PSA: Dick Grayson’s Birthday
And other comic birthdays & dates in general. I’m just going to clear up something about comic book continuity & dates and how they work.
I’m noticing a lot of confusion about Dick’s birthday right now. I’m not talking about the March 20th versus March 21st debate. [It’s the 20th, sorry.] I’m talking about this confusion where Dick seems to have 3-4 birthdays. Comics are confusing as hell, so this is definitely understandable. I’m hopefully just making this easier for other people.
According to that calendar, Dick has three birthdays.
March 20: Post-Zero Hour (Also called Pre-Flashpoint, Pre-52 and New Earth)
And of course, let’s toss in Dick’s Earth-16 (Young Justice) birthday of December 1.
So Dick has four birthdays. Are we supposed to celebrate his birthday four times a year? Well, I definitely won’t stop you (in fact, it sounds fun), but that’s not quite how comic birthdays work.
Here’s a simplified version of the years for DC continuities:
Pre-Crisis: Comics published before 1985
Post-Crisis: Comics published after 1985
Post-Zero Hour (also called Pre-Flashpoint, Pre-52, or New Earth): Comics published after 1994
New 52: Comics published after the 2011 reboot
Dick’s birthday was November 11th in pre-crisis continuity. That means it’s valid for comics published prior to the year 1985. If we’re talking about golden and silver age Dick Grayson, you’d be correct in celebrating his birthday on November 11th. In fact, if you have a deep, visceral love for that era, it sounds like a great idea and I might start doing that.
But November 11 is not the birthday of modern Dick Grayson. When we have multiple dates like these, they are restricted to their respective continuities. That’s just how comics work. New Earth (Pre-52) Dick does not have his birthday on November 11th. If you’re talking about the Dixon Nightwing run or BatDick, you’re dealing with New Earth Dick Grayson, meaning his birthday is on March 20th. The November 11th birthday is irrelevant here.
This is how it works for other dates too. In that calendar, you might notice there’s three dates for the deaths of the Flying Graysons.
June 27: Post-Zero Hour (consequently, the day after the anniversary of Bruce’s parent’s deaths. Must be a great week for those two.)
June 27th is the most recent date. In fact, I have the panel here:
This is the modern version of Dick’s parents’ deaths.
If you’re discussing New Earth Dick Grayson, then his birthday is on March 20 and his parents died on June 27.
If you’re discussing Pre-Crisis Dick Grayson (before the year 1985), then his birthday is on November 11 and his parents died on July 15.
It kind of drives me crazy when people mix these up
Since the New 52 has not re-established a majority of these dates, it’s common convention to stick with the last continuity’s dates until the newest continuity “retcons” them or confirms they’re the same.
Hopefully that all made sense and I didn’t just make this even more confusing. When it comes to Dick’s Earth-16 birthday of Dec 1st, that’s limited to Young Justice Dick Grayson. When we’re talking about modern comic book adaptions, it’s the Pre-52 dates we care about.
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