Dick Grayson: Robin/ Nightwing/ Agent 37 Appreciation 2021

[Badou]

I don't think anyone is asking for Dick to be untouchable or infallible, but the balance feels off at the moment. I know I am biased since I'm not enjoying the story, but it feels uneven.

I get that the whole harbor scene with the ships was supposed to counter balance it some and show how resourceful Dick is, but I don't think it really worked well enough. You have the smaller things, like Babs flipping him, getting his wallet stolen, and Dick forgetting Babs can track him because of their communication device, that on their own are fine and can be funny moments but after a while it adds up. It is like death by a thousand cuts kind of thing, but then when you combine it with a major thing like Dick failing to sneak into a building, gets pushed around by some henchwoman while Melinda knocked him out with a bat, gets captured and tied to a chair, and also unmasked in once sequence it comes across really badly. I get Taylor's excuse was the concussion thing and Dick's poor decision making, and Melinda already knew his identity anyway, but I feel like you could have changed that scene around to make Dick seem less foolish.

Taylor probably worked backwards and wanted Melinda to do the awful sister reveal face to face. So he needed Dick to have his masked removed and then worked from there to have him get knocked out and captured to unmask him. I'm obviously never going to like the sister plot, but I feel like the reveal set up could have been a lot better. Next issue I wonder if they will do the whole standard DNA test scene where Babs or someone shows the DNA results to prove they are siblings and then we get scenes of Dick acting dumb or something, lol. There is obviously going to be some twist still, but I wonder if it will be something like Melinda is Heartless or even John Grayson is Heartless since Taylor is bringing up his name.

[Rac7d*]

Like whom?

Writers put themselves in a corner when certain characters learn secret identities.
Bad guys like Blockbuster come to mind
The court of owls grandmaster- actually the whole court in the film

Brief romantic partner Cheyenne Fremont never seen again after the his New York arc
Raya vestri - Killed by joker
I don’t remember if Sonia found out exactly




If you discover one of the bats identities, you either join the team, go away forever or die.

[AmiMizuno]

And with Dick, we have the fact no girl will be seen again. Dick becoming a Cliche after Cliche.

[HsssH]

I think the main difference between Seeley's Raptor and what we have here is that before Seeley's Nightwing run we got Grayson. We were, for the most part, in upward swing so we were more willing to look past certain things. Now we are coming from Ric and we are a bit more suspicious.

It's not that I want Nightwing to be perfect or something like that, I just want him to finally get some big wins.

[Avi]

Interesting that people like Tim Seeley's run when he basically did the same thing.

First issue: Dick got beat into the ground by Raptor.

Second issue: In a mission given by the Owls, one of the daughters of Kobra suprised him and Raptor had to save him from being attacked from behind. Mind you, he was in a mission, in total alert. Oh, and Raptor said "That's why Batman has a new Robin every year."

Thrid issue: Barbara goes after and sneak behind them, Dick didn't notice her but Raptor did.

Forth issue: Got saved by Raptor AGAIN and then revealed that Raptor was using him all along.

In the end, he defeated Raptor in a great and satisfying way. He'll defeat Heartless and go out on top in the end here as well.

Heartless isn’t the problem. He is just the icing on the cake. I feel much the same way as Badou: It's a death by a thousand cuts.

Seeley had already proven himself. He had the benefit of the doubt. As both Badou and HsssH have already mentioned.

Tbh, what I remember most strongly about Seeley’s first arc isn't positive. Because it's the cover of Nightwing #2. Dick had been shown bleeding, with bones broken, and in pain for way too many covers since the N52 had started. That’s something I appreciate about Redondo’s covers (and Janin’s at the time).

But I just went back to read the first four Issues, and I don’t see more than rudimentary similarities between Taylor and Seeley.

First Issue: Raptor was set up from the first page as a threat. Readers were told what Suyolak can do. Raptor stole from the Owls and because he was seen as useful, he was hired by the Owls. He wasn’t a newbie that had previously only attacked civilians. Heartless is exactly that newbie as Dick points out. Then the Issue went out of its way to tell the reader that Dick was distracted because of interpersonal relationships before Raptor ever attacked, with Heartless we were told Dick was still recovering after their fight. Even though that hadn’t mattered in any of the fights before. I didn’t like Raptor beating Dick up, but he was set up a lot better than Heartless.

