Dick Grayson: Robin / Nightwing Appreciation 2020

[Claude]

A little bit of good news for y'all.
Joshua Williamson said his Justice League story from Death Metal will be from Nightwing point of view. Some good tidbits in this interview here.

https://www.gamesradar.com/inside-th...d-death-metal/

"You'll see, once you start the first few pages, you're going to see how much it's a Nightwing story." - yeah, it's nice to hear that it's not just A Story With Nightwing In It, but a proper Nightwing story. And although it's nice that Nightwing's "return" is being given such prominence in both the Batman and Justice League books, it's a shame that this whole period in his history isn't just being buried in a big, deep hole. Mind you, I'd be happy if "lost his memory for a bit" becomes how it's remembered - and the specifics of Ric, the Nightwings, the weird house-breaking stuff, Bea - just got forgotten.

And then we can go back to crossing our fingers that if Bendis keeps doing "Leviathan" stories, Dick can have the role in some of them that he really should have had from the start.

[Ascended]

If they are really going to shrink down their line up to the biggest IPs I doubt they will do a brand new team (and if they do it would be probably some kind of Justice League spin off).

I mostly meant new for Dick. Granted, he's been on most of DC's big teams already but he could do something we've rarely seen. Maybe join the League or Outsiders again, maybe the JSA or (shudder) Squad.

I expect the publishing line will be *mostly* the Big Name franchises, but I think they'll probably have a few books that're more left field too. Even Rebirth, which was all about "getting back to basics" for the publishing line, had some titles that weren't established A-list, so perhaps there'll be a return of StormWatch or the Authority, or the Seven Soldiers of Victory or who knows what?

[Digifiend]

The easiest way is to merge them all under one title since the most popular name is TT but the most popular cast are in Titans, basically making it like the Young Justice TV with the older ones acting as a mentor

The selling cast would be Nightwing, Starfire, Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Raven with Donna, Wally, Wallace, Damian, Tim, Jason, Kon, Cassie, and Bart following.

That roster will never happen, you have four out of five Robins (only Spoiler is missing), all three Kid Flashes, and both Wonder Girls.

Depends on what happens with the Bendis Imprint, Young Justice is kind of it's flag ship book so it will probably continue as long as this Imprint.

I don't think YJ will last much longer either. The cover of #20 (shown on Bendis's Instagram) shows the whole team in a generic pose. Very much what you'd expect from a Final Issue. We'll know in two hours 15 minutes when the solicits are out.

[Aahz]

I mostly meant new for Dick. Granted, he's been on most of DC's big teams already but he could do something we've rarely seen. Maybe join the League or Outsiders again, maybe the JSA or (shudder) Squad.

I doubt that, JLA and JSA will probaly have realtivly classic line ups, I doubt that they will do Outsiders and Dick doesn't really fit on the Suicide Squad, I think for him it is Titans or some kind of Justice league B-team.

[Ascended]

That would be my assumption too, I'm just saying they *could* do something different with him.

I'm sure Dick, if he ends up on a team again at all, will be on a League title or a Titans team. That's a safe bet, but we don't *know* he will, and with a big shake up like we seem to be getting, some characters might end up in some odd places just so they have somewhere to go at all.

I mean, if the line gets cut down to the bare basics, will there even be a League B-team at all? Hell, will there even be a Titans? Unless the current run is doing better than I think it is, that's a franchise that hasn't sold well in a long time, so will it's pedigree be enough to keep it around or will DC say "Well, we've only got X books now, do we have room for a title that's in the bottom half of our sales?"

[Konja7]

That would be my assumption too, I'm just saying they *could* do something different with him.

I'm sure Dick, if he ends up on a team again at all, will be on a League title or a Titans team. That's a safe bet, but we don't *know* he will, and with a big shake up like we seem to be getting, some characters might end up in some odd places just so they have somewhere to go at all.

I mean, if the line gets cut down to the bare basics, will there even be a League B-team at all? Hell, will there even be a Titans? Unless the current run is doing better than I think it is, that's a franchise that hasn't sold well in a long time, so will it's pedigree be enough to keep it around or will DC say "Well, we've only got X books now, do we have room for a title that's in the bottom half of our sales?"

Well, Titans will probably sell better if it is the only place where you can read about Dick.

The Titans is still a relatively popular brand, so I can see that DC release a cómic.

[OBrianTallent]

That roster will never happen, you have four out of five Robins (only Spoiler is missing), all three Kid Flashes, and both Wonder Girls.
I don't think YJ will last much longer either. The cover of #20 (shown on Bendis's Instagram) shows the whole team in a generic pose. Very much what you'd expect from a Final Issue. We'll know in two hours 15 minutes when the solicits are out.

To be fair, almost all the covers have been generic poses.

[Restingvoice]

That roster will never happen, you have four out of five Robins (only Spoiler is missing), all three Kid Flashes, and both Wonder Girls.
I don't think YJ will last much longer either. The cover of #20 (shown on Bendis's Instagram) shows the whole team in a generic pose. Very much what you'd expect from a Final Issue. We'll know in two hours 15 minutes when the solicits are out.

