obsessionsandme

[obsessionsandme]

Something about these two panels together have always struck a nerve with me. Because here you have Jason saying that Dick was always the favorite because of his skill, but right after Jason's death, Bruce talks about how similar they are. And seeing that this panel is right after Bruce punched Dick, it's clear Bruce is expressing the aspect of both Dick and Jason that he hates to some degree- the fact that they both were independent and wouldn't just follow everything he said. Sure, from Bruce Wayne's perspective, this can be taken as being a control freak and hating that your sons won't let you be a control freak over their lives because not doing this, to you, puts them in danger and you hate that. However, from Dick's perspective, I could easily see this as Bruce hating Dick's independence and how he thinks for himself, with this seemingly being a trait about Dick that he hates greatly (considering the fact he's saying this about Dick right after punching him- just context wise if someone punches you and says something it can be inferred that the reasons behind their dislike of you to the point of punching you are in the words they say right before and right after punching you). And this is a trait Dick shares with Jason! So in a way, Dick has had to have felt that, at the bare minimum, him and Jason share the same trait Batman hates so they are at the very least near equal. But it gets worse: Batman has adopted Jason and not Dick resentful for asking why Batman did this.

So, from Dick's perspective, he would clearly feel like the less favorite child. Not only does he share the "fatal flaw" that Jason had which Bruce seems to hate so much and didn't even have the decency to die from it so that other kids like Jason wouldn't have the chance to become Robin and die, he also wasn't adopted. And Bruce kicks him out!

I don't know about y'all but I would very much feel like the hated child in this dynamic.

To elaborate a little more on the whole not having the decency to die from his flaw, it comes from Bruce right before these panels saying that Dick didn't obey Bruce but he was lucky enough to survive, where Jason wasn't. Dick picks up pretty quickly that this is Bruce blaming him. Dick takes this into a different direction by saying that Bruce is blaming him for leaving leading into Bruce taking in Jason, but I'd say the way Bruce phrases it, it seems like he holds some resentment towards Dick for being lucky enough to not die from his injuries when he didn't listen to Bruce. It's very sickening of Bruce to do and say but it feels authentic to him.

Back to the earlier panel: after Jason is reborn, of course he isn't the favorite at that point but Jason very explicitly says that Bruce "always loved" Dick more, which very much shouldn't feel like the truth to Dick with all this context. Imagine the fallout of Jason's death being revealed to him at some point and what that would do. It's sickening. And imagine Dick in that fight thinking to himself, "You were the favorite always."

[obsessionsandme]

Ok so I was hoping to get through some more comics before I broke down what destroyed me about this but I've been too busy so here it goes but disclaimer I may get some stuff wrong but I've tried and I know Dick the best:

First of all: I went with resignation for Dick because that's the way the story goes originally even though it doesn't really follow through properly and we clearly aren't going with that old canon in this interview. The option that made the least sense to me was "Returning to Studies" and sure enough- "You don't get to leave." Yes, Dick could never stop being a hero. He could leave Batman but not that. Then: "taking another position"- hmm curious. And I saw the "I won't darken the suit" and immediately got curious and liked where it led because there is a literal darkening of Dick Grayson's suit over time from the joyous colors of Robin to the still bright colors of Discowing though to future iterations where the colors seem to wane away and black takes over the majority of the suit- it feels like a loss of innocence in a way. I remember reading a fantastic fanfic about this that I can't remember. And the other option of "I've outgrown the colors" and the reference to Robin being given to someone else and Dick no longer owning them despite them being his. God- that hurts. And it brings me to a point I might have a different post tangent about because there's something so insidiously cruel about what Batman did that I don't know if he even can recognize. Despite being an orphan as well, Bruce was a rich and powerful orphan, so he got to keep all of his parent's keepsakes and belongings (the healthiness of this can be debated). Along with that, the whole city remembers and, in most versions, cared for and liked his parents. When Dick's parents died, he was left with nothing. In one version, he gets sent to a juvenile detention center, but it seems clear that regardless the version he was left with very little or nothing of his parents' besides "Robin." And then that's taken from him. And then he really has nothing. I remember this panel that I can't find of him and Wally talking and Dick mentioning how without Robin, he has no family now. This clearly was referring to Bruce but in a way, I wonder if it also felt like losing his first family again. Bruce is too myopic I think to understand that they were very different orphans.

Ok so beyond that tangent- the relocating where Dick says there are other places than this (and to my mind this is about the New Teen Titans and Teen Titans and all the friends he made and places he went to even beyond Earth) and "yet you all end up in the same places." It hurts because it's true- he's travelled to so many places but they never last. The disdain for Bludhaven makes me laugh, and I enjoyed Dick's "we'll see" to the computer saying that he'll be back to Gotham. And yet my joy didn't last long when you remember Chemo. Sure, he goes to New York for some time first but it's always back to Gotham. The desert option got me going because all I could think of was spyral with the "so easy to hide"- fun hint!

