I think a lot of Batfamily conflict is really about disillusionment.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship between Bruce, Barbara, and Dick. Not romantically. Not in terms of ships.
I’ve been thinking about it in terms of confrontation, disillusionment, and the incredibly complicated emotional history that exists between three people who have spent years orbiting the same impossible figure.
Barbara and Bruce are deeply similar people. They are both obsessive, hyper-competent, controlling, analytical, and fundamentally convinced that preparedness is survival. Which is exactly why they clash so violently sometimes: Barbara shares many of Bruce’s instincts, but she has always been far more willing to question the ethics behind those instincts.
Bruce crosses lines when it comes to control. He makes decisions for people. He decides who enters vigilantism and who does not. He withholds information because he believes he knows best.
Barbara understands the logic behind those decisions better than almost anyone, and maybe that is exactly why she resents them so much.
I’ve also always thought canon has barely scratched the surface of how complicated Barbara’s feelings toward Bruce should be after what happened with Joker. Because yes, Joker pulled the trigger, but Batman created a world in which everyone around him eventually becomes collateral damage. Barely three months pass between the attack on Barbara and Jason’s murder.
That has to leave scars far more complex than anger alone. In fact, Bruce is not even the one who eventually helps Barbara recover physically; it is her father who does. It works wonderfully from a narrative perspective, but emotionally it feels brutal: Batman can perform scientific miracles, but this particular one has to come from Jim Gordon for Barbara… which inevitably raises the question: did Bruce simply not try hard enough?
Dick’s conflict with Bruce is different, but I think both Dick and Barbara share one thing they rarely admit:
They were children who placed Batman somewhere above the stars.
And I sometimes wonder whether a huge part of their conflict with Bruce comes from processing the realization that Batman is not some mythic moral figure, but simply a man. A deeply flawed man with extraordinary determination, enormous trauma, and enough money to make those flaws dangerously consequential.
I am not trying to excuse Bruce. A lot of his choices deserve criticism, and many of them are unacceptable. But I think what makes these relationships so fascinating is that buried underneath all that anger there is also disillusionment.
Dick and Barbara know Bruce better than most people. They constantly insist: “I know the real Bruce, and he has more shadows than light.” But I think what really haunts both of them is that they once believed Bruce was something greater than human.
And I think part of the difficulty they both have in forgiving him—and in accepting the moments when he genuinely tries to change for the better (setting aside the fact that these are comics, and canon always tends to return characters to an earlier status quo)—comes from being unable to forgive him for not being as perfect as they believed he was when they were children.
And growing up always hurts.
Maybe, a lot of Batfamily conflict is not really about morality, maybe it is just… heartbreak.
Not romantically. Not in terms of ships. Just disillusionment.
A (Positive) Review of Dan Watters' First Nightwing Arc So Far - Introduction
Introduction
Dick’s Characterization Part 01
Dick’s Characterization Part 02
Plot
Zanni & Themes
Tone
Bryce Morgan Part 01
Bryce Morgan Part 02
Barbara Gordon
Conclusion
Bibliography
My most popular meta is a negative critique of Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo's Nightwing run. While it took me over a year to write it, I published it here on Tumblr shortly after the end of their run was announced. As such, it feels fitting to share my thoughts on what Dan Watters is doing right as the first major arc of his run heads towards its epic finale and Dexter Soy steps away from his position as main artist.
Naturally, this won't be nearly as long as that Tom Taylor critique. I do not think I have it in me to produce another piece of criticism of that size here on Tumblr. In fact, as I finished editing, this complete essay clocked in at 16,283 words. Long, yes, but nowhere near the 44,000+ words of my Taylor piece.
Another difference between this review and my Taylor one is that I'll be far more casual in this piece. Furthermore, this will read more as a personal opinion, while my Taylor essay came with a complete thesis to make it into a proper piece of literary criticism. I tried, in order to balance my extreme dislike for what is (regretfully) an award-winning bestselling run, to temper my language and bring in as much analysis to support my assertions as possible. This review, by comparison, will be first and foremost an opinion piece. With my Taylor essay, I felt like I was on the defensive – I hated a popular run and viewed it as not only objectively bad writing, but as writing that was tarnishing the legacy of my most beloved character. With this, I’m more celebrating the things that I enjoyed, sometimes simply because they appeal to my personal sensibilities.
