The Dynamic Duo
I think it should be pretty obvious that I’m a comics fan, at least to anyone who has seen my tumblr account since that is the majority of the stuff that I reblog. Now, I know everyone’s heard about the new news from DC, whether you call it a reboot, renumbering, or whatever. What matters is that canon’s being re-written, characters being tweaked and changed and a readjustment of the status quo, at least until something else changes and we go through the process all over again. It happens.
I’ve been a part of enough fandoms to see how things change, and have jumped ship on more than a few when things took an irretrievable turn for the worse. No big deal, really. Sometimes big changes cause people to look at the characters and prevailing storylines differently, sometimes it pushes them more towards the fanon where they can rework the new canon into something more enjoyable to them, and other times people just leave. Door’s always open, DC has made it quite plain that they are a ‘for-profit’ company and don’t make profits by catering to nostalgia or pushing for social justice and diversity [I’ll complain about that some other time]. I can accept this all, as inconvenient but necessary ‘evils’ of the consumer world we live in.
But.
That doesn’t mean I have to like it, and I don’t. I’ve mentioned before that DC’s plan to return their ‘original heroes’ (not including the original Green Lantern or Flash, or most of the wacky hijinks that was the Golden Age of comics). They’re taking the originals [overwhelming white, heterosexual men] and pushing their successors to the side, since they want a face that the mainstream audience can recognize [not necessarily identify with] in order to push their products and raise profits. A cheap, effective, and certainly dickish move that puts the Silver Age roster back front and center, leaving newer heroes such as Wally West, Bart Allen, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, and countless others in uncertain positions.
I’ve heard Dick is to be back to being Nightwing again. A demotion? Not exactly, since he didn’t quite fit the mold that Bruce Wayne had created when he became the dark knight, and his tenure certainly wasn’t as long as Bruce's (as if anyone actually thought DC would let their cash cow die-they save lasting deaths for girlfriends and small children). However, I believe that he, with Morrison at the helm, was directing the role of Batman and the Batfamily in a new direction, one in which the entire Batclan were more equal participants instead of merely waiting for orders.
But it wasn’t just that. Bruce Wayne kept all people at a distance, with even his closest friends and ‘family’ allies first in his eternal war against crime. It is easy to look at a character like him and feel a sort of awe, but with it there is a disconnect that keeps me from identifying with him. Grayson is another story. The first Robin, his entire life has been focused around both his mentor’s mission and his own desire for life. His life was built around his relationships with other people, not just solely focused on isolating himself.
Perhaps the relationship of Dick’s that I like the most is the one that he has with his youngest adopted brother, Damian. Young Damian Wayne had the ill-fortune of being related to the 3 most emotionally ‘healthy’ individuals of the DCU: Ra’s and Talia Al Ghul and Bruce Wayne. He was deprived of a normal childhood, raised in order to better serve the house of Al Ghul, and was rejected by both of his biological parents [in their own ways].
Come Final Crisis, exit Bruce Wayne. With that, Damian’s future was left to the man who would take up the cowl, Dick Grayson.
I was never a huge fan of the original dynamic between Batman and Robin [blasphemy, I know]. There was something about a cold, nigh-invincible dark knight needing a young sidekick to give him something to hold onto as he fought the evils of the world that I didn’t feel comfortable with. Bruce’s devotion to his mission divorced himself from his own identity, making what the world knew as ‘Bruce Wayne’ an obscene sort of character, a mask that he used to further his aims. He struggles with reconciling which of his identities are his true one, and he relies upon his succession of Robins [and to a much lesser degree, the Batgirls] to give him an identity that he can fall back on. As much as he may care about any of them [and I believe that he does, in his own unreliable way], he uses them, both in his private life and for his mission.
This isn’t the case with Dick Grayson. The first boy wonder never quite loses his own identity, allowing his different identities of Robin, Nightwing, and later Batman to be a part of him without letting them overwhelm him. He is his own person, and ‘Dick Grayson’ is not some convenient charade that he uses to keep people at bay, and he is was the one best fit to look after Damian. The original light to Bruce’s darkness, he was the natural fit to help Damian deal with his internal struggles and doubts, helping prove the idea that nurture, not nature, is the dominant factor in determining how a person turns out.
Of course, let’s not forget something equally as important: Dick loves Damian. Dick’s personality makes it easier for him to form emotional attachments with people, and his need to comfort and protect manifests beautifully with his youngest brother. He cares for Damian’s emotional health as much as he cares about his development as Robin, and makes sure that Damian knows that. League of Assassins trained or not, Damian is still a child, and he needs the solid reassurance that he is both needed and love, something that he can’t quite obtain from his father [both pre-Final Crisis and after his return].
Dick and Damian’s bond (though the latter would be quick to ‘-tt-’ at it), was one that worked both as brothers and as partners, and the new dynamic duo of Batman and Robin. Even if they had a rocky start, they learned to work together, Damian finally being able to trust Dick as not only the new Batman but as the senior partner in their relationship. Stop for a minute and think about how many adults Damian trusts in is life. His parents? Forget about it. His grandfather? Last time I checked, Ra’s attempt on stealing his grandson’s body didn’t exactly leave him in the running for ‘best grandpa of the year’. Alfred? Yes, but in a different way. The bond Damian was able to forge with Dick is something that is unique to their relationship.