I saved the best for last: job dissatisfaction. And I hit management so quickly- abuse of power next. The references to their partnership blowing up and their constant fights hurt. The job role option was interesting- injury at work immediately made me think about the gunshot from Joker that had Bruce firing Dick from Robin and the lack of details was interesting for this and harm to loved ones (who would this be at this point? Jason, Donna and Joey are obviously later- maybe harm to Bruce himself?). I was not prepared for the "mental toll" option I have to say because that speech made me want to punch my computer! He was a child sir! Co-workers was also a fun option because I guess in this we are saying the exit interview was after Jason became Robin (which makes sense with the earlier options too and that is when they have that big standoff)? I feel like talking about Jason would be more of a focus on Robin because in comics they seemed fine interpersonally, so that was interesting.

So: retirement and you don't get to leave, yeah that makes sense. Laid off also seemed interesting to me. The misguided care- he fired me to keep me safe but I didn't go into this for safety- god, too true. What was Bruce thinking? Dick was never going to stop. Lack of attention to duties reminded me of the version where Bruce got angry at Dick for having other people in his life- and frankly seemed jealous to some degree. And then "abolition of position"- going back to Robin and how Dick sometimes wished it had. I think a lot about the panel where Tim is trying to become Robin and Dick says that Robin died with Jason. And about the panel after Bruce punches Dick when Dick found out about Jason's death where Dick just sits there on the floor in the cave alone after Bruce storms out. And then the next part about how Dick never had any autonomy with Robin and had it taken by others. The eerie feeling as Dick says he feels like there's a cost crept into me and I can't help but wonder if Dick felt like Robin was cursed. It was made after the circus outfits his parents and him wore, and he was the only one to survive. Then with Robin, after Jason, it must feel like he was cursed to live.

The last few questions daggered me truly. What a predictable parent response to say that you shouldn't have expected to be treated kindly because they weren't. The response where Dick says he should've been trained harsher hurts in a way because that makes more sense to his character to me- despite all the ways he trained, he still couldn't save many people. I loved the surprise from the computer if he says he did feel adequately trained. The grievance list response of "He raised me. Of course it is." Of course, how could it be any different. It seems inevitable. And the new role option being accepted easily but the instant pushback at retiring. Dick never gets to rest really. And when you try to push through with this option, you don't get to exit because it's not true. The "sometimes I wish it did" response to "it's not like Robin killed you" killed me because of course Dick would say that because in a way, it would've made more sense to him I feel. He was the first child superhero, I doubt he expected to survive. And to live past Robin must hurt. Oof and vile to say to leave the suit for reuse! How dare you Batman! And the refusal to call Dick Dick and to instead force Robin on him. God.

Ok, the rest of these will be shorter and less heated:

Funny how Jason doesn't get to leave the city in response to having brother- maybe it's because he never got to leave as Robin. The leaving Robin to not darken the suit makes a lot of sense for Jason sadly. Of course he doesn't get to leave by retirement either. The inability to follow orders one crushed me because I'm sure a part of Jason does blame himself for his death and I do find it funny that the form is like- c'mon that isn't the real reason you're exiting Robin. And the "abolition of position" option having Jason say "hey you said I'm Robin and I'm dead" with the computer countering with "you're less than Robin." It's true in a way because it's a legacy but what a thing to say to, presumably, a dead or dying child. The way the computer popped off at Jason said he didn't get enough training because he died by saying Jason will hurt everyone just to hurt Batman because he'll never get over his death, thus becoming like the Joker by targeting children was crazy. It clearly has animosity to Jason.

