Dick Grayson: Robin/ Nightwing/ Agent 37 Appreciation 2021

[MakeNightwingGreatAgain]

Random Idea: Watching Hawkeye on D+... is that the way to do Batman and Robin?

TBH no. The tv show is adapting Fraction Hawkeye which is too similar to how Nightwing solo currently is. I think having a Batman and Robin tv show that is heavily inspired by the Hawkeye one would raise some eyebrows. I would love a Batman and Robin show, but I think I would prefer it to be animated. Start off with Dick as robin and then when the season ends, we can spin off with Nightwing animated series.

There's no dispute that DC did a lot of mistakes with Dick, especially during the Ric Grayson arc (but not only then) and I get why some writers didn't want to write him.
But overall it seems like a lot has changed for him this year.
His series is doing great, his mini as Robin is also doing nicely, he'll also feature as Robin next year in World's finest.

Dick is also going to be involved in two upcoming events - Shadows of the Bat and War on Earth 3.
In 2022 we'll finally get his arc in YJ, and Gotham knights will release.

Now we just need the disaster that is TTA to either end or change direction and writer ASAP.

I don't think Dick is doing anymore or less than what he normally does. He is always in a ton of bat related events and cross overs. He is a main character in YJ and arguably the fan favorite. Gotham Knights, he is also sharing the role of the main character. And once again, WB ain't nothing for how they described Dick vs everyone else when promo'ing for Gotham Knights. For some reason Dick's only redeeming qualities as a vigilante is the fact that he is a charismatic leader who is the oldest/wise and a master acrobat. Meanwhile, Babs is a super tech genius and master martial artist. Tim is a gadgetry wizard and master of psycho-analysis and manipulation. Jason is a peak human being who recovering from his old ways and is proficient in his use of weaponry.

BUT, I will say, DC seems to be trying extra hard to erase Ric Grayson from memory? If only they had tried this hard to erase Devin Grayson, we might have actually had a good status quo for him. My gripe with it is that they still won't properly portray him as Nightwing. They love having him as robin though. Most of his best portrayals are as Robin. Even in Young Justice, Season 1 reigns supreme. They give all the good stuff to Dick as Robin and then when he becomes Nightwing all a sudden is like DC is allergic to him.

Re-exploring Dick's time as Robin in the comics is probably the best Dick Grayson content that DC has put out with him in years. But I wish they would spend more time giving the actual Nightwing part of him some of that same love/attention.

Speaking of Young Justice, I hate how Dick went from being a really well rounded and personable character with aspirations. He had an idea of who he wanted to be and wanted to build a path towards it. But starting mid-season 2, it seems Dick turned into the one thing he said he never wanted to be. Since then, Dick hasn't been portrayed as the best in Young Justice, if at all. Really starting to get tired of the character nerfing that seems to happen to him. I pray the rumors of him sharing an arc with another character are not true, because I really want to see Dick react to Jason and do some reflection on the person he has become. I just also hope it doenst turn into a Dick blame fest that normally happens in the comics. Dick has lost three people who he was close with, Wally, Jason and now Connor. I want to see him explore his mental health and finally go on that path he set out to go on from season 1. No batfam, no other Young Justice characters. Just Dick, Dinah and Jason. The fewer people in his arc for me would be the better. Otherwise, the writers just make him look like a hypocrite and also dropped the ball on a really great character arc that started in season 1. Fingers crossed that Nightwing's arc in young justie actually does his character some good service. He has also been seen with Black Lightening and Superman here and there too, so there is also that.

Seeley said it best (using Raptor as his mouthpiece), Nightwing is a brand extension of Batman. That was true in 2016, it's true now as we enter 2022, and it'll probably be true years from now. That may not be what everyone wants (I mean, I definitely don't lol), but it is what it is.



Meh, that Owlman is the one that punked New 52 Nightwing lol. The first time Dick fought an Owlman, he was Batman, leading the JLA, and eventually beat the CSA with his team thanks to his plan.