And now that is going away.
What am I supposed to expect from the new Batman and Robin dynamic: grumpy and grumpier? Am I expected to believe that Bruce has suddenly become the perfect father and has an actual and sincere interest in his biological son’s life? The man has four sons (and one daughter, poor Cassandra), and he doesn’t exactly have a track record worthy of being proud of. He’s more of a symbol than a man in my eyes, and that isn’t the kind of man who can remember to look outside of his mission and pay attention to the little things that matter. I don’t trust him with Damian. I don’t trust him with any of the children of the Batclan, I barely even trust him to keep himself together.
Maybe he’s the hero that Gotham needs, but I would like to think that it deserves better. I really do. And if there is a Batman Gotham deserves [for no matter how vile the villains may be, there are too many good people to just write it off as an inferior sister of Metropolis], I believe that it is Dick Grayson, and by his side should be a Robin who can believe in him.
So, where does that leave me, the uncertain reader? More put off than intrigued by the upcoming changes in the DC Universe. I’m more than a little excited about what lies in store for Jason, Roy, and Kory in their new team book, I worry that Wally [the Flash that I both grew up with and identified with] will be sidelined so that Barry can be reintroduced [and forced on] a newer audience.
I am also unimpressed that Barbara is [and I certainly think so] being demoted to her former status as Batgirl, a role that created and loved but had to leave behind in a cheap stunt DC pulled in the late 80’s that left her in a wheelchair. Now she’s being taken out of the wheelchair, not so much as to ‘de-fridge’ her or to right a wrong that was committed, but because mainstream audiences still only think of Batgirl as being that red-headed girl that they watched on the animated series. Barbara’s struggles and character development and ultimate triumph as Oracle is being pushed aside, just as surely as her students and successors, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown, are being as well.
The past 20 years brought a wealth of change and growth within the Batfamily, extended it beyond Bruce and raising Dick and Barbara from subordinate positions to being his equal (and in some ways, superiors). It brought a awkward but eager to learn Robin and a Batgirl defiant to create her own destiny, as well as a spunky young vigilante who proved (as both a Robin and Batgirl) that faith in one’s self was the most important weapon one could wield. It also brought Damian, a confused, angry young boy into a family where his father didn’t quite want him. Rather than falling to the wayside, as happened to Jason, whose own journey to find himself has yet to reach an end, he was looked after and cared for, and later loved by Dick, and that made all the difference for the 5th Robin.
I’m not sure what my reactions to the new series will be once it comes out, but until then I will keep looking at the dynamic between the first and fifth Robin, and feel regret for what DC plans for them next.
I’ve been a part of enough fandoms to see how things change, and have jumped ship on more than a few when things took an irretrievable turn for the worse. No big deal, really. Sometimes big changes cause people to look at the characters and prevailing storylines differently, sometimes it pushes them more towards the fanon where they can rework the new canon into something more enjoyable to them, and other times people just leave. Door’s always open, DC has made it quite plain that they are a ‘for-profit’ company and don’t make profits by catering to nostalgia or pushing for social justice and diversity [I’ll complain about that some other time]. I can accept this all, as inconvenient but necessary ‘evils’ of the consumer world we live in.
But.
That doesn’t mean I have to like it, and I don’t. I’ve mentioned before that DC’s plan to return their ‘original heroes’ (not including the original Green Lantern or Flash, or most of the wacky hijinks that was the Golden Age of comics). They’re taking the originals [overwhelming white, heterosexual men] and pushing their successors to the side, since they want a face that the mainstream audience can recognize [not necessarily identify with] in order to push their products and raise profits. A cheap, effective, and certainly dickish move that puts the Silver Age roster back front and center, leaving newer heroes such as Wally West, Bart Allen, Cassandra Cain, Damian Wayne, and countless others in uncertain positions.
I’ve heard Dick is to be back to being Nightwing again. A demotion? Not exactly, since he didn’t quite fit the mold that Bruce Wayne had created when he became the dark knight, and his tenure certainly wasn’t as long as Bruce's (as if anyone actually thought DC would let their cash cow die-they save lasting deaths for girlfriends and small children). However, I believe that he, with Morrison at the helm, was directing the role of Batman and the Batfamily in a new direction, one in which the entire Batclan were more equal participants instead of merely waiting for orders.
But it wasn’t just that. Bruce Wayne kept all people at a distance, with even his closest friends and ‘family’ allies first in his eternal war against crime. It is easy to look at a character like him and feel a sort of awe, but with it there is a disconnect that keeps me from identifying with him. Grayson is another story. The first Robin, his entire life has been focused around both his mentor’s mission and his own desire for life. His life was built around his relationships with other people, not just solely focused on isolating himself.
Perhaps the relationship of Dick’s that I like the most is the one that he has with his youngest adopted brother, Damian. Young Damian Wayne had the ill-fortune of being related to the 3 most emotionally ‘healthy’ individuals of the DCU: Ra’s and Talia Al Ghul and Bruce Wayne. He was deprived of a normal childhood, raised in order to better serve the house of Al Ghul, and was rejected by both of his biological parents [in their own ways].
