Certified Dick Glazer™️

#2 comic enjoyer. #1 dick grayson connoisseur. Legendary for missing the point of narratives due to STEMlord disease and trying too hard to be funny.

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You see, the uninitiated would read this as Dick being flustered by Kory’s outfit.

Nonononono. You’re misunderstanding. Really, it’s nostalgia. It brings back childhood memories.

Or, for a truly enlightened mind, it gives him an impending sense of doom for what’s to come.

Bro went “hehe we match :D”. Like a couples Halloween costume, but the costume in question is “being captured and held against our wills”.

[kitkat5628]

Damn I just opened Tumblr

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Alas. My condolences. Bondage jokes require at least one cup of coffee to appreciate. I’ll accept any and all lawsuits for emotional damage.

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I don’t think people comprehend how much time Dick has spent in space. The New Teen Titans run of the 80s was significantly inspired by the space opera genre (think Star Wars and adjacent franchises), and Wolfman loved cosmic-scale storytelling. He inserted it everywhere possible. So, over the course of only a couple years, the Titans spent cumulative months traveling in space. Dick spent weeks on Tamaran alone. They fought, to my recollection, no fewer than two galaxy spanning wars.

I’m not saying the others haven’t been in space. They have, for crisis-level events, or to visit the Justice League, or possibly for other minor things. But there’s a difference between visiting space and space faring, and I’d argue only Dick has crossed into the latter (barring maybe Bruce).

Can you imagine how weird this would make him? I dunno, there’s just so much potential in Mr. Accidentally Star Trekker yapping about the Omega Men to his decidedly much more terrestrial siblings. It makes me laugh.

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you NEED to share where those last tied up dick panels came from

From memory, I think the one where he’s wrapped in vines is NW (1996) #149, though it could be #148 or #150, and the vampire one is Grayson Annual 3. There’s another panel in there that literally gets me a mature content label. I’ll reblog this with it. It’s wild.

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THIS ONE has caused me so much angst in trying to crop. It’s bullshit. ALSO it’s always the vampires. I hate vampires. Fuck vampires. My experience with vampires whenever they appear with Dick Grayson has severely, severely dampened my opinion of them. FUCK THE VAMPIRES.

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you NEED to share where those last tied up dick panels came from

From memory, I think the one where he’s wrapped in vines is NW (1996) #149, though it could be #148 or #150, and the vampire one is Grayson Annual 3. There’s another panel in there that literally gets me a mature content label. I’ll reblog this with it. It’s wild.

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You see, the uninitiated would read this as Dick being flustered by Kory’s outfit.

Nonononono. You’re misunderstanding. Really, it’s nostalgia. It brings back childhood memories.

Or, for a truly enlightened mind, it gives him an impending sense of doom for what’s to come.

Bro went “hehe we match :D”. Like a couples Halloween costume, but the costume in question is “being captured and held against our wills”.

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Reading their dialogue is like experiencing the most painful game of Gay Chicken ever to unfold. Painfully obvious for Roy, painfully oblivious for Dick.

Roy does not and will remain not giving a fuck. Clearly.

Look at him. A lower man would be frustrated. Roy finds the dumbassery enjoyable. He thrives on the vibe.

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They all look so serious, I can’t. Clark trying to explain whatever he’s gesturing to, Dick trying to follow the other adults with that little blush. The little button nose. I’m going to cry.

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The unironic canon (pre-Crisis) Nightwing origin

Dick: I think I’m ready to become more independent in my heroic operations, just because I think our personal philosophies have diverged-

Bruce: SO YOU DON’T LOVE ME ANYMORE? OFFICIALLY, YOU DON’T LOVE ME? YOU’RE GOING TO ABANDON OUR SACRED BOND?

Dick, already lunging to keep Bruce from the ledge: wait wait wait that’s not what I meant-

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You know, I think comic books have experienced a very similar conundrum with their characters as Hollywood.

I’ve heard that newer films struggle to cast actors due to the lack of expressiveness, and newer releases are panned for the same reason. Actors struggle to convey emotion, as so many of them have gone through procedures to heighten their aesthetics at the cost of range. It’s the Botox epidemic. You can’t contort a face full of filler.

With regards to comics, if it isn’t obvious, I like collecting silly panels. No duh. And in older comics, it is so easy to find exaggerated expressions and ugly faces, even made by traditionally “pretty” or “beautiful” characters. Because, you know, they were emoting. The priority for artists was conveying actual emotion. It’s much harder these days. I’d have to assume it’s also for comparable reasons as the frozen face syndrome in Hollywood. The priority has shifted from emoting to aesthetics. Characters are kept from looking ugly, and therefore cannot properly convey ugly feelings.

It’s probably not a new or unique thought. I dunno. Enjoy a few silly Batman’s.

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🎶 another one bites the dust 🎶

🎶 another one bites the dust 🎶

🎶 and another one gone 🎶

🎶 and another one gone 🎶

🎶 another one bites the dust 🎶

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It is so, so funny how much Dick downplayed this in retrospect.

Out of context, it felt like Dick was just making excuses for being a cold asshole to Kory. You know, standard dumb teenage boy inconsiderateness exacerbated by Batman-isms. I operated under this assumption during my first couple of reads because I hadn’t had access to the Batman books. I now have the context.

In context?

Yeah okay okay that’s rough okay that’s fair okay I’d be nervous too okay that’s fair okay uh huh yup yup okay okay-

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Link to the actual plot and discussion of the vampire folk for those unaware btw.

