#batman 416

[remcadll]

Post-crisis Jaybin era Batman on a generational bullshit run

[jasontodddidnothingwrong]

0 to brothers in like 20 pages Batman (1940) #416

[milkwithcheetos]

Spoiler alert! He never gets the chance to grow into it.

[junkdrawerfan]

I can’t stop thinking about it…

During those months of separation—during the rise of Nightwing, between the moments of joy that come with creation and flight—about the nights Dick Grayson sat at the lively table in Titans Tower, eating dinner with his friends, unable to stop thinking about Bruce eating alone. Do you think he cried late at night, sharing a bed with—at the time—the love of his life, mourning his second family while surrounded by his third? Did he ache for his second father, knowing Bruce would never grant himself the kindness of company?

And then he picks up that newspaper and sees Robin and Batman. And he was wrong. All that fretting and guilty and grief... and there is Bruce. And Bruce—his second dad, his mentor, his brother in arms, his partner, his, just his—couldn’t even wait twenty-four hours before replacing him.

[yap-city]

I read this comic (Batman #416, where Jason meets Dick for the first time) before I started this blog, so I’ve never posted about it before. But I do think about this scene All The Time, so. In case you’re wondering what Bruce’s original, honest reason is for adopting Jason and making him Robin:

He’s lonely. He’s lonely. He was stupid and pushed Dick away, and he was on the streets alone, and the manor was so empty, and he missed his son.

And I’m sure the other shit Bruce said contributed to him taking Jason in too. I’m sure he wanted to give Jason a good home, and it’s shown in the issue Jason is introduced that Bruce is having a much harder time patrolling without a Robin by his side. But truly the core of it is that he missed Dick, missed his son. So he found another little boy with black hair and blue eyes who he thought he could help, and he tried to fill the hole in his life. And when Dick came back, feeling hurt and confused and abandoned, Bruce obviously still misses him so desperately, but all he knows how to do is push his oldest son further away.

And that’s so. God. That’s so heartbreaking. It’s also shitty, and Bruce is shitty for doing this—it’s not fair to Dick or Jason—but it’s also so real. I’ve read a lot of justifications for why Bruce adopts Jason so soon after Dick leaves (or gets kicked out, depending on what comic you’re reading) but this is always the scene that sticks with me. Because this is the kind of father Bruce is, to me—not a good father, necessarily, but not a malicious one either. A man who cares for his kids so deeply but will push them away a thousand times before he figures out how to say “I love you.” It’s so human.

[holyjasontoddwaynebatman]

I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING

[batlog]

Batman #416 / White Gold and Truth

[x-marge]

so funny how batfans overplay how mad dick was about jason being robin. literally for less than 1 issue. dick meets jason as robin and literally the next time they meet gives him his old costume and his phone number (time frame is kind of unclear but within a week of them meeting)

of course this is all before nightwing got his own title and the whole story of how he stopped being robin got revisited but i digress. i dont. like Nightwing year one <3 so i pretend i do not see it