Tim leaving the suit to not darken it clearly referencing the time after Bruce's death makes sense and is sad. And Tim going to Bludhaven because Bruce told him to and going to the desert to find Bruce- it all makes too much sense. Shoot and the tragedy of Tim canonically telling Dick how he's planning to leave, that Robin won't be permanent not for him, the "But I swore I'd leave". God. I love the specific reference to Bruce's very messed up actions on Tim's birthday- nice reference! I like how the point is made that Tim is different in Bruce in that he wants to have friends and trust others, which makes him better than Bruce. Leaving because of "harm to loved ones" makes a lot of sense for Tim sadly with his dad dying. Truly the coworkers situation makes the most sense for Tim considering the whole situation with Damain. I love the slight bitterness from Tim where he says that he was going to let Robin die with Jason and how it feels like he's not prioritized. Oof and I can't go into this otherwise this will be so long but Tim asking why he got cast aside? And the computer saying his brother begged him to stay. The two options feel like they'd be responses from Tim at different times in the story. Leaving because he couldn't bear having Robin taken from him leads to Tim saying "he tried to kill me" and the computer calling him an adult who should be able to get over it, and I love Tim saying that he's still seventeen and the way the computer can't believe that. But what really kills me and feels more accurate to Tim in responding to the computer saying Dick asked him to stay is "He asked me to stay, I just needed to go." This, this makes sense from a zoomed out focus. That's why Dick eventually let him go. Tim needed to. Tim having a shorter list of grievances than Dick and Jason makes sense because he does seem to have less baggage about Robin than them and had so much joy in being Robin even through the hard times. I love the computer hating both of Tim's new names. Drake? Lame. Red Robin? You Magpie! And the fun debate of did anyone steal Robin popping up again was great! I love the glitch of it being that Tim would take on the role again because he does become Robin again. I love the quiz reminding us of his #1 Dick stan status as he says he wasn't as good as Dick with the computer saying nobody's as good as Dick and Tim saying "I've been saying that for years." The brothers <3

Ok, the quiz rebutting Stephanie going back to an old suit as an answer is mean of the computer as it pushes for her to stick to the truth and explain the circumstances of this. Delicious! Stephanie explaining about how she disobeyed orders but getting frustrated because the other Robins did the same! But she got punished and the computer's explanation of how Steph feeling like she didn't matter to Bruce factoring into it hurt. And Steph asking how she was meant to know that the way she was too reckless and that it was bad that she assumed she knew the best- with this being replied to by computer saying "you need instinct or training and you had neither" was so mean and felt just like Batman. The computer telling her she was just in between for Tim was too true- it feels true based on the comics that Bruce never wanted her to succeed because he just wanted to get Tim back. So back to relocation answers with the desert referencing Steph after her fake death and rebuilding was great! I didn't realize how many characters had relationships to the desert. I wonder if Jason's time with the al Ghuls would be considered as "desert time"- I actually don't know where they're located precisely. When going into Steph saying she quit because of management's lack of respect, it hit a real nerve. Steph knew how Batman was but she was hopeful she was a little more than a stopgap, that Batman saw more in her than that, and that hurts.

So the most painful part about Stephanie's part of this quick could arguable be the other parts mentioned but the Coworkers one got to me where she says everybody seemed to hate her as Robin. That hurt.

Ok, so this was way longer than expected, but this Exit interview hit me so hard and I've been thinking about it for so long

Leaving the Suit Behind? You Are Invited to Fill Out the Robin Exit Interview

OPEN

[obsessionsandme]

Nightwing (1996) #112, 114

[obsessionsandme]

Nightwing (1996) #97

^ guy who thinks he's poison.

[obsessionsandme]

i’ve had the lines floating around my head, most definitely said by jason to dick—of course, you keep coming back when he calls. you’re just a fucking dog coming to heel at your master’s feet—and i’ve been mulling what dick would say, or what he’d think because he probably does feel like this way but he’d never say it aloud for his own pride because he’s built himself as a separate man…but he’ll always be tied to bruce, but the words always feel wrong. because he has no master, because he is no dog, but he does come back when called so what is he, really?

did you know american robins have 2 main ways of dealing with winter? there are robins who migrate down south when food becomes scarce up north. typical for birds, of course. but then there are the robins who stay, who change their diets just to live where they grew up. for the robins who stay, they form flocks. it’s for protection and survival. larger groups means more eyes.

dick isn’t a dog. he is who he’s always been: a bird, a robin. when the flock needs more eyes, more protection, he will always come back

[obsessionsandme]

here are some fics that i've read in the last few months that broke my brain a little:

usher down the sky by mintchocochips dick and cass centric, set in the batman reborn era. stellar writing that captures their core truths so, so well: their shared ghosts of bruce and blüdhaven are always present and always aching

bleeding-heart doves by wraithwings cass and rose centric, set at a canon-divergent point in batgirl '08. fantastically evocative writing, amazing voices for both of them with some really visceral imagery. cass will actually break your heart unless rose does it first

objects in a mirror by clytemnestras short but gutting character study for babs, cass, helena and steph. each vignette is beautifully written and is so authentic to canon

door, opening by cowboysorceror multi-chapter case fic from jason's pov with a wonderful emphasis on his brotherhood with dick. amazing world-building and research seem to have gone into this fic and it's just so deliciously full of hauntings (still a wip but it's closing in on the conclusion)

abide the son by tnevmucric cass and dick centric vignette. the writing is so gorgeous and it's a very wonderful depiction of a less fraught dynamic between them

north star by starlingsinwinter desert baby arc from grayson '14 my absolute beloved. wonderfully poignant examination of the dick & bruce dynamic and a gorgeous insight into some core dick grayson-isms

incomplete/thoughts of total defeat by karples roy centric with a focus on donna and dick. absolutely adore the author's voice for roy and a gutting snapshot of the kind of demons that plagued roy in this era

