Preferred duration of Dick Grayson's Robin career?

[MajorHoy]

Grr... Nightwing's next issue (preview here) has a flashback to when he was fired by Bruce as Robin at 18. Why the hell is that still canon? The original story of him choosing to let Jason be Robin and then taking on the Nightwing identity at age 19 should've reasserted itself.

Wait . . . aren't all versions now canon? Didn't EVERYTHING still happen at some point?!?

[Digifiend]

Not if they're contradictory. Do you really think Superman dated Wonder Woman still (as he did in New 52)? When he was already married to Lois?

[GSman]

Wait . . . aren't all versions now canon? Didn't EVERYTHING still happen at some point?!?

Eh, everything happened in a way, but not really. The timeline we're currently in is a Post Flashpoint/Pre Flashpoint mix, just everyone remembers past continuities now, though realistically everything couldn't happen because there'd be huge contradictions. Everything happened in the characters heads, but not in the actual universe is what I'm thinking.

[Restingvoice]

Wait . . . aren't all versions now canon? Didn't EVERYTHING still happen at some point?!?

No that's Linearverse. The main universe is still a pick and choose. They'll just remember their past continuity in flashes, but what actually happen will be defined by the current books.
Now it looks like they're going for 12 to 18. Robin and Nightwing Year One.

[Aahz]

I kind of prefer the post-Crisis version where he is 12 or 13 when he comes to stay with Bruce too.

I think that was also allready pre crisis supposed to be that old at least in the Batman Comic (the "8 year old" comes from New Teen Titans).

At any rate, Dick's "firing" and early days as Nightwing have been retconned to hell and back at least a dozen times now. I'm pretty sure there will never, ever be a definitive version.

Since they do new versions of his origin story pretty often, it is really unlikely that there will ever be a definitive one.

[MajorHoy]

Not if they're contradictory. Do you really think Superman dated Wonder Woman still (as he did in New 52)? When he was already married to Lois?

Look, there's no way any of this "everybody remembers everything" post-Doomsday Cluck / post-Metal / post-Generations / post-linearverse crap makes any sense to begin with.

DC refuses to define anything and leave it up to various writers to go ahead and screw everything up / ignore what they don't like from the past. Feh!

[Claude]

Grr... Nightwing's next issue (preview here) has a flashback to when he was fired by Bruce as Robin at 18. Why the hell is that still canon? The original story of him choosing to let Jason be Robin and then taking on the Nightwing identity at age 19 should've reasserted itself.

I'm gonna hold my hand up and say that I really like the "firing" origin - provided that there's plenty of canonical material set prior to that showing Bruce and Dick as a united, indomitable and emotionally healthy combined force.

Cracks showing in that as Dick grows older, leading to a blazing row because its become unsustainable, and the results of that being that things settle down into a new status quo where they're close emotionally but not tied at the hip - that works for me. Nightwing as a big shakeup rather than just a different costume.

(They need to make up, and Bruce apologise, *fast* though.)

[TheRay]

Importantly, he should be able to build up his own rogues gallery during this time as well.

[MajorHoy]

REMINDER: This thread was originally started back in late May of 2016.
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With 163 votes,

* 6 years = 63 votes
* 8 years = 50 votes
* 4 years = 26 votes
* 10+ years = 21 votes
* 1 to 2 years = 3 votes

[Blue22]

Went with 8 years. He's typically around nine or ten he starts so let him be 17 or 18 when he becomes Nightwing.

[TheRay]

Specifically, I think he needs enough time as Robin for it to make sense that he's capable on his own as Nightwing protecting his own city.

[exile001]

I went with 6, but probably should have gone with 8.

When I think Dick as Robin I immediately think with Bruce (around 6 years), however, in my head there was a year or two as Robin without Bruce (Uni, Teen Titans).

[TheRay]

Damian is going to become the longest serving Robin, so I think Nightwing's tenure should be viewed through that lens.

[Aahz]

When I think Dick as Robin I immediately think with Bruce (around 6 years), however, in my head there was a year or two as Robin without Bruce (Uni, Teen Titans).

In NTT he was still only 19 when he became Nightwing.

With if he was 12 when his parents died (that seems of all the various ages in the comics the one that fits best) he would have been (including training) 6 years with Bruce and one year with the Titans, before becoming Nightwing.

[Forlorn]

I went with 1-2 years. Really, I’d pick 3, but that wasn’t an option. I’d prefer him to be a bit older to start, say 15, then hit Nightwing around 18.