Second Issue: Dick wasn’t fully alert. He checked the woman and concluded that she was dead. Ergo, no danger. The daughter of Kobra blasted out of the woman’s stomach, while Dick was about to investigate where the music was coming from. He had already crouched down to open the hatch. Raptor was stabbed with a knife for his effort. Before all that Dick saved Raptor from a son of Kobra.

Third Issue: There is a difference between Nightwing #3 and Nightwing #78. If you can’t see that, we’ll have to agree to disagree.

nw3nw78.jpg Imgur link to enhance.

Fourth Issue: Raptor could only save Dick because Dick was the only one fighting and the second Raptor saved Dick, he almost died himself. I don’t think Raptor using him all along was bad. Dick needed him to save the refugees. And it was a back and forth whether the reader could trust the guy or not. All the while the Owls never once realized Dick had already gotten the bomb out of Damian’s head.

Raptor was fooling Dick. Dick was fooling the Owls.

Seeley’s first four issues were much more balanced. Small mistakes were made without making them into huge spectacles that framed the whole narrative. Failing to mistrust Raptor while doing good with him, is different than hunting after a wallet that wasn’t important after all.

[…]

https://www.cbr.com/nightwing-bludha...r-than-gotham/

What do you guys think about this ?

It's probably what Taylor intended. But I think the impact would have been better if we had seen the community instead of their ships. An instance of fanservice being more important than Blüdhaven’s people.

And with Dick, we have the fact no girl will be seen again. Dick becoming a Cliche after Cliche.

Hmm... maybe that's why she is his sister. Even Dick can't have a lovers spat with his sis. And she doesn’t stand in a certain bat ship’s way.

Ok, since we still have to wait a month until the next issue, why don't we share some favorite moments of the character? Like Grayson #5, that is in the top 10 of the greatest books with him.

One of my favorites issues of Nightwing ever is issue #19 of Dixon's run. Takes place during the Cataclysm and it's just Dick saving people trapped in Gotham. I absolutely love the part where he saves the kid and his mom. After that he just get up and keep saving more people.

Nice one.

One of my favs is Legends of the DC Universe #6 by Kelley Puckett. It’s my favorite version of Dick meeting Clark for the very first time. There is put a lot of heart into it, and it explores quite well what teaming up with a superhuman being must feel like.

legendofthedcu.jpg

[Lady Nightwing]

I love the issue of Superman American Alien with Dick in it.
DyrAZ2N.jpg

It shows how good a detective he could be, also the art is phenomenal.

[AmiMizuno]

I'm curious do you guys think Dick is popular to get another title? Something like Brave and the Bold. Him teaming up with different heroes. It doesn't have to be in the main universe and if it is it doesn't have to effect the other storylines

[Drako]

Issue #84 is part of the crossover, unfortunately.

[Drako]

[hairys]

To be fair he isn't sleeping with Babs apparently, right? He slept on the couch when she was staying over at his place in Bludhaven. She keeps turning him down

She has a weak spine (literal) and he should be sensitive to that. Instead of trying to ram her through the headboard, he should make easy, soft, low-impact love to her.

[HsssH]

Issue #84 is part of the crossover, unfortunately.

At least it is not part 3 of 7, I hope.

[Rac7d*]

I'm curious do you guys think Dick is popular to get another title? Something like Brave and the Bold. Him teaming up with different heroes. It doesn't have to be in the main universe and if it is it doesn't have to effect the other storylines

Until ric he was a bi monthly title along with leading his team book titans
He certainly could, but I would not recommend it. The fight for diversity and the angers by some for Bat titles having the majority of all DC books

[Lady Nightwing]

Getting a wee bit tired of all the Oracle is evil/bad/compromised stories. Plus the current run is a bit slow paced anyway, it doesn't really need to be derailed by an event just now, especially when the last issue ended on a cliffhanger

[Frontier]

How many evil Oracle stories can they tell at this point?

Titans synergy comic looks like a proper synergy comic.

[Drako]

Getting a wee bit tired of all the Oracle is evil/bad/compromised stories. Plus the current run is a bit slow paced anyway, it doesn't really need to be derailed by an event just now, especially when the last issue ended on a cliffhanger

The crossover will be in September, not next month.