Needless to say, I do not feel the need to defend myself against popular opinion with this piece. With that in mind, while I will be citing secondary sources, those references will be kept to a minimum. And, as with every original post of mine, I’ll also offer a bibliography.
Sadly, while this is nowhere near close to the size of the Taylor essay, because tumblr has a limit of 30 images per post, I did have to divide this review into multiple parts.
Finally, I want to make something clear: while this is a positive review, I'll also be criticizing some aspects of Watters’ writing. Some will be larger critiques, others will be nitpicks. Some I can back up with elaborate explanations, others are as simple as “eh… Didn’t work for me.” But at the end of the day, I have to say that regardless of how much I critique Watters’ writing, I have to say that I do think that, as of January 2026, this is one of the best Nightwing runs we had. Speaking of, for context for future readers, I began the first draft for this piece on 08 December 2025. I published this on Tumblr on 20 January 2026, the day before Nightwing (2016) #134 came out. As of time of writing, we are two issues away from the grand finale of the Cirque du Sin arc.
So, the other day, I came across a poll of “Which [Batfam member] would you rather have as a roommate.”
I clicked Nightwing instantly and my friend hanging out with me was shocked, because I mostly write Jason Todd stuff. (Or rather that’s what I publish)
And they asked me why, and without even thinking I went:
“Well he wouldn’t look at me strangely for having two hampers because top clothes don’t get washed with bottom clothes, or get weirded out by my ten different soaps/scrubs/etc. And he wouldn’t wash his hands in the kitchen sink!” And then I paused and went: “Plus he wouldn’t say my food smelled ethnic or was too spicy. Plus he’d leave my hollow eating torches alone cause no circus boy is messing with someone’s torches for a laugh.”
And none of these things even crossed my friend’s mind and she just gaped at me. But it reminded me again, quite strongly, of why having characters from your culture is important.
I’ve heard people call Dick Grayson the sex symbol of DC. Ever since the era of DCYou and Rebirth, along with some selective Pre-52 material, he’s been characterized to know how good he looks. He wins over women, he walks around shirtless, he uses his sex appeal to gain info.
But what these people don’t know is that this is actually a HUGE mischaracterization. Here’s a thread about how Dick’s personality and views of himself have changed to fit a sexualized agenda, rather than staying true to his character.
Let’s begin with the Pre-Crisis era.
Dick first began to show an aversion to the sexualization of his body in Tales of the Teen Titans, which was his primary book at the time. Here Tara’s ‘compliments’ are met with a brief thanks before he reminds her of his modesty.
This would continue into the edge of Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis, with a sense awkwardness for any sort of joke involving his body or appearance. At this point he and Kory have been dating for a number of years, but Dick still seems embarrassed with a comment such as this one.
In The New Titans, a disguised Dick says to Kory that he’s “pretty conservative” about nudity, and she replies that he must learn how to accept himself.
“Easier said than done.”
This reveals that Dick actually struggles with an insecurity regarding his body.
When what’s generally known as the Pre-52 era of Post-Crisis rolls around, Dick never overtly admits his struggles like he did with Kory.
But there are several instances where he is clearly uncomfortable with people sexualizing him or pointing out his appearance.
Both of these instances fall within Nightwing (1996). Similar comments are made, and both times, his response is exasperated and uninterested.
Unfortunately, Nightwing (1996) is also tainted by the hand of Devin Grayson, who plays a role in the new wave of sexualizing Dick and portraying him as a womanizer. But this just goes to show that even despite that, there were still hints regarding how he could care less.
Dick Grayson being the sex symbol of DC makes no sense when you consider his character history before the work of Devin Grayson and Tim Seeley, among others. Dick is also an incredibly monogamous person to whom love means a lot. But that’s another thread for the future.