Birdcage by nighhtwing (divineauthor) dick centric one-shot examining some of the spyral aftermath wrt bruce. this one will actually leave you physically sick because... he's really never going to recover from that kind of devotion, is he?

last light in a darkened room by bigdamnher0 tim and dick centric. case fic. the way tim and dick watch and see each other. tim's near palpable hunger for brotherhood versus dick's staticky performance buckling under the weight of tim drake's little brotherism. absolutely wonderful (warning for csa)

Some nights. by run_and_coke cass centric one-shot set in the current batgirl run, focusing on the civilian cast. absolutely wonderful voice for cass with a very authentic and snappy internal narration. gorgeous understanding of her character motivations

[obsessionsandme]

Dick having 27 jobs and Tim being Like That are both consequences of that thing where you grow up assuming you’ll die young, taking your inevitable death for granted, and then somehow you don’t, you hit adulthood and go what now? I was never supposed to live this long. What now?

[obsessionsandme]

He Walks: Dick Grayson, the Survivor

This is a meta written for the ten year celebration of Grayson. For @grayson10yearslater.

From it’s prologue in Nightwing #30, Grayson by Tom King and Tim Seeley, boldly poses its readers with the question of how to describe one of DC’s oldest and most iconic characters when he is stripped of his familiar superhero identities. Who is Dick Grayson when he can’t hide behind Robin? Nightwing? Batman?

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim; Tynion IV, James, writers. Janin, Mikel; Hetrick, Meghan; Garron, Javier; Lucas Jorge, illustrators. Setting Son. Nightwing. 30, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Page 30]

Divided into twenty issues and three annuals, the story explores the theme of identity from all angles, pushing Dick away from his comforts to dissect the different layers of his character. A hero, the end of the last issue seems to say, is the true answer to this difficult question.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Antonio, Roge, illustrator. Spiral’s End. Grayson. 20, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2016. Page 23]

And while that is undoubtedly true, each of the preceding nineteen issues elaborate on what traits can folded into a hero.

Dick is a storytelling, the first annual says;

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Mooney, Stephen, illustrator. A Story of Giants Big and Small. Grayson. Annual 01, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Page 11]

Dick is compassionate, the finale of Act I with the Paragon Brain proves;

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Mooney, Stephen, illustrator. Sin by Silence. Grayson. 07, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Page 19]

Dick is a partner.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. Nemesis Part Two. Grayson. 10, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Pages 23 to 24]

I want to focus a little bit on that last one. Dick, after all, was created to be the perfect partner. In 1940, he was the sensational character find that became Batman’s other half, the missing element to his mythos. Move further along his history, and a diverse number of writers were compelled to team Dick with other characters — he’s the Titans’ leader, the missing third piece of the World’s Finest, Batgirl’s love interest.

Grayson, too, is interested in exploring this aspect of Dick Grayson. In its first act, it pairs him up with Helena Bertinelli, whose more experience, tragic background, and darker personality is meant to mirror Batman.

Tom King: For me, it seems to make so much sense because basically she almost has that Batman female origin. She shares that origin that Batman and Dick have of having gone through this violent period when she was young and coming out of that a hero. We wanted to play with that. We wanted to play with the dichotomy of what Barbara is in Dick's life versus what Helena is in Dick's life. Helena's much closer to what Batman is and much closer to the father figure Dick was related to, so I think that creates immediate tension and fun stuff we can play with.

[Katzman, Gregg. "Interview: Tom King & Tim Seeley Talk GRAYSON." Yahoo! News, 4 Jan. 2015. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024.]

In act two, he is paired up with Tiger King of Kandahar. In fact, there is a theme of duality and partnerships throughout Grayson, showing that this is a critical aspect of who is Dick Grayson.

The exception to this is Grayson #05.

A self-contained story, Grayson #05 isolates Dick to get to the core of who he is. By contrasting Dick with Helena and Midnighter, placing him in the unforgiving vastness of an infernal desert, and calling forth the tale of Robin Dies at Dawn, Grayson #05 presents us with a man who does not give up and does not give in. Dick walks, even if he must walk, at times, alone. When laid bare, without the trappings of a superhero identity or of a partner, Dick Grayson, Grayson #05 says, is, at the core of his being, a survivor.

In this meta, I want to see just exactly how Grayson #05 does that through a close reading of the issue.

Now, without any further delay, let’s get started.

Let’s start with the cover.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014]

Everything about this cover radiates heat. The sun is beaming down mercilessly, the spirals mimicking the sun rays, the color palette a strong orange that is highly saturated but not bright. The reader can feel how hot it is in this desert, and all around there's nothing but sand. Sand, sand everywhere the eyes can see, and in the center of the image, a lone black figure braving this infernal bare landscape.