Of course, characters are supposed to remember everything ever according to Infinite Frontier, so both previous encounters could be something Dick remembers which would be interesting to see. It seems that aspect has been dropped by DC as a whole though, although it would be funny for Dick to recognize the large age gap between him and Babs that used to exist but definitely doesn't now. We'll see what happens.

And I remember everyone hopping on Seeley for saying that. Because they were like "oh, nooo, Dick is his own thing, xyz, he doesn't need Batman. And here we are almost 6 years later, and Dick is still doing what he always does. Ill admit, I don't think Seeley is some brilliant writer for Nightwing, but I do think he has said some hard truths about Nightwing that people for some reason love to attack him over despite the fact that he isn't the only one saying it. He tried to take Dick in a different direction, and promptly got harassed over it. I don't blame him for being cynical about Nightwing and his fandom.

Never forgive the new editorial for ruining the Grayson run >:

[MakeNightwingGreatAgain]

Honestly, I don't know why people think a globe trotting spy is a niche for Dick. It was good for Grayson, but it's hardly an extremely popular aspect of Dick.

Unfortunately, I think the most popular aspects of Dick are associated with Batman (or Teen Titans). That's why DC mantains Dick near Gotham and the Batfamily.

Its an un-explored concept in the DC Universe and it sets Dick apart from Batman. He gets to use what he learned from Batman and then use what he learned from being part of the Titans and apply that to being a spy vigilante. It makes for some good character growth and mythos. Its something that Dick can literally call his own as he would be the only Batfam member to be one and if he joined the Justice League, he can be distinctively different from Batman in terms of what he can bring to the table.

I Dont think it's an unpopular approach since Grayson is arguably one of the best received Nightwing runs. However, I think it's the fact that his fandom also has a sizeable amount of people who are either team batfam or team titans and never want him to leave that zone.

[Pohzee]

I hadn't heard any speculation about Dick sharing an arc in YJ, but I'd actually like that. I'm worried that that arc will be all Batfamily centric but what I loved about the YJ universe was that Dick got to interact with other, bigger heroes in new and interesting ways. I don't want to see him, Tim, Steph, and Kate meeting Jason Todd. Yawn.

[MakeNightwingGreatAgain]

I hadn't heard any speculation about Dick sharing an arc in YJ, but I'd actually like that. I'm worried that that arc will be all Batfamily centric but what I loved about the YJ universe was that Dick got to interact with other, bigger heroes in new and interesting ways. I don't want to see him, Tim, Steph, and Kate meeting Jason Todd. Yawn.

hmm, well they did that in season 3 which is why we are the mess we are in the first place lol I am hoping his arc is not Batfam focused and just has Jason. There is literally nothing to bring into Dick's season 4 arc from season 3 other than Jason lol dassit. Its bad enough we somehow shoehorned Babs and a poorly retconned killing joke scenario into Artemis's arc.

[Rac7d*]

hmm, well they did that in season 3 which is why we are the mess we are in the first place lol I am hoping his arc is not Batfam focused and just has Jason. There is literally nothing to bring into Dick's season 4 arc from season 3 other than Jason lol dassit. Its bad enough we somehow shoehorned Babs and a poorly retconned killing joke scenario into Artemis's arc.

You want a Batman arc without the Batman ??????
Watch it have nothing to do with Jason but just on saving Connor so he is not another Wally

[Grayson - The Dark Heir]

BUT, I will say, DC seems to be trying extra hard to erase Ric Grayson from memory? If only they had tried this hard to erase Devin Grayson, we might have actually had a good status quo for him.

Just a quick thought, but are they? It's a little sad to think about, but with the Infinite Frontier reboot, Taylor brought back a version of Dixon's classic Bludhaven and Dick's history with it, right? So far, the only non-Dixon Bludhaven event mentioned has been the Ric Grayson era. Nothing from Rebirth, not the Untouchable story either, and as might be expected, nothing from Percy's run either.