The point here is that he should still be appreciated as a character with his insecurities and struggles meaning something. Tossing that away in order to appeal to the people who truly believe Dick thinks himself all that is a complete disrespect to his development.
woot woot i’ve kept it up for three issues lets gooo. i liked this issue more than the last one. there’s a lot of fanon dick characterization peppered in, but not so much that it puts me off entirely. also, i’m getting increasingly concerned about bitewing. but i did like tim in this one, very nice
look at all the blue and purple and pink. honestly at this point, i’m a broken record but come on come on come onnnnnnn. the blue and pink is very pretty though. this cover’s a bit offputting at first, and a bit spiraly, which i’m sure was the intended effect.
this is a genuine concern of mine. dick’s a vigilante, and he doesn’t have the same sprawling network and resources that bruce does. (even if he is a billionaire now, he hasn’t amassed the same collection of crime-fighting equipment that bruce has.)
i’m not sure if he’ll be able to take care of bitewing. damian’s got plenty of pets, but alfred used to take care of them, and now bruce plus the rest of the batfam is taking care of them. as far as we know, babs only drops by occasionally, and the same goes for dick’s family and friends. will dick be able to give bitewing the love and time and affection that a traumatized puppy like her needs? i really hope so.
she does look adorable in this panel tho.
dick. richard. richie. baby. why are you shirtless.
you have scars upon scars. probably chemical burns. bullet wounds. weird fucking squiggly lines from knives that only psychos with blade fetishes use. no normal person has the body that you do. and you don’t think that showing up shirtless in front of the police is going to raise suspicion? you don’t think that the people accusing you of murder are going to look at someone who looks like they’re a fucking mob enforcer and go hmm that’s a bit suspicious?
put on a SHIRT jesus CHRIST it’s like you’re not even trying to hide your identity.
look at this pompous little princess demanding only the highest quality head pets i’d burn down latvia for her. (no offense latvians it was the first country that popped into my head.)
pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy pretty boy-
no seriously kudos to the artist here. his expression is so human i wanna cry. dick, right now, is sheepishly asking a question. he knows he’s not going to get into any real trouble, he knows that he’ll be able to talk his way out of or somehow maneuver his way off this mess. but he’ll play nice for the police, so he’s asking a friend for a favour, part self-condescendingly and part oh-well-what-can-you-do.
and his expression reflects that. rather than a stoic expressionless face most male comic characters have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), rather than the weird desperate supposedly “seductive” face that most female comic characters plus dick grayson have when asking someone for something (or all the time really), he’s making a face that i pulled like yesterday. or the day before that. it’s kind of silly, kind of casual, very much human. i like it.
thank god. proper (in character) acknowledgement for officer grayson. yea, fuck cops in general, but i like that they included this line.
obviously, he’s not talking about the actual criminals, he’s talking about the police force itself. the bpd was too corrupt, and dick realized that he wasn’t helping. not only does one clean cop not make a dent in an overall dirty force, but dick was putting his allies in danger too. not only that, but it wasn’t good for dick’s mental health either. he was spreading himself too thin, and surrounding himself with some of the worst of crime 24/7 did a number on him. dick’s got a history of self-sacrificing tendencies, and i’m just glad he’s not a cop anymore.
dick has a gotham rogues mug. they make gotham rogue mugs, and dick has one.
what kinda city looks at it’s frankly horrible crime history and long list of certifiably insane serial killers who are all still alive and actively committing war crimes and goes “oooooh yea imma put that on a coffee mug!” gotham, that’s who.
this isn’t important i just like how all of bitewing’s barks are blue
back straight, hand on his hip, cheerful smile on his face as he says he’s being accused for murder. love that for him.
they couldn’t have said “yea it’s complicated” in a better way even if they put the words “yea it’s complicated” right there on the page in bold red letters. literally all the love to the artists.
dick please. you’re KILLING ME what the actual fuck IS THAT???? WHY DO YOU HAVE A MUG OF THAT???
