"The Old Gods Died!"
Now Grant Morrison is actually writing a Batman who is former Robin Dick Grayson. Donna Troy was Wonder Woman during the One Year Later story by Allan Heinberg. Roy Harper was Red Arrow for a minute in the Justice League. And Wally West, well he was the Flash from like 1985 until 2009 when his old mentor Barry Allen came racing back. He is still a Flash, which is cool. There are several Earth-based Green Lanterns now. But replacement isn't really what it used to be.
Maybe it worked better with the old Earth-One/Earth-Two scheme where after concepts were redone with different characters as the lead, the old one could still exist simultaneously in a different reality. Though some characters were still the same person, if somewhat varied. This is how they'd decided to have it both ways.
But even though we (I) love our classic characters, it really doesn't sound like a bad thing to just move on, even if it would only be for a little while.
The old characters could still loom large, as god-heroes of a bygone age:
Here are some lovely statues of the old. Let's get on to reviewing the new, shall we?
Batman II & the new Robin
Ah, whatever happened to comic book covers that gave a verbal synopsis of exactly what this issue is about? Also, how do two dark-haired parents have a little red headed boy?
It's been said a few times now "As long as Gotham needs them, Batman and Robin can never die."
The first example above is of Dick Grayson as Batman II and the son of Bruce Wayne and Kathy Kane (the original Batwoman) as Robin.
The next example is of Tim Drake (Robin III) as Batman and the son of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Catwoman) as Robin. Oddly enough this one also has red-hair.
Something Grant Morrison said in an interview about Tim Drake technically deserving the Batman spot more than anyone... found it, here's what he said:
"Ultimately, Tim Drake deserves it, but it’s not necessarily the way that it is going to work out,” Morrison said of the DCU’s Robin since 1991. “Of all the characters, he’s the one that actually deserves to be Batman, because he has put so much effort into it. And it wasn’t an accident for him. It’s something he actually chose to do. Tim would be very much like the original. He would try really hard to live up to Batman in a way that would actually suit his own personality but I think he‘d wind up being quite grim and determined.
"Dick Grayson would be a very different Batman,” Morrison continued, speaking of the original Boy Wonder, who now protects Gotham City as Nightwing. “The way I always compare the two of them is that Bruce Wayne was a little rich kid who was quite weak and sickly until the moment his parents were killed and then he decided to become strong. But Dick Grayson is a tough little circus kid. He was born tough. And he was probably quite poor. He was a carny. He spoke strangely. He didn’t sound like a rich person. I like playing with those things that people don’t think of all of the time, the class aspects of it all. So Dick Grayson would be kind of a circus Batman. He’d smile a lot more. He’d be really fun."
Anyway, I think the fun in this sort of concept is the idea that Batman and Robin are basically two Robins. The fun sidekick as two different people playing two different roles at once, if that makes any sense.
Anyway, the current Batman is the original Robin, Dick Grayson. The current Robin is Damian Wayne, the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, daughter of mastermind villain Ra's al Ghul and heiress to her father's vast criminal empire. Damian was raised by his mother as an assassin and is pretty much just plain a little bastard.
So the fun circus acrobat kid is now Batman and Robin is rather grim and violent. It's a deliberate, simple role-reversal but it comes off really genius. This is the sort of fresh take on an old idea that makes me think these replacements would work really well across the board.
Apparently Morrison had originally wanted a sort of inverted yellow bat-symbol for the new Batman and a modernized version of the Earth-2 Robin's costume from when he first took over for Batman on the Justice Society.
Though as far as the grown-up Robin costumes I think prefer the Neal Adams design below with the yellow tights and attached glider-cape. But I have a taste for the garish and ridiculous.
But this Dick Grayson never became a grown-up Robin, instead he broke out on his own, took a new name, Nightwing, got himself his own town, Bludhaven. The name Nightwing is currently in use over in the Superman family, which is where the name came from to begin with. Based on him being the third character for years in the "World's Finest" duo of Batman and Superman, when he chose a new identity, Dick chose one that he felt would honor both his mentors.
Similarly, in her current incarnation, Supergirl has been under the tutelage of Wonder Woman in addition to Superman and to a lesser degree Batman. Depending on who is drawing her, she even appears to be wearing somewhat Amazonian gold bracelets. So who knows what variant incarnations are in her future?
Back to Dick Grayson as Nightwing, the idea maybe a little more Batman meets Spiderman. Except Dick is generally portrayed as pretty and quite popular, unlike perpetual underdog Peter Parker.
It makes a great use of the dichotomy between beautiful and creepy. If anyone reads this, they may notice I use a lot of pictures. Most of which are not in any way mine other than the fact that I found them. If anyone has a problem with me using their work let me know, I mean no disrespect.
"He's got a more suspicious nature." Maybe we CAN go back to Earth-1/Earth-2 shenanigans. I mean, paranoid, always-ready for everything, poor little rich boy Bruce Wayne Batman is great and so is tough, doesn't like to be tied down, "first thing I lost was the cape", carnival kid Dick Grayson Batman. Can't we have it both ways?
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