Alright better Nightwing origin story between these two and why: Judas Contract or Dixon’s Year One? Which elements of each story work better and what are each stories’ flaws Etc?
I don't know what is supposed to make me prefer Dixon's Nightwing Year One (which is an expanded version of what he wrote in Nightwing: Secret Files and Origin, 1999)?
In the stories from 1984, we see very little of Dick's thought process on why he chose his new identity. It's that well-known page in Tales of the Teen Titans # 44 when he puts on the suit. After all, the important story is that Deathstroke has captured the other Titans. It introduces Adeline and Joey Wilson. Dick's new name and outfit is merely a detail.
NYO explores Dick's journey to becoming Nightwing in detail. Why the name; why the costume design; why continue to fight crime; why go back to Gotham (originally, he just went there to give Jason Robin; he was committed to the New Teen Titans, not to helping out in Gotham). That's not a bad idea – too bad about the execution.
Pro (an extended) Judas Contract:
It's Dick's choice that he has outgrown Robin. (Tales of the Teen Titans # 39)
Dick chooses his new identity to honour Bruce and Clark - and also his birth parents and Starfire. Nightwing was a Kryptonian bird; Clark decided to use it as a vigilante name in homage to Batman.
Bruce isn't an asshole who fires and/or kicks Dick out.
Dick has a good relationship with Bruce and Jason.
Bruce scolds Jason when he uses a Robin suit (Batman # 366). Dick gives his blessing for Jason to become Robin (Batman # 368). Dick's history as Robin is respected by everyone involved, even though Robin was not, at this time, a family nickname. (It wasn't even clear that Dick had a saying in how the suit looked.)
Pro Year One.
Uh - I like when Dick goes to Clark for advice and support, which he didn't have to in 1984 because Bruce wasn't an asshole.
We get a reason for the design of Dick's first Nightwing suit - it was inspired by his father's circus outfit. But it's Alfred who finishes the design and adds yellow feathers, mind you.
Points to that Dick goes back to the circus to explore his roots, I guess. But he also did that in the early 1980s, in Robin solo stories, when he had left college. So being kicked out by Bruce isn't necessary for that to happen. (By the way, in 80s, Dick worked with the Hill circus. In NYO, Dixon makes a nod to this because Haly and Hill are in a partnership. Lorna Hill runs the circus in both stories.)
Dick exploring his circus roots in Batman vol 1 # 339 (1981)
Bruce is an asshole in Nightwing Year One, Jason is a brat, the Titans are hardly there and and it gives Barbara more importance for Dick's younger years than I prefer (but then, this is Chuck "co-writer of Robin Year One and Batgirl Year One" Dixon, so what else to expect?). I'm also not a fan of the art...
I think we're meant to read NYO as that the reason Bruce kicked Dick out was that he felt Dick was growing up. This has pretty much been a common denominator in every version. Jim Starlin wrote it in Batman # 416 (1988). Marv Wolfman in Action Comics Weekly # 613 (1988) and the Robin 80th anniversary. And Chuck Dixon in Robin vol 2 # 13 (1995).
Even in NYO, Bruce tries to keep an eye on Dick. He still cares – but he's written as (way, way) worse at handling and expressing feelings.
In Grayson Annual #2, Dick talked as if he had decided to leave Robin himself. But the latest interpretation, in Nightwing vol 4 # 79, is back to that Bruce fired him (but Dick made the choice to leave).
It would have been nice with a version where it was up to Dick to decide he had outgrown Robin. But I can live with the story from Batman # 408. Emotionally inept Bruce gets scared by Dick's latest brush with death; at least partly, he uses this as an excuse to push Dick away because he doesn't want to be the one who is rejected. And Dick chooses to leave.