anyway nightwing collects novelty mugs confirmed.
this paneling is so beautiful.
tim’s the focus, but he’s not the first thing you see. he’s placed in a way that forces the reader to drag their eyes all the way up the page in order to reach him. it us know just how high up tim is carelessly crouching, especially close to the ledge of the building too. i cannot think of a single better way to introduce a character, and this character in particular: you instantly know this is a version of tim with plenty of experience and training, is comfortable in his body and knows his limits, but still hangs onto that civilian awe of being in a high place and overlooking a brightly lit city.
absolute classic robin. i love it.
this isn’t even that important but it made me happy. this is how you train surf.
you don’t crouch or bend over when you get to a tunnel, which is oddly enough what most people think (at least from my experience). you bend backward. that not only 100% ensures that you’ll make sure you’re low enough to make it through the tunnel (because you can see the top of the tunnel, unlike when you crouch or bend), but it also makes it easier to get up: all you have to do is push up with your arms into a bent stance, and you’ll be in a ready, moving position. from a bend or a crouch, getting up is more awkward and more slow.
on a meta level, i like that this creative team knows what they’re doing when it comes to the small, almost unimportant stuff like that, because it makes the action more real. (as real as you can get with a guy running around stealing hearts.)
on a in-universe level, it once again drives home both dick and tim’s experience and professional level skill.
regardless of who you side with in the “should tim drake be robin again?” debate, you gotta admit that tim’s rebirth robin suit is r a d as fuck. if i’m not mistaken, this is the same one he was wearing in 2019 young justice for a little bit? it’s cute and hella cool i like it.
remember what i said about human expressions? doesn’t happen as often to tim bc he’s a Child, but it’s still nice to note when someone humanizes him, too. (that’s why i love the duckboy panel so much lol.)
me, at first: that’s not a “good call” dick that’s just common sense
me, now: sprinkled throughout the entire comic we can see dick bending to tim’s instructions if only briefly, joking with him to keep the mood light while still maintaining a serious mood and retaining control over this particular outing. this implies that dick’s doing it intentionally, purposefully leaving places in his sentences blank and offering affirmations, in order to encourage tim and train him in things bruce might not necessarily touch on, such as social chameleoning and misdirection techniques and love/affirmation from a family member. dick is not only a loving and supportive big brother, but he never stops training his younger brother in better vigilante tecnhiques because he wants tim to be better than him. in this essay i will-
d o g g o
also bitewing is getting so many head pats today i’m living for it
look at him, standing on a telephone wire with ease. nice flex, dick.
also look at how he’s silhouetted. the moon’s full bright, bright enough that the sky around dick is light, too. (at least. i’m like 99% sure that’s the moon.) not like most batman comics, where it’s sometimes hard to distinguish bruce from the background, which is entirely on purpose.
gotham is a dark gritty city, and so is bruce. the two of them are one. bludhaven may be a bit of a mess, but it’s being portrayed in all these different shades of blue and purple and pink, that are all light enough that dick stands out from the background. he hasn’t been swallowed up by the city, and chances are that he won’t ever be. also, the colouring helps establish bludhaven as a city too. there’s still hope for it. the light colouring means that it’s not going to sink into a pit as deep as the one bruce wove gotham into. the whole point of this nightwing arc in particular is to turn bludhaven into a better place, and it’s (most likely) letting us know early on that dick is going to accomplish that. he’ll struggle, but he’ll do it.
so dick??? dick designed his escrima sticks with a situation like this in mind? he created his signature and most iconic weapon (other than his chatty mouth), with a built in feature that turns his escrima sticks into tim’s signature and most iconic weapon???? just so that if he and tim ever got into a situation where tim didn’t have his staff, dick could make sure tim had the thing that would give him an edge over anyone he was fighting??? he’s such a big brother oh my goddd.
also tim’s smirk in this is just *chef kiss.* a staff is something he can work with, a staff is something he wields like an extension of his arm, a staff is means that someone’s about to get their ass kicked because tim’s about to beat the shit outta them.