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wait is the past relationship being dala true?? What issues were they, when did they come out??

Yeah, the dates line up. Batman #350 and the paired Detective Comics issue came out August 1982, while NTT #26 came out December 1982. Perfect spacing for events to still be plot relevant while far enough apart for the writers on either book to talk. It was also the only romance Dick had in any significant period surrounding that.

(Again, for those browsing tags or out of the discussion, Dala was the groomer vampire lady.)

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It is so, so funny how much Dick downplayed this in retrospect.

Out of context, it felt like Dick was just making excuses for being a cold asshole to Kory. You know, standard dumb teenage boy inconsiderateness exacerbated by Batman-isms. I operated under this assumption during my first couple of reads because I hadn’t had access to the Batman books. I now have the context.

In context?

Yeah okay okay that’s rough okay that’s fair okay I’d be nervous too okay that’s fair okay uh huh yup yup okay okay-

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Love your ability to find the funniest parts of comics, they always make me laugh when I see your posts cross my dash. Thanks, ;;;

Thanks mate <3

I hate to say it, but I always read comics with some mixture of highly cringe enthusiasm and “hehehahahoho silly comic book man”. I have absolutely missed key plot points in the past because I was losing my mind too much at a funny frame of Dick getting his ass beat.

Does this make me a good reader? No, not at all. But I do think I’m probably the happiest person in any comic community at any point in time. The medium never fails to make me smile, and I’m glad I can get a few laughs out of others, too.

Enjoy a rare Grayson, two inches away from ending the bloodline with him:

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Bro not the zesty ahh lean stop it

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So, I know there are plenty of iconic nicknames for Dick — particularly “the Boy Wonder” — during his time as Robin. All of those are great. Very cute. Very wholesome.

However, I think we need to bring back “devil-child with the laughing eyes”.

Is it a mouthful? Yes. Does it convey every single aspect of Dick’s character at that age? Immaculately so. He’s mischievous. He’s dangerous. But he’s silly and gleeful while doing it, and always laughing. Just… hopefully not at you.

(And, if he isn’t silly or gleeful, if he isn’t laughing… run.)

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Okay so, I know everyone and their mother has seen this panel. And it is very funny.

BUT. Now that I’ve just come off the original Teen Titans run, they all seemed quite progressive (for the time), Wally included.

This could be gleaned from:

Opposition to war during the Vietnam war era

Opposition to anti-immigrant rhetoric

Aiding the reclaiming of stolen land from native peoples

And even the less plot-relevant but still pervasive themes of tolerance and acceptance, both of then-modern culture and the hippie movement. Silly, I know, but genuinely contentious.

So I’m not quite sure why it was established that Wally was some hard conservative. Maybe this was always a thing? While I’ve read a lot of Wally in the context of team books, in Titans and later in the 90s JLA run, I’ve never read much in the way of his solos. It just doesn’t strike me as consistent.

[iconuk01]

There had been a bit of friction between Kid Flash and Red Star in his only previous appearance. Kid Flash made it clear he didn't trust a Communist "superhero".

So I think they're just amping that up a bit, to add a little depth to Wally, who had never really had that much done to develop his character in the past. (NTT #21 is the first time I think any Titans discuss their religious beliefs. When asked if he's religious, Wally replies "I guess so. I don't go all the time, but I believe." and Dick says that "I haven't thought about it much")

His conservative phase didn't last long but then, it was something like 1982 and Reagan was on the ascendant, so perhaps Wolfman felt a less liberal POV was an interesting way to go?

[grazztthedark]

The only other time I can remember Wally's conservative characterization coming up is to contrast with the liberal Pied Piper in his solo book. Especially when the latter came out of the closet, right while Wally was in the middle of a homophobic diatribe.

[iconuk01]

I'm not quite sure I'd call it particularly homophobic, especially for 1988, and the first actual coming out as gay said out loud in a Big Two mainstream comic We'd had subtext and hints all over the place of course (Byrne with Maggie Sawyer, Claremont with... well.. everyone) , but even Marvel's Northstar wouldn't publicly describe himself as gay until 1992 in a far more laboured and tortuous story than this one.

So Wally is being a bit of an asshole definitely, but more out of outdated assumptions, than actual ingrained homophobia (at least the way I read it, YMMV of course)

Wally's discombobulated reaction is hilarious (and one I think many people who come out get from at least one person), and it's clear Piper knows that Wally isn't being homophobic,, juts a little surprised and he'll get over it, but that doesn't mean Piper didn't LOVE being able to blow Wally's mind like that.

[grazztthedark]

Oh yeah, for its time it isn't that bad. They were going to include the f-slur in children's movies for the next few years, so Wally's little bit about gay supervillains isn't really going that far.

That said, I think it's still fair to call it homophobic. Even by the standards of the time: Wally clearly realizes the things he's said are pretty insulting to his friend, which is most of the reason why he's so eager to get out of there. So even Wally, at this moment, understands that he's crossed a line. Hartley, for his part, has probably dealt with worse.

Honestly, the word I regret using is "diatribe". A diatribe is more of a monologue, and Wally is clearly trying to include Hartley in his little "Which supervillains are gay?" game. The fact that he doesn't take the hint that Hartley doesn't want to play this particular game is part of what makes the whole scene so fun when Hartley decides to change the script on him.

[iconuk01]

Those are eminently fair points :)

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