This cover tells us not just the location of where the issue will be set, but it also shows that Dick will be alone out there. It tells us this will not be an action-filled story, but it will be one of survival. Man vs Nature, and nature does not discriminates with her ruthlessness. Dick stands alone facing the elements, but he stands. He is walking, he is not giving up. It would be so easy for this cover to have a close up of Dick's, Helena's, and Midnighter's exhausted expression as they each try to survive, but instead we just see Dick by himself, alone, walking. He does not give up, he does not give in. He survives.

The issue then opens in medias res, immediately presenting the readers with that main conflict: survival. It does not waste any time with unneeded exposition — after all, though Dick would hate this fact, we as readers do not need to know the name of the mother who is dying; we do not need to know the details of Minos’ mission before it all went wrong; we don’t even need to know how Midnighter managed to track Dick and Helena. All we need to know is that Dick and Helena, and Midnighter are all after the Paragon Heart, which belongs to the, as of this page, unborn baby; that ARGUS somehow tracked Midnighter who was fighting Dick for the Heart; and that mid-fight the mother went into labor.

There's an elegance in the way everything is conveyed so well and so quickly in this one page. It's brilliant storytelling from both a writing and a visual stand point.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Page 01]

As they crash into the desert, the mother passes away. ARGUS is gone, but our trio and the newborn baby girl are faced with a mightier enemy: The desert. The nearest town is days away, they do not have a lot of supplies, they do not have how to call for help. Here, we’re faced with this issue’s main question: Can they survive this? The answer seems to be resounding “no.”

Let’s take a look at how each of the characters approach this situation.

Helena is pragmatic. She is thinking of the mission, but her expression is troubled. She doesn't see a way out of this. She knows they have to survive long enough for Spyral to eventually find them, but the odds are against them. Given the fact she’s injured, it’s unlikely she’ll ever make it out of this desert. Still, that does not mean she’ll fall into despair. She'll do what needs to be done, but she knows this is not something they can easily get out of. If she goes down, she'll go down fighting. Like I said, she’s pragmatic.

Midnighter, on the other hand, is a pessimist. He is jaded. Why bother trying? Midnighter is a nihilist. “We’re dead,” he says not once, but twice.

Then we have Dick. Beautiful Dick, he holds the baby in his arm like she's the most precious thing in the world. And in this moment, she is. His reply to Midnighter is telling. They aren’t dead. They can't be, because if they are dead, then so is she, so death is not an option. It's not a question of what is practical, of what the mission is, of what the odds are. It's not about being an optimist, either. It's simply about her. She is all that matters and she is entirely dependent on them, so they can't be dead. They cannot let her die, this little innocent child who is not even an hour old. So what will they do instead? They’ll walk. They’ll survive.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014 Page 02-03]

The next page displays what will become the brilliant standard for this issue — open skies, sand, and small figures walking. Everything about it conveys this vastness that is so oppressive in its openness. It's the majesty of Mother Nature.

Note how tiny the figures are. Note how Dick leads the other two, not by a little, but by a lot. In his arms Dick holds the baby, nurses her with the formula from the mother’s bag. In the pages we see Helena struggling, Midnighter drinking water and shedding away his clothes, but Dick remains stoic. He leads, separated — isolated, distant — from the rest, determined, disappearing into the far orange of the page.

In this, we see Dick’s silent determination. It’s notable that he is not trying to make light of the situation through humor. Instead, he is silent. And he walks.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Pages 04-05]

As the story continues, Midnighter’s pessimism deepens. It is notable that this issue is the first time Dick and Midnighter have seen each other since Grayson #01. And what does Midnighter do? He lashes out at Dick by revealing he knows who Dick is. This calls back to Forever Evil, where Dick’s identity was revealed to the world. Midnighter is weaponizing Dick’s trauma against him, trying to draw a reaction out of Dick. Not only that, he says that they only way to survive is to kill the baby and use the Paragon Heart. Otherwise, the odds are not in their favor, and he deems this "just walk" strategy is pointless. This is how Midnighter copes with the hopelessness of their situation — he dwells on the negative and lashes out.

Helena reacts to Midnighter by subduing the threat, but she doesn’t comment on his defeatist attitude. Nor on his plan. She is, again, practical. She won’t say they’ll make it, but she won’t allow Midnighter to pose a threat to the mission.

Dick, though… Not once does Dick acknowledge Midnighter’s taunting. Not once, not even to defend the baby. A weaker writer would have tried to get Dick to empathize with Midnighter, to tell him again that they're not dead yet, that they just need to keep trying. Instead, Dick’s refusal to even look at Midnighter shows how he won't even acknowledge the possibility of not surviving. His focus, instead, is all on her. That is what is driving him so that is what has his entire attention. Midnighter's temper tantrum is not even worth his time. Not when her survival is at stake.