this is my new phone background.
they really made sure we remembered that hey, those first few months when bruce was grieving too much to be any sort of a mentor to tim and was still unwilling to properly train him to be robin out of fear that he would end up like jason, dick was the one who stepped up (once he got over himself and his own fears and hangups with bruce) and trained tim to be robin, trained him how to fight and flip and fuckin fly out there, all while changing his own style a bit to be the more experienced one in the partnership while still trusting said partner to hold their own, so dick and tim have a very unique and cohesive fighting style that makes it hell for anyone who fights them together, didn’t they?
their ages are so fucking confusing so i decided to do the hard work and figure them out so you don’t have to :D
normal ages:
using frank miller’s “year one” as a reference, bruce was 25 when he comes back to gotham after training and traveling abroad in january. he turns 26 in february of that year, and debuts as batman in april: this makes him 26 when he becomes batman
now since dick was first introduced in Detective Comics #38 back in 1940, we obviously have some issues of batman by himself
i headcanon he’s had about half a year to himself while crimefighting
this gives him enough time to construct somewhat of an image for himself (like the whole “batman is an urban legend” thing)
dick in his first appearance was 9, and bruce sorta adopts (looking back on this it’s more like kidnapping) him after his parents die
this gives dick and bruce a 17 year age gap
now, dick retired from being robin around the same time he went off to college. and since his birthday is in spring (he’s got like 7 different birthdays so cut me some slack), he’s 19 when that happens
this is when dick had his bisexual awakening and donned the discowing (disCOWing? disco-wing?) costume btw
and since this is 10 years after dick became robin, this means bruce is 36 because maths
now while dick’s gone jason comes in
we’re still assuming dick’s 19 while he’s gone because from what i think i remember, jason came in fairly quickly after he left
anyway when jason stole the tires and got rescued from ma gunn’s he was 12
making dick (19) 7 years older than jason and bruce (36) 24 years older than jason
AND SO we all know that my boy jj died when he was 15. like this is %100 confirmed
so let’s say after about 6 months after his tragic passing, tim drake puts two and two together and figures out that batman is bruce wayne. he goes to dick and tells him to become robin again, yadda yadda yadda
now, i headcanon tim to be 11 when he figures this out. some people say anything from like 9-13, but 11 makes more sense to me personally
if he’s 11 that’s giving him an age gap of 4 years with jason
a gap of 11 years with dick (now 22)
[in young justice (90’s) we have 15 year old tim talking to 20 something dick about how the night where dick’s parents died is a night he’d never forget. if you want this to make sense you’ll have to decrease dick’s age and increase tim’s to close the age gap. my recommendation is making dick 5 or 6 and having tim be 3? honestly it just doesn’t make any sense lmao the maths don’t add up]
and he has an age gap of 28 years with bruce (now 39)
so when bruce dies and dick becomes batman, tim’s 17
and we all know this because of all those “look me in the eyes and tell me a 17 year-old CEO is a good idea DC” memes
during this time (6 years after he shows up at wayne manor) bruce would’ve been 45. dick is 28. jason would be 21
steph is a year older than him, so she’s 18/19
and around this time i think damian shows up
and damian’s 10 in his first appearance
but i think he’s currently 14
some side notes:
bab’s age is fucked up in timelines. because in certain iterations she’s closer to bruce’s age, but a lot of the time she’s dick’s love interest
so i’m making her 4 years older than dick in this (if you don’t like it you can suck my dick work around it i guess)
and for cass: she’s 6 months older than jason which makes her about the same age as jason.
so she’s 3 years older than steph, and 4 years older than tim, and 11 years older than damian
tbh i haven’t read much about duke but according to @peppersonironi (thanks for correcting me!) he’s 3 or 4 years older than damian
SO IN THE END:
if damian wayne is 14 in your fic then:
duke is about 17/18
tim is 21 (yeah i know he’s eternally 17 but this is real maths)
steph is 22
jason is 25
cass is 25 as well (or 26, depends)
dick is 32 (don’t worry guys 32 isn’t that old. plus, he can be a DILF)
babs is 36
bruce is 49 pushing 50 (if your fic is taking place after february then he’s 50)
HOWEVER!
