Shaken not stirred...

Batman and Robin by Alex Ross

Full disclosure time. If you are reading this and did not realize I was a huge comic book geek now you know.  If you enjoyed any comic book based movie since 1978's Superman and believed a man could fly, you're welcome.  Me and my kind kept the genre alive for Hollywood to rape.  If you are not one of my comic book reading friends turn away now you will be bored to tears.  You that stay probably will be too, can't be helped.

And now the proof.

Cover of Forever Evil #6 by David Finch

Recently DC Comics had a villain reveal the identity of Batman's junior partner (all grown up now) Richard "Dick" Grayson as the superhero Nightwing to the world. They tease that they are going to kill Grayson (they've tried this before with a huge fan backlash) then after suitable drama reveal *gasp* he's gonna let the world think he's dead and be a secret agent. Sigh.

I'm a big (some might argue huge) Batman fan.  I actually grew up with Robin the boy wonder.  Literally. When I was a teen they began aging him.  I was 16 he was 16.  I was 18 he was 18.  I was 22 he was...well , you get it. I grew up and left home he left behind the Batcave and became Nightwing.

He stayed 22 now i'm 42.  They still have a Batcave.  I got the shaft.

The new concept is that Grayson  has been recruited by Spyral, a secret agency (recently revealed to exist in Batman comics) that protects us from god knows what.  Sounds kinda James Bond-ishly cool.  What if Batman didn't wear a mask and worked for the CIA? Not too bad?

This is a horrible idea.  Even before I saw the image I knew this was not good.  The art is by Mikel Janin with covers by Andrew Robinson and so far visually it looks pretty cool.  Based on what I know about comics, (which is a lot) conceptually it sounds like shit.  It's not out yet so I'm going to go easy and review it when it actually comes out BUT really DC?  Really? 

The first image released for 'Gayson' by Mikel Janin

My problem with this concept is threefold.

Perhaps the most obvious issue I have is the fact that the gun is so prominent.  Disclaimer: this is not anti-gun. I am a pro-gun "pry it from my cold dead hands" kinda guy, but it's the focus of both pieces released for the series.  He's pointing it in the direction of the viewer.  It just seems out of character for this young man who has been so thoroughly indoctrinated by the Batman to not use or rely on a firearm to be depicted like this.  I am going to assume that they are going to make a big deal about his promise to not use lethal force. Batman abhors killing and guns (for obvious reasons) BUT he knows how to use a gun expertly and so do his sidekicks.  Character-wise he's an expert marksman Grayson was even a police officer for a time and for arguments sake they they did a good job of him carrying a gun but not using lethal force.  What I don't  like is how important they are making the gun in the images.  It is out of character.  He was taught to use his mind and body as his weapons and guns were for cowardly criminals without super powers or ninja skills. 

Agent Roy Harper art by Dan Jurgens

Second, they tried this same story formula with a friend and contemporary of Dick Grayson, Green Arrow's sidekick Speedy (Robin lite).  Speedy became Arsenal, agent of Checkmate.  It was at times uninspired and other times horrible with a few interesting moments peppered in but really on the whole it sucked.  They eventually brought Speedy back to the superhero world in a grown up version of his mentor's clothes and called him originally enough - Red Arrow.  He even joined the Justice League for a time.  It seems they were kind of forced to make these characters grow up and didn't know how to handle them.  With Speedy the guns made sense.  He shot thing and he shot them at people.  It's what he did and he was good at it. This thing with Grayson doesn't fit.  He had already graduated to an independent adult role with a strong fan following there's no need for the big change.

Lastly, a lot of what makes Grayson or Nightwing work as a character is his history.  Richard "Dick" Grayson has been continually in print as a character for 74 years this month. The character has a long and involved history in the DC universe. Batman is an asshole but Grayson, he has friends.  He's been a leader of several groups, including the Justice League, and is well respected by the other DCU characters, even Superman listens to him.  Batman often used Nightwing as an intermediary when he lacked the people skills to get something done.  DC should be embracing that history and have him interacting with others instead of faking his death and shoving him into an isolated 'pocket' of their universe.

There you have it.  He's the GD Batman. Words by Frank Miller art by Jim Lee.

Their argument is - he's Batman-lite. There's no need for Batman and Batman-lite.  As I mentioned,  Batman is usually portrayed as an asshole. He's borderline psychotic and possibly a psychopath.  He dresses up like a flying rodent and beats the hell out of people.  Bruce Wayne may be suave but Batman has the people skills of a rabid badger.  In a well written Batman story he out thinks the bad guy then beats the hell out of him. Regardless, he's out jumping from rooftop to rooftop compulsively  seeking justice for his parents. Grayson was never the brooding vigilante.  Robin was the bright spot of Batman's world and Grayson continued that as Nightwing.  He enjoyed helping people as Robin and continued as he's got older because it's what he liked to do.  It's not a mission of justice.  It's doing the right thing and helping people because he can. 

The second image released for 'Grayson' by Andrew Robinson

The picture I get is that they painted themselves into a corner by revealing his identity and are now trying to make the best of it.

The thing about comics is it's a place where heroes do extraordinary things they can fly, shoot lasers from their eyes and can manage to stop the bad guys without killing (unless you're and alien or a nazi then they can kill you dead).  In the real world, police officers and soldiers have to shoot people line of duty it a sad necessity but non lethal is always the first option (and last I checked they don't have ninja skills or superpowers). Taking this character that's spent the last 74 years against the need for guns to help people and having him so blatantly tied to a gun seems wrong.  I understand sometimes you gotta shake things up but to me this misses the mark.

*All art copyright DC Comics. All rights reserved.  I wish I had permission to use it please don't sue. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are in no way related to DC Comics or Warner Brothers.