Like, to put it into perspective, the big reason Tim and Babs were made to be relevant to Taylor's first arc is because Dick is said to still be recovering from the injury that made him an amnesiac in the first place. Even when Dick shows off some cool feats near the end of the arc, the context is that even if Dick is capable of great things, he shouldn't be risking things because of his injury (and he still does because of course he does, he's Dick Grayson). This run may be primarily built on "classic" Bludhaven, but Dick himself is still on a journey to recover from the inciting incident of the Ric era. I don't think DC has done much of anything to make us forget it happened, more like Taylor is moving to make it feel worthwhile in the long run... which isn't the worst thing ever (I've said it before, it's a very effective way of nerfing Dick whenever the plot needs to), but it's not something I'm happy about lol.

[Godlike13]

They mentioned and reference Ric to reinforce that this is not that. Making it clear that this is not a continuation of Ric, but the opposite. Bringing back all the things Ric tried to do away with. They aren’t forgetting Ric, but they are rejecting it. Openly.

[HsssH]

Ric was also referenced in Seeley's King Shark.

Either way I don't really see a difference between open rejection and "hidden" rejection? I know that I'd like the story more if instead of Ric rejections we got some stuff from Grayson or Rebirth Nightwing.

[Godlike13]

It’s a pander of sorts, and a way of reassuring their readership. This is directly coming off of Ric remember. One of its hurdles was having try to get the readers that left because of Ric back. So openly rejecting Ric helps serve that purpose. It’s them saying we know you guys didn’t like that, but this ain’t that. That sucked. So be assured we aren’t doing that here.

[Lal]

Look like Comichorn released the October sales chart (just ranking)
https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...1/2021-10.html

Nightwing 85 sold well, but we already knew that. Robin as well.
Franchises like Aquaman are ranked incredibly low. It seems like Jackson Aquaman isn't well accepted, to put it mildly.

[Rac7d*]

Look like Comichorn released the October sales chart (just ranking)
https://www.comichron.com/monthlycom...1/2021-10.html

Nightwing 85 sold well, but we already knew that. Robin as well.
Franchises like Aquaman are ranked incredibly low. It seems like Jackson Aquaman isn't well accepted, to put it mildly.

Aquaman doesn’t have to do well he just needs to be their. Dc right now has more books led by people of color and lgbt then ever in their entire history currently.

[Lal]

Aquaman doesn’t have to do well he just needs to be their. Dc right now has more books led by people of color and lgbt then ever in their entire history currently.

If it's a book selling 15k (maybe even less. It's ranked lower than crush & lono) by its 2nd issue, this book isn't sustainable. This is a mini, so it's not a big deal, but I don't think DC would publish a book long term if it's selling so low.

[Grayson - The Dark Heir]

If it's a book selling 15k (maybe even less. It's ranked lower than crush & lono) by its 2nd issue, this book isn't sustainable. This is a mini, so it's not a big deal, but I don't think DC would publish a book long term if it's selling so low.

I’m not sure what you’re getting at here? The Direct Market is dying, it’s best used to measure how many relics out there are still buying books. Wait for trade sales from book stores.

We have more than just this one metric to tell Nightwing is currently selling well, for example.

[Lal]

I’m not sure what you’re getting at here? The Direct Market is dying, it’s best used to measure how many relics out there are still buying books. Wait for trade sales from book stores.

We have more than just this one metric to tell Nightwing is currently selling well, for example.

True. Trade sales could be very different.
But Nightwing, for example, sold nicely monthly, had good online sales, so it wasn't very surprising that his trade is also selling well on Amazon. I expect to see a similar pattern for Robin.

It's entirely possible that Jackson would sell wonderfully once his trade is released, but his sales both online and in physical copies are currently very low.
I'm not wondering what is the correlation between monthly and trade sales.

Anyway, it's nice that Nightwing and Robin are doing well. Surprising that Titans united is ranked so low. It's considerably better than TTA.

[Rac7d*]

If it's a book selling 15k (maybe even less. It's ranked lower than crush & lono) by its 2nd issue, this book isn't sustainable. This is a mini, so it's not a big deal, but I don't think DC would publish a book long term if it's selling so low.

Books have survived selling less
Notably catwoman and redhood

DC has plans for Jackson they are not gonna stop pushing him.