I also want to take a moment to take in the environment. In this scene, the first panel shows how tiny the three of them are in the vast desert, the beautiful sky expanding above them. Mother Nature, the issue seems to say, is beautiful, worthy of awe. It is big, bigger than any human. More powerful, too. It is a challenge unlike any Dick has ever or will ever face. It cannot be charmed by him, it cannot be fought against, it cannot be conquered. It is not cruel or evil, either. It simply is, bare and uncomplicated, honest at all times. To survive her, Dick must also be the barest, least complicated version of his self.

While writing this, I often felt myself hesitating when writing about the conflict between Dick and desert. Phrases like “go against the desert,” often came to my tongue, and I had to swallow them back due to how wrong they felt. To “go against” someone (or something) is to have an antagonistic, adversarial relationship, and I’m not sure that is incredibly accurate to this scenario. The desert is indifferent towards Dick and the others. Midnighter speaks of fighting, of winning, of conquering this challenge, but Dick, by contrast, is quiet. He is not trying to “win” against the desert. That is not the right frame of mind. Rather, he is simply trying to survive.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Pages 06 - 07]

As time passes, Midnighter continues to talk. To taunt. His negative attitude doesn’t light up, and he is still trying to get a reaction out of Dick. Here we see that Midnighter is perhaps not fully comfortable with his enhancements, like he doesn't see himself as fully human because of them. He resents them even as he trusts his enhancements more than he trusts his own abilities. He says he sees all outcomes and there are none where they survive this. Not as humans. Not without the Heart.

Note how Midnighter presents their situation as not about being tough, but about how much energy you have. This framing seems to reject the idea of survival — of “toughing it out” — and instead looks at their situation as one of victory and defeat — you have to have enough energy to make it out of the desert, and in doing so, you’ll be victorious.

Yet, Midnighter predicts himself to outlast Dick, but in reality, he falls before Dick does. This begs the question: Was Midnighter right? Must you defeat the desert and win against it in order to win?

Personally, I believe the story is saying “no.” This is not about victory and defeat, but about survival. And to survive, one must lay themselves bare of foolish things such as pride and ego. To survive, you must dig deeper within yourself, and find something that will allow you to not go against mother nature, but to continue walking along side her.

Dick has found his something deep within himself. That something is his compassion. Helena collapses, and Dick leaves with her his shirt, laying himself bare. Yet, despite his fallen partner, his priority is still the baby girl. He will survive for her, and in this action we see the depths of Dick’s compassion for others. He continues to walk. He continues to survive.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Pages 08-10]

Finally, after days, Midnighter is confronted with the true force that is Dick Grayson. He was so certain he was going to outlast Dick. “I have… My… Enhancements. I have powers,” he struggles to say. But what does Dick have? How can a simple man continue to go against these conditions?

This page shows how deeply Midnighter underestimated Dick’s humanity and his compassion. Dick is not a superpowered individual, no, but Dick’s determination is unlike at other. This is who he is… Someone who walks.

Dick is a survivor. When Dick was a small boy, he lost his entire world in a traumatic act of violence. From the moment those ropes snapped and the Flying Graysons plunged to their deaths, Dick became a survivor — someone who had to figure out how to walk forward when everything seemed lost. And Dick did it.

If I can go on a bit of a tangent here, I’ll say that I really dislike whenever child heroes are characterized as child soldiers, be it by fans or by canon writers. This reading is, in my opinion, incredibly lazy and displays a lack of understanding of what superhero identities are meant to stand for. We can discuss the traumas that come along with being a child hero, but to dismiss it as a universally bad thing and equating to the real world horror of child soldiers ignores the fact that this is a fictional world in which the fantastical concepts act as metaphors for larger ideas.

Robin is not a child soldier. Robin, much like Batman, is a response to trauma. Specifically, Dick’s Robin is a response to the trauma of being a survivor of violent crime, and Robin demonstrates how a victim can regain agency and transform their tragedy into an empowering narrative. As Steve Braxi points out in his On Superman, Shootings, and the Reality of Superheroes essay, Batman “transform[s] trauma into will power,” and Dick, whose story is meant to mirror that of Bruce’s, does the exact same through Robin. Through Robin, Dick is able to not only find justice for his parents, but he is also to help other survivors like him. And that is what allows him to keep on walking.