if damian is 10 in your fic that means:
duke is 13/14
tim is 17 (yay! eternally 17!)
steph is 18
jason is 21
cass is also 21
dick is 28
babs is 32
bruce is 45
NOW FOR THE REVERSE ROBIN AU! AGES:
since bruce was 26 when he adopted 9 year old dick, damian can be 10 when he’s adopted by bruce (this matches up well, which makes me happy)
this gives bruce and damian a 16 year age gap
if we’re getting technical, that means that bruce would have to become a teenage vigilante for him to have a teenage pregnancy with talia al ghul
so let’s pretend that bruce started training for bat“man” at 15 and hit the streets when he turned 16 (yes this sounds super unrealistic but tbh how else is this gonna work out)
anyway that means that damian would leave and become his own vigilante nine years later at the tender age of 18 (call it artistic differences) while bruce is 35
so while damian might go solo and have his gay/bisexual awakening with an off-brand discowing or something, tim’s going to be 12 (the ages add up well here too) and just figuring out that batman = bruce wayne
and something’s gotta happen to make tim realise that batman needs a robin in damian’s absence
y’know so he ends up going over to damian to give him the speech of how batman needs a robin that he rehearsed in the shower and in front of a mirror to perfection
and then damian will take him to the manor and give tim the robin costume as a “dude shut up and go help batman yourself idc” gesture
so this gives tim (12) and damian (18) an age gap of 6 years
and tim (12) and bruce (35) have an age gap of 23 years
now you kill tim at 15 or have him go off on his own in order to open up a spot for jason
if you go down either path, making tim red robin is pretty cool because jason (whose spot he takes in the RR au) was originally red robin!
anyway a few months after tim’s divergence from the batfam (make it as angsty or as chill as you wish) jason steals the tires off the batmobile half a year later at 11 (which *chef’s kiss* ALSO adds up according to the Reggie Canon)
so jason becomes robin at 11
this gives him and tim (15) and age gap of 4 years
him and damian (21) a gap of 10 years
and him and bruce (38) a gap of 27 years
and six years later, 9 year old dick grayson’s parents die. bruce’s adoptive instincts kick in and he takes dick in as his newest robin
IN THE END (with the age gap they have referring to baby dick):
dick is 9
babs is 13 (age gap of 4 years)
jason is 17 (age gap of 8 years)
cass is also 17/18 (age gap of 8 ½ years?)
tim is 21 (age gap of 12 years)
steph is 22 (age gap of 13 years)
duke is 23ish (age gap of 14 years)
damian is 27 (age gap of 18 years)
and bruce is 44 (age gap of 35 years)
[ whew this took a while. inspired by @screennamealreadyused ‘s reverse robin au (which is in works) and @woahjaybird ‘s post about ages! ]
Dick FULL NAME,Richard John "Dick" Grayson
SUPERHERO TITLES,Robin (I), Nightwing, Batman (II)
POSSIBLE MYERS-BRIGGS PERSONALITY TYPE,ESTJ (specifically Extraverted Thinking (Te), Introverted Sensing (Si), Extraverted Intuition (Ne), Introverted Feeling (Fi))
BIRTHDAY/PLACE OF BIRTH,-- most commo...
okay so, because I’m insane, I made a huge like biography/meta thing about Dick Grayson
specific links of where I got things are cited on the sheet, but I still have to thank all the people who made metas that I used to compile this: @anelderling, @dick-grayson-defense-squad, @vampykitty-kun, @bigskydreaming, and @hood-ex. also thanks to @fyeahoriginaltitans, @bat-lings, and the dc and batman wikia pages! HUGE thank you to @theflyingwonder who is a lot better at this meta thing than me and has tons more than I used, which all of you should go look at and reblog!!