Come Final Crisis, exit Bruce Wayne. With that, Damian’s future was left to the man who would take up the cowl, Dick Grayson.
I was never a huge fan of the original dynamic between Batman and Robin [blasphemy, I know]. There was something about a cold, nigh-invincible dark knight needing a young sidekick to give him something to hold onto as he fought the evils of the world that I didn’t feel comfortable with. Bruce’s devotion to his mission divorced himself from his own identity, making what the world knew as ‘Bruce Wayne’ an obscene sort of character, a mask that he used to further his aims. He struggles with reconciling which of his identities are his true one, and he relies upon his succession of Robins [and to a much lesser degree, the Batgirls] to give him an identity that he can fall back on. As much as he may care about any of them [and I believe that he does, in his own unreliable way], he uses them, both in his private life and for his mission.
This isn’t the case with Dick Grayson. The first boy wonder never quite loses his own identity, allowing his different identities of Robin, Nightwing, and later Batman to be a part of him without letting them overwhelm him. He is his own person, and ‘Dick Grayson’ is not some convenient charade that he uses to keep people at bay, and he is was the one best fit to look after Damian. The original light to Bruce’s darkness, he was the natural fit to help Damian deal with his internal struggles and doubts, helping prove the idea that nurture, not nature, is the dominant factor in determining how a person turns out.
Of course, let’s not forget something equally as important: Dick loves Damian. Dick’s personality makes it easier for him to form emotional attachments with people, and his need to comfort and protect manifests beautifully with his youngest brother. He cares for Damian’s emotional health as much as he cares about his development as Robin, and makes sure that Damian knows that. League of Assassins trained or not, Damian is still a child, and he needs the solid reassurance that he is both needed and love, something that he can’t quite obtain from his father [both pre-Final Crisis and after his return].
Dick and Damian’s bond (though the latter would be quick to ‘-tt-’ at it), was one that worked both as brothers and as partners, and the new dynamic duo of Batman and Robin. Even if they had a rocky start, they learned to work together, Damian finally being able to trust Dick as not only the new Batman but as the senior partner in their relationship. Stop for a minute and think about how many adults Damian trusts in is life. His parents? Forget about it. His grandfather? Last time I checked, Ra’s attempt on stealing his grandson’s body didn’t exactly leave him in the running for ‘best grandpa of the year’. Alfred? Yes, but in a different way. The bond Damian was able to forge with Dick is something that is unique to their relationship.
And now that is going away.
What am I supposed to expect from the new Batman and Robin dynamic: grumpy and grumpier? Am I expected to believe that Bruce has suddenly become the perfect father and has an actual and sincere interest in his biological son’s life? The man has four sons (and one daughter, poor Cassandra), and he doesn’t exactly have a track record worthy of being proud of. He’s more of a symbol than a man in my eyes, and that isn’t the kind of man who can remember to look outside of his mission and pay attention to the little things that matter. I don’t trust him with Damian. I don’t trust him with any of the children of the Batclan, I barely even trust him to keep himself together.
Maybe he’s the hero that Gotham needs, but I would like to think that it deserves better. I really do. And if there is a Batman Gotham deserves [for no matter how vile the villains may be, there are too many good people to just write it off as an inferior sister of Metropolis], I believe that it is Dick Grayson, and by his side should be a Robin who can believe in him.
So, where does that leave me, the uncertain reader? More put off than intrigued by the upcoming changes in the DC Universe. I’m more than a little excited about what lies in store for Jason, Roy, and Kory in their new team book, I worry that Wally [the Flash that I both grew up with and identified with] will be sidelined so that Barry can be reintroduced [and forced on] a newer audience.
I am also unimpressed that Barbara is [and I certainly think so] being demoted to her former status as Batgirl, a role that created and loved but had to leave behind in a cheap stunt DC pulled in the late 80’s that left her in a wheelchair. Now she’s being taken out of the wheelchair, not so much as to ‘de-fridge’ her or to right a wrong that was committed, but because mainstream audiences still only think of Batgirl as being that red-headed girl that they watched on the animated series. Barbara’s struggles and character development and ultimate triumph as Oracle is being pushed aside, just as surely as her students and successors, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown, are being as well.
The past 20 years brought a wealth of change and growth within the Batfamily, extended it beyond Bruce and raising Dick and Barbara from subordinate positions to being his equal (and in some ways, superiors). It brought a awkward but eager to learn Robin and a Batgirl defiant to create her own destiny, as well as a spunky young vigilante who proved (as both a Robin and Batgirl) that faith in one’s self was the most important weapon one could wield. It also brought Damian, a confused, angry young boy into a family where his father didn’t quite want him. Rather than falling to the wayside, as happened to Jason, whose own journey to find himself has yet to reach an end, he was looked after and cared for, and later loved by Dick, and that made all the difference for the 5th Robin.
I’m not sure what my reactions to the new series will be once it comes out, but until then I will keep looking at the dynamic between the first and fifth Robin, and feel regret for what DC plans for them next.