This is what Grayson #05 demonstrates. It strips away the metaphor of the hero identities and the distraction of partnerships, laying Dick out bare and showing that as long as he can help someone, as long as he has his compassion, Dick Grayson can survive anything.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Pages 12 - 13]

In the following page, the vastness of the desert is contrasted with close up shots of the baby. We see Dick, so impossibly small standing against a large desert that disappears into the horizon, and ocean of sand and oranges, and we see the whole reason why Dick is still alive. The environment that may kill him is contrasted with the reason why he will survive.

“I’m here. I’m here,” Dick tells the baby girl as she ceases her cries. “I’m still here.”

He gets up… And he walks. The repetitiveness of the action throughout the issue emphasizes the slog of the immediate aftermath of a traumatic event, those moments when you realize time is progressing forward as it always had, but your mind and heart are still stuck in that one moment that changed your life forever. All Dick can do is walk, walk, walk, yet he is still lost in this vast desert, the trauma is still overwhelming him, there’s no end in sight… But he does have his reason for not giving up — his compassion allows him to continue onward.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Pages 14 - 15]

Robin Dies at Dawn is the title of Batman #156. In this two part story Batman finds himself in an alien planet filled with threats. Robin saves him from sentient, walking plants, and after escaping, they find a giant stone idol that comes to life and begins chasing them. They manage to leap over a deep fissure and realize that if the stone idol were to do the same, the unstable down would crumble and the stone idol would fall, securing their safety. As they wait for the idol, they see that it, too, realized the ground was unstable and it tries to figure out a safer passage to the other side. That’s when Robin provokes the stone idol, who, in fury, grabs a boulder to throw at Robin. Before it can do it, the floor crumbles and it falls, but boulder still hits Robin and kills him. Later, it is revealed that this was a hallucination induced by an experiment Batman subjected himself to meant to study the effects of loneliness in astronauts. Through the following days, Bruce has occasional hallucinations of alien creatures putting Dick in danger. It isn’t until Dick’s life is threatened by the Gorilla Gang that Bruce is able to “overcome” the lingering effects of the experiment, the threat to Dick’s life being enough to “shock” him back to normal.

[Finger, Bill; Boltinoff, Henry; Schiff, Jack, writers. Moldoff, Sheldon; Boltinoff, Henry, illustrators. Robin Dies at Dawn. Batman. 156, e-book ed. DC Comics, 1963. Page]

To the baby girl, Dick recounts this Golden Age story as if it were a dream, focusing on the part where the stone idol kills him with the boulder. In this tale, we go back to Robin, Dick’s first survival mechanism, and to the first person who first showed him compassion and to whom his survival was paramount — Batman.

Though so far Dick has rejected the idea of victory vs defeat, he presents the baby with a scenario where he is faced with such a conflict. Yet, in this case, to “go up against” the enemy is to call them forward so they will fall. Dick’s taunting leads the stone idol to it’s defeat, and this is the point which Dick says he wants the baby girl to focus on. You must welcome danger, he seems to say, and face it head on. You must walk forward instead of running away.

Yet, it is notable that the enemy is not the only one who is defeated in this story. After all, Dick “dies” at dawn. This is what Dick doesn’t want the baby to focus on, but I think it’s important in understanding this idea of survival. In the story, Dick sacrifices himself so Batman can escape. He goes up against an enemy, he achieves victory, but he does not survive. But, crucially important, Batman does.

This paints a picture where Dick's survival and his victory are not one and the same. Not the way Midnighter seemed to have believed. While Dick’s compassion is intrinsically tied to his status as a survivor of violence, this story seems to indicate that Dick will readily relinquish his own survival for the sake of someone else. In the framing of victories and defeats, other people’s safety -- other people's survival -- is Dick’s “win” condition.

This, I believe, demonstrates how Dick's compassion allows him to pass own his survivor status to others, even at the cost of his own life. By shielding them and giving them the opportunity to move past a trauma, Dick creates other survivors. He becomes their protector, their patron saint.

[King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014. Pages 16 - 18]

Dick Grayson is a lot of things, and he has numerous qualities. He is a partner, a hero, and a friend; he’s good, he’s funny, and he’s brave. While all of those are important aspects of his character, they can also distract from one characteristic that is crucial to Dick’s genesis.

Before he was Agent 37, before he was Nightwing, before he was Robin, Dick was a survivor. Having survived violence, Dick used his compassion to transform his trauma into power. Grayson #05 isolates Dick from the world, putting him in a dangerous and revealing desert to expose his ability to survive through his compassion. This, the story says, is who Dick at the core of his being, when stripped away from the distractions of partnerships and superhero metaphors. This is who Dick Grayson is: He is a man who walks.