It will not happen if Didio was involved because he views them as powers first, but with WB directing they're gonna choose the popular crew of Dick, Kori, Raven, and Beast Boy as main, and the writers will have the freedom to include the rest if they want.

WB's not gonna pay attention too much to details in comics. As long as the money-making characters are up front, they won't care if writers add power copies after that.

For example, WB wants Damian alive for marketing synergy as a Son of Batman and Teen Titans leader to fit their animated movie concept, but they don't really care how Damian is actually treated in the comics. That's up to the writers. They don't care if the Son of Batman is having bad relations with Batman in comics or Injustice, as long as the Son of Batman is there for them to sell. It's going to be like that with every character, team, whatever.

Dick's like that too... he's in all of DCWB's products from comics to LEGO to Titans, Injustice, Arkham, and animated movies, but whether he's treated well is another question they leave up to the writers of each. Even in Snyder movies, they decided to cancel his death and gave it to Jason so they can plan a Nightwing movie

[Ascended]

Well, Titans will probably sell better if it is the only place where you can read about Dick.

The Titans is still a relatively popular brand, so I can see that DC release a cómic.

I think in the direct market the Titans are in a weird spot.

The brand is highly successful in larger media. It might actually even be the most successful brand DC has in larger media right now. And it obviously has a strong pedigree in comics.

But larger media success means nothing for floppy sales (otherwise Avengers would sell far better and JLA far worse) and the Titans book/s haven't mattered in-universe or sold well in a long damn time.

If DC cut the Titans out of their line, it wouldn't hurt them at all, especially if they use those characters in OGN's, where they apparently can (and do) find a solid audience. But if DC cull their talent down to the best creators, then the quality of the Titans improves as well, and the Titans are still counted among the "core franchises" of the DCU. So they're kinda worth keeping, and kinda not. It's weird.

I don't think sales on Titans would increase very much if Dick were there. Even if that book was the only place to read about Nightwing. I think there's too much overlap in the fandom; many Nightwing fans are Titans fans as well and will read both books. If Titans were the only place to find Nightwing then sales for Titans would increase a bit, but a lot of those fans would be reading Titans anyway so you're not taking all of Dick's solo sales and adding them to Titans. That doesn't work for the League and won't work here. DC would lose more than they'd gain because instead of buying two books, a lot of those fans would just be buying the one, and there are Nightwing fans who won't read Titans either.

There's also the fact that the Titans brand seems to do better with the teens than the adults. NTT reunions tend to sell decently at first and then crash really hard, while the Teen Titans, with a Robin and a Kid Flash and whatever, seem to hold steady longer and perform marginally better. A NTT reunion at the expense of Dick's solo would not only cost DC some sales but would likely fall apart faster, resulting in even more lost revenue.

Maybe if they tried something like the YJ cartoon or the Johns run where the NTT served as mentors, and the book used both the teens and the adults, you could get some mileage out of it. But I don't see a world where a Titans book can combine it's own sales with Dick's solo sales.

[Morgoth]

I don't think YJ will last much longer either. The cover of #20 (shown on Bendis's Instagram) shows the whole team in a generic pose. Very much what you'd expect from a Final Issue. We'll know in two hours 15 minutes when the solicits are out.

You were right. #20 is last issue, series is closed in November. Titans closed as well.
Nightwing still stays.

[Claude]

NIGHTWING #76


written by DAN JURGENS
art by RONAN CLIQUET
cover by TRAVIS MOORE
variant cover by ALAN QUAH
ON SALE 11/17/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
One bullet robbed Nightwing of his memories and identity. One bullet erased Dick Grayson and replaced him with Ric Grayson. Now, with Dick’s true identity returned, KGBeast is back with one last bullet for him. Using Bea as bait, KGBeast has made it abundantly clear that this one last bullet isn’t intended for Nightwing’s head—this one is aiming to puncture his broken heart!


I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think that solicit says "bullet" enough.

[TheCape]

NIGHTWING #76


written by DAN JURGENS
art by RONAN CLIQUET
cover by TRAVIS MOORE
variant cover by ALAN QUAH
ON SALE 11/17/20
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES | FC | DC
One bullet robbed Nightwing of his memories and identity. One bullet erased Dick Grayson and replaced him with Ric Grayson. Now, with Dick’s true identity returned, KGBeast is back with one last bullet for him. Using Bea as bait, KGBeast has made it abundantly clear that this one last bullet isn’t intended for Nightwing’s head—this one is aiming to puncture his broken heart!


I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think that solicit says "bullet" enough.

To be honest i was expecting "another bullet would give him his life back"

[Drako]

the covers:

[Restingvoice]

the covers:

Those thicc lips can only be.... yep, Travis Moore

[Ascended]

So it seems Jurgens is sticking around until Metal wraps up and the line relaunches. I was kinda hoping 75 would be his last.

I know we've supposedly got a relaunch coming and that'll likely bring in new creators (assuming the book lives) but I would have happily taken a fill-in creator until then. Even a empty, generic "spinning wheels" arc with a no-name writer would've been better than more Jurgens on Nightwing.