the highlighted areas are the ones idk as much about/couldn’t find metas for/etc, but if there’s something missing or wrong with any other category feel free to let me know! that said I will be updating this as time goes on and I learn more so yeet
A (Positive) Review of Dan Watters' First Nightwing Arc So Far - Zanni & Themes
Introduction
Dick’s Characterization Part 01
Dick’s Characterization Part 02
Plot
Zanni & Themes
Tone
Bryce Morgan Part 01
Bryce Morgan Part 02
Barbara Gordon
Conclusion
Bibliography
To be quite honest, Zanni is the kind of villain I’ve been craving for Dick. Zanni is both beyond human while also being undeniably connected to humanity. He is an eldritch creature that is a manifestation of aspects of our humanity that are twisted and corrupted so they can be used against us.
As Olivia says in Annual 2025:
[Watters, Dan, writer. Francavilla, Francesco, artist. Death Trap. Nightwing (2016). Annual. e-book ed. DC, 2025]
As such, we can see that Zanni is a creature of the fifth dimension – the dimension of thought and imagination – who represents chaos and change. This mirrors Dick, who, for his part, embodies change.
In a genre and medium centered around maintaining status quo, Dick’s generation in general and Dick in particular embody change. He starts his journey as a hero when he’s an eight year old child and is, in the present, an adult in his twenties. We accompany him through the different stages of his life, watching him grow and evolve and, just as importantly, change the world around him. Because of Dick, the DC Universe cannot exist in stagnation – as Dick ages, the rest of the world must also be forced to move forward through time (this is partly why Dan Didio hated the Fab Five Titans so much, and why when given the opportunity, he attempted to condense all that timeline into six years with the New 52). There’s a reason why the Batman Mythos is incomplete without Dick’s presence. Dick is the first person to whom Bruce opens his heart to, the first person he loves after the death of his parents. As Snyder wrote in City of Owls, this relationship saved Bruce and continues to save him every day.
[Snyder, Scott, writer. Capulo, Greg, pencils. Glapion, Jonathan, ink. Plascencia, FCO, colorist. My Brother’s Keeper. Batman (2011). 11. e-book ed. DC, 2012]
And Seeley restates in his run:
This marks Dick as an instrumental figure of change in the Batman Mythos. He is the one who makes Batman go from this static figure of pain and darkness to one of healing and justice. Dick is the one who allows Bruce to connect with the Justice League, to form his friendship with Superman. He is the one who opens the door for the rest of the Batfam to enter Bruce’s life. Without Dick, Batman the person and Batman the franchise wouldn’t be what they are now. And that is only possible because Dick sparks change.
But Dick also embodies change in his own life. Now, I’m not entirely certain what current Nightwing-origin Watters is working with since continuity is a bit of a mess (not Watters’ fault, this has been the case for a good few years now), but my personal favorite is that Dick is fired from his position as Robin rather than willingly stepping away, and from the ashes of the burned Dynamic Duo, Nightwing rises.
Nightwing is a figure of reconstruction. He is a figure of rising above your own destruction. He is a phoenix, he is an identity that Dick carved after the future he believed to have been his was taken away so cruelly by the man he trusted and admired most. Nightwing is a rebuilder, which means he takes what was destroyed and builds something better in its place.
[Beatty, Scott; Dixon, Chuck, writers. McDaniel, Scott, pencils. Owens, Andy, ink. Wright, Gregory, colorist. Nightwing Year One: Chapter Two: Friends in High Places. Nightwing (1996). 102. e-book ed. DC, 2005]
Nightwing’s inception, his transformation, and his mere existence marks Dick as a character who embodies change both in a Wastsonian and in a Doylist level. We can go even farther and say that Dick’s own body being in constant fluid motion shows that stasis is antithesis to who Dick Grayson is.
And, as I mentioned during the characterization portion of this essay, by defying gender and sexual norms, Dick also defies the status quo.
Zanni, as an eldritch creature – as a god – also embodies change and a defiance of the status quo. But while Dick embodies the concept of rebuilding towards something greater, Zanni embodies chaos. Not necessarily destruction, but not a betterment of the future either. He is, then, mirroring Dick but in a negative light.
