So that post and reblog(s) of you talking about who will be Absolute Robin, and I agree, while I do like how Synder can write Dick and I’m really hoping Dick is done well and is given a big and important role by him and the Absolute universe in general
(just because I want more great stuff for Dick in general in both the main universe and else worlds. And because the Absolute universe is such a big universe that DC is focusing so hard on, even at the cost of other stuff, including good stuff sometimes. And because it is supposed to be more of a gateway to new readers to these characters and stuff. And because the universe is supposed to do twists on characters, while keeping the core of the character. And etc. All of this and more makes me really want Dick to be Absolute Robin and/or have strong connections to it).
but if Dick’s Robin legacy is downplayed and disrespected again, like it was especially during the New 52 and elsetime and elsewhere too (an elseworld. But the way Dick was treated and written at 1st in The White Knight universe, including but not limited to - also made him kind of a lackey, which is not very Dick and made him lose too much to my tastes, at least at first and etc. - Jason somehow being the 1st Robin, and not Dick, but yet Jason is still Robin somehow? I can sometimes like Reverse Robins stuff, and Jason was decent in this elseworld, and Dick did get better in this universe - he still wasn’t done very well at 1st though - and I hope if we do get more in this universe, he continues to improve, but I don’t like how they handled Robin and Jason suddenly being the 1st Robin and Dick the 2nd super well. Didn’t make much sense and it just felt weird and wrong to me when it came to Jason and esp. Dick), and if that happens again, especially in something like the Absolute universe, Im going to be annoyed and not super happy.
I’m also bummed by how okay and wanting people are of having Absolute Robin be not Dick and be another Robin instead or even Harley or Babs and/or etc. I like most of these other Robins, but like Dick IS Robin, he made it, he was Robin for decades and still gets modern Robin stories, there is no Robin without Dick, but for done reason people seem okay with disconnecting Dick from Robin abd downplaying Dick’s Robin legacy, and think it would make sense to deconstruct Robin, while keeping the core of Robin, which the Absolute universe does (or should do), without Dick, who made it, who was Robin for a very long time, and being Robin was just mainly Dick being Dick (but also a performer and etc. like Dick is) - I will like most of the other Robins btw, but Robin is Dick’s Legacy -. It ha just weird to me. And like you, some if the Absolute Robin talk is just really bumming me out.
I guess I can only hope for is that Dick will be treated, written, and done well (and given big and important stuff) by Synder in the Absolute universe, and done those things just in general in the Absolute universe, Synder or not, and that Dick’s Robin Legacy is respected (and that he isn’t sidelined and relegated to a cameo/side character/supporting cast).
Heyyy sorry I didn't respond to this before we got our answer. Also, FYI that the line of succession in White Knight was flipped because the writer straight up didn't know that the Robin's went in an order, and his editor didn't correct him, for some reason. So if it seems like it wasn't handled well, that's because it was an accident made by a writer who looked at the Robins as "a vague group of sidekicks Batman had over the years," which is exactly what I was complaining about.
I think I need to add that I don't have an issue with there being multiple Robins, or with Dick not being the main Robin in something. What makes me sad is that none of those Robins feel like they represent Dick's legacy *in the main universe* anymore. The two Robins who got the most focus in post-crisis were Tim and Damian. Being part of Dick's legacy was central to both of their characters, and Dick had well-developed relationships with both of them. This hasn't been true of the reboot, where Dick's relationship with the legacy Robins persists as an informed attribute (at best) and everyone plus Jarro the Starro has been given the mantel. It doesn't seem like any of them are legacies *to Dick* anymore.
I wouldn't be bothered by this AU at all if it was being published concurrent to post-crisis, but as it stands I feel like it's carrying forward some of my least favorite reboot habits (many of which are Snyder's fault) while dressing them up as a subversion of the main continuity. A lot of the elements it's subtracting have already been removed from that status quo, however, and everything the series seems to be setting up with them has already been done (recently, at that).
So I guess I'm not super optimistic about where absbats is going at this point? The whole flattened out power rangers peer dynamic is exactly what I didn't want to see, and there's nothing about introducing the whole batch (that's FIVE CHARACTERS!!!!!!!) in one go makes me feel like any of them are especially important.
What I'd really been hoping for was an interesting take on the relationship between Bruce and Dick, which, as much as I've enjoyed their interactions in Watters' Nightwing run, has for the most been sanded down to flashbacks and empty platitudes, familial or otherwise, that never seem to align with the characters' actual actions in the main verse. What it seems like we'll be getting is child soldier discourse, again, and the Joker as Batman, again, with Robins, again. And Dick was raised by the Joker. Again. While Bruce teams up with Harley Quinn to fight them. Again. Every single 'twist' on canon here already happened in canon. Recently!!! I'm especially perturbed by the decision to revisit a Ric Grayson plot point. Between this and the also very successful Nocturne (which was good, but jeez, immediate turnoff) I feel like that story arc is beginning to define his role in the lore in a way that I really don't like. I only want to catch a whiff of it ever again if it's to explore the rest of the Bat cast's role in letting that happen to somebody they're nominally supposed to care about, and even that would be too soon.
I'd really love to be disproven in any of this. The more I think it over, though, I'm not sure that Snyder has ever really written Bruce as being especially fond of Dick? Obviously Dick loves Bruce, and we all really like that monologue Bruce gave about Dick saving him, but I'm not sure that what's being expressed there ever really showed up on the page. In practice, he kind of seems to dislike him in a way that no prior mainline version of the character that I'm aware of did. Moreover, it appeared in a story that was written with the preboot continuity in mind. Once Snyder pivoted to writing for the new continuity, we got a bunch of stories about how he had secretly wanted a better partner than Dick and Dick's legacy as Robin wasn't worth living up to.
I feel similarly about the idea that Dick is better off because he had Bruce in his life. Love that take! It's my favorite. Not sure any evidence that it's true has appeared on the page since the reboot outside of Tom Taylor's writing, which was way late to the party and has all the gravitas and staying power of cotton candy in a rain storm. Most of the post-flashpoint stories I've read strongly indicate the opposite is true. They're two biggest story arcs have been (1) Bruce clobbers Dick into lying to the rest of the family in order to go undercover and then (oops!) forgets about it, and (2) Dick gets shot in the head to get to Bruce, Bruce hires a neurosurgeon who (oops!!!) brainwashes him into being a different person, which prompts Bruce to convince everybody to abandon him, at which point all two of the bad guys that everyone knows know who Dick is predictably step in to take advantage, while Bruce mainly focuses on how sad he is that his fiance dumped him.
As I said, absbats would bother me less if the past decade of mainline comics had played out differently than they did, but here we are. Wish I had more faith.
A final aside: I don't especially love that they made absbat's main weapon the axe he killed Dick with in TDKSA, or that TDKSA got a big re-release right after the issue that formally introduced the Robins came out.
Those are my thoughts at this time, in any case. Lemme know where you stand.