Bibliography:

Braxi, Steve, “On Superman, Shootings, and the Reality of Superheroes” Comics Bookcase, September 2021

Finger, Bill; Boltinoff, Henry; Schiff, Jack, writers. Moldoff, Sheldon; Boltinoff, Henry, illustrators. Robin Dies at Dawn. Batman. 156, e-book ed. DC Comics, 1963

Katzman, Gregg. "Interview: Tom King & Tim Seeley Talk GRAYSON." Yahoo! News, 4 Jan. 2015. Accessed 8 Dec. 2024

King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. We All Die at Dawn. Grayson. 05, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014

King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Mooney, Stephen, illustrator. A Story of Giants Big and Small. Grayson. Annual 01, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014

King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Mooney, Stephen, illustrator. Sin by Silence. Grayson. 07, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014

King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Janin, Mikel, illustrator. Nemesis Part Two. Grayson. 10, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014

King, Tom; Seeley, Tim, writers. Antonio, Roge, illustrator. Spiral’s End. Grayson. 20, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2016

King, Tom; Seeley, Tim; Tynion IV, James, writers. Janin, Mikel; Hetrick, Meghan; Garron, Javier; Lucas Jorge, illustrators. Setting Son. Nightwing. 30, e-book ed. DC Comics, 2014

[obsessionsandme]

Trying to make canon make sense and just over and over coming to the conclusion that Bruce had a lot of misplaced confidence in his parenting ability. based off of how well Dick responded to him. B was coasting off of Mary and John’s hard work that even Bruce’s mistakes in mentoring/fathering couldn’t completely break down and then with Jason it’s like why the fuck aren’t you easy.

[obsessionsandme]

like in many ways, at least up until jack's death, tim's dual identities as tim and as robin are both literally and figuratively represented by jack and janet and i'm not sure it's entirely intentional but it is a divide that is present from their first appearance at the circus.

because you have jack: at the circus, he is the one who thinks they shouldn't encourage tim to be just like dick, who survives haiti and becomes the civilian part of his life that hinders tim's ability to be a vigilante, he tries to send tim away from the city--from robin (unbeknownst to him) in cry if the huntress, he marries dana and represents the normalcy of moving on and having a normal life after tragedy touches you, he anchors tim to his life as tim drake

and then you have janet: who at the circus encourages tim to be just like dick one day, whose death orphans tim in a way that mirrors both bruce & dick's tragedies and gives him the impetus to need prevent senseless tragedy for personal reasons, whose funeral is used at the inciting incident to make tim robin, whose spectre is used in cry of the huntress for jack to decide to keep tim close--for tim to be able to stay in gotham and be robin, who represents the tragedy that creates a hero.

and you have tim: with his alive dad and who he is as tim drake and his dead mom and who he is as robin.

[obsessionsandme]

Remember that time that Dick didn���t tell the team they were partly formed because the JLA didn’t trust Vic to not destroy the planet and (rightfully) Vic was pissed at him so Dick just…

The Titans (1999) #17

Did a bunch of research…

The Titans (1999) #19

Pulled a bunch of strings and payed a bunch of money…

The Titans (1999) #20

Pissed off his dad (Uncle Clark for the win)…

The Titans (1999) #20

And broke approximately 2940582 international laws to clone him a body that could interface with his technology in order to fix things between them.

Dick Grayson, what the fuck

(Image Descriptions under cut):

Keep reading

[obsessionsandme]

drew my babygirl like this

heavily inspired by dan mora’s version of nightwing

[obsessionsandme]

that is NOT my bruce wayne... 🙄 MY bruce wayne would say some shit like "don't be sorry. be better." and stare dick down while thinking be better so this never happens to you again, i can't handle seeing you hurt like this and knowing it's because i brought you into my self-destructive crusade out of a selfish desire to have you in my life but not voicing it which immediately inflicts an additional layer of "oh, so it's because i'm not good enough" on dick #NotMyBruceWayne

[obsessionsandme]

Justice League: Rise and Fall Special

[obsessionsandme]

So... I found this and now it keeps coming to mind. You hear about "life-changing writing advice" all the time and usually its really not—but honestly this is it man.

I'm going to try it.

[obsessionsandme]

[obsessionsandme]

I think people also don’t get that for someone to hurt you in such a deep and personal way- you need to love them. No stranger can infuriate me the way my loved ones can.

There’s no one you’ve screamed at more than the people you love the most. The love is there, but love doesn’t fix relationships and make them perfect.

And this post makes me think of children and their parents and how they can be so proud of their kids but the things they dislike the most in them are aspects of themselves as well. There’s something about someone making the same bad choices you’d make for the same reasons you’d have that drive you more crazy than anyone else’s problems can.

thinking about devotion and dick “i would die for you bruce” grayson and eldest children and the concept of the sins of the father being paid for by the son and bruce ‘nightwing is the best of us’ wayne

anyway i just think that a lot of people who write them not liking each other don’t understand the feeling when you’re too similar to do anything but understand each other and that both destroys and heals your relationship