I find that fascinating.
Simply put, there’s a lot of thematic work being done with Zanni. As someone who subscribes to the idea that Dick embodies liminal change (can’t go on an aside on that for reasons), I’m interested to see what Watters will say with the Dick and Zanni confrontation. There is just so much that can be done with this idea of the circus being a place where the rules don’t apply and with superheroes using the theatrics of the circus to enforce the status quo. Yet, Dick himself seems to break a lot of rules – gender, sexuality, and of the superhero genre by being a catalyst for change.
In a reddit AMA, Dan Watters states that despite thinking that “changing a status quo for the sake of it can sometimes just mean upsetting fundamentals of a character,” there are big changes coming up in the horizon.
This is also reflected on the solicitations for Nightwing (2016) #136, which states that “a new era begins here for Blüdhaven and its hero.” [“Nightwing #136.” League of Comics Geek, https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/4990457/nightwing-136]
So how will this confrontation between the God of Chaos and the Great Rebuilder go? What will it say about Superheroes and Change? Most importantly, what will it say about Dick? I don’t know yet, but I’m curious to find out!
But I’m not done. Besides mirroring Dick’s status as a figure of change and as a great rebuilding, Zanni’s evil plot involving the capture of Bludhaven’s children also mimics some of Dick’s greater qualities. As Robin, Dick is a power fantasy to children (he is not a child soldier, as I point out here). He embodies childhood agency – he walks the narrative of victims regaining power to face their oppressors.
But Dick is also a nurturer. He is quite motherly in this way. He mentors Rose, Sofia, Bryce, Jon, he’s also served as a parental figure to both Tim and Damian. And, in a way, he’s been a parental figure to Bruce as well. As David Kingsley points out in his essay The Child is Father to the (Bat)man: The Inverted Parent-Child Dynamic of DC Comics’ Dynamic Duo, “Dick Grayson serves as a Freudian father figure for Bruce Wayne, in that Dick Grayson creates the opportunities for Bruce Wayne to transition from an unhealthy pseudo-childhood to healthy adulthood and attain catharsis for his parents’ murder.” [Kingsley, David. “The Child is Father to the (Bat)man: THe Inverted Parent-Child Dynamic of DC Comics’ Dynamic Duo.”Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder: Scholars and Creators on 75 years of Robin, Nightwing, and Batman edited by Kristen L. Geaman, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2015, pp. 66]
In other words, Dick is a safe place for both real and fictional children to find their own agency and heal.
By targeting children through the offer of whimsy, Zanni is not only channeling this creepy fairy-tale trope, he is mirroring and corrupting Dick’s own nurturing qualities. He is showing the twisted side of Dick, going after those who need him most.
Finally, despite the art being what I dislike the most about this run, I will give Veronica Candini her flowers. I do like the painterly style used for Zanni and Cirque du Sin. Aesthetically and thematically speaking, the muted black-and-white colors oppose Robin’s bright color palette incredibly well. Cirque du Sin’s painterly style adds to its whimsy, but the lack of colors makes it melancholic and uncanny. If the fifth dimension is the dimension of imagination and thought, it is also a dimension of creativity. And if that is the case, a painterly aesthetic – where one can see the brush strokes – speaks to one of the ways imagination is creatively manifested.
I wish that, to contrast it, the rest of the comic wasn’t rendered in such a similar style. I think that if Candini had gone for a more clean, cell-shaded render for the real world, and reserved this painterly style strictly for Cirque du Sin, there would be a nice contrast between reality and this twisted circus environment.
To summarize everything in this section, I think Zanni delivers in every way as the main villain of this arc. These thematic questions resonate with the core of Dick’s character in a way I haven’t seen since The Untouchable (with themes of desire, corruption, and forgiveness) and Down the Road (liminality, improvement and perfectionism, and journey), and prior to Rebirth, in Devin Grayson’s run (had she been allowed to finish her story and explore the theme of rebuilding yourself after hitting rock bottom).
