to show up and say "and I'm leaving the ship war! Congrats on the flawless victory" really did just turn the whole thing into fanfic.

Did that actually happen in the Titans story? lmao

[Godlike13]

Did that actually happen in the Titans story? lmao

She just says she’s happy for them.

[Frontier]

Admittedly she was also supportive of them in that issue of Convergence where they got married.

[Robanker]

Admittedly she was also supportive of them in that issue of Convergence where they got married.

I dunno, man. Bringing her out just to give their ship a thumbs up during the scene where all the heroes are gathering instead of so many other interactions really did seem like DC was trying to have her wave the white flag rather than a character moment.

Convergence was literally about them getting married. This was an entire DCU special. Seemed kind of contrived to me, but I admit I like DickFire better than DickBabs at this point. Perhaps residual salt made me lean that direction.

Just remember thinking "of all the things to focus on, it's the Grayson ship war again. Alright lol"

[Godlike13]

She was already there. Honestly it be weirder if they didn't have her say anything, and had her awkwardly just be in the background.

[Frontier]

I dunno, man. Bringing her out just to give their ship a thumbs up during the scene where all the heroes are gathering instead of so many other interactions really did seem like DC was trying to have her wave the white flag rather than a character moment.

Convergence was literally about them getting married. This was an entire DCU special. Seemed kind of contrived to me, but I admit I like DickFire better than DickBabs at this point. Perhaps residual salt made me lean that direction.

Just remember thinking "of all the things to focus on, it's the Grayson ship war again. Alright lol"

I would've rather have seen Dick interact with Wally and Roy than see Kori give the thumbs up, but it is what it is.

[Rac7d*]

I would've rather have seen Dick interact with Wally and Roy than see Kori give the thumbs up, but it is what it is.

Zombie Roy makes me kinda sick to look at, Lazarus pits, and a dozen other types of incredible magic and they cant revive him.
There like at least two godesses, a genie, a demon and whatever the hell else

[Robanker]

I would've rather have seen Dick interact with Wally and Roy than see Kori give the thumbs up, but it is what it is.

Pretty much this. There were a million things I'd care more about, and since this is guaranteed not to actually stick, Starfire only showed up because they wanted to have her say "I accept the L," effectively.

Look, if this puts the Nightwing ship wars to bed, fine. Even if I prefer Starfire, fine. I want that to stop haunting the character. I will also not pretend this wasn't clumsy as all hell.

[Godlike13]

Starfire showed up because she is a Titan.

[Digifiend]

Zombie Roy makes me kinda sick to look at, Lazarus pits, and a dozen other types of incredible magic and they cant revive him.
There like at least two godesses, a genie, a demon and whatever the hell else

I bet Djinn from the Glass Titans would be capable of a proper resurrection. Though it's odd that she was present there as last we saw she went off with Jakeem Thunder.

[Robanker]

Starfire showed up because she is a Titan.

Everyone in the DCU was there. They only gave Starfire that panel because she's the other half of the ship war.

[Rac7d*]

Everyone in the DCU was there. They only gave Starfire that panel because she's the other half of the ship war.

Can we just give starfire a new boyfriend something else to focus on