#batman: legends of the dark knight

[nightwingcouldyounot]

This is definitively a contender for my favorite Alfred threat of all time.

(Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 211)

[comicsiswild]

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989) #16

[laufire]

batman: legends of the dark knight #144

given utrh's retcon do you. do you guys think she's already picked up jason 🥺

[selinakylemybeloved]

he's so sassy i love him

[image taken from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #1]

[spocks-husband]

If you guys have never read Batman: Legends Of The Dark Knight for the Venom plot, you ABSOLUTELY need to. It's so so good. Plus I'm obsessed with how they draw Bruce <<3

[gffa]

I NEED YOU TO UNDERSTAND HOW I WAS IN ABSOLUTE TEARS DURING THIS ENTIRE SCENE, Alfred has been subtly nudging Bruce towards accepting the idea that he might genuinely be a dad to this kid (spoiler alert: the comic ends with Nightwing acknowledging that yeah of course Bruce was his father) who has been very reluctant about it, but the second Dick sneaks out, Bruce is waiting for him to climb back in the window and stare him down with, "Where. Were. You?" like that's not the most dad shit I've SEEN IN MY LIFE, Bruce Wayne goes from 0 to 100 dad miles per hour and even Dick takes the barest nudging to fall into the same patterns. But I will NEVER not laugh my ass off at Bruce being like, "Hm, maybe I SHOULD try to parent the kid? How does one do that?" and his answer was to WAIT IN THE DARK LIKE A CREEPER TO BE A HELICOPTER PARENT, absolutely perfect, I have zero notes.

[chernobog13]

From Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (vol. 1) #54 (November, 1993). Art by Mike Mignola, colors by Mark Chiarello.

[fancyfade]

legends of the dark knight 150

I love his audacity

[alphacomicsvol2]

[ungoliantschilde]

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, Vol. 1 # 203 by Ariel Olivetti.

[nightwingcouldyounot]

This is Bruce as a dad to me - blunt criticisms followed by almost over-caring advice.

(Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight 100)

[comicsiswild]

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight (1989) #17

[laufire]

My life is a play, is a play, is a play. jason todd's death – april 27th, 1987. electra heart's publication – april 27th, 2012.

[intentionally-out-of-context-dc]

Holy shit, Frosty the Snowman killed Bruce's parents?

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #1

And from this day on, Bruce Wayne dedicated himself to increasing global warming so no one else would suffer like he did. It all fits together! (link)

[tomoleary]

Marshall Rogers - Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #136

[gffa]

"Grimm" is a five-part story from Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight from 2002 and I kind of absolutely lost my mind over it because there was just so much validating everything I've always thought about these two. The premise is typical comics shenanigans, there's a Mother Grimm who is stealing street kids and abused children away to this fantastical underground carnival to let them live a whimsical life, where they're loved and cared for--which Dick falls into because he's clashing with Bruce, who is freaking out because he's worried that he's turning Dick into a mirror version of himself. The story is woven through with Alfred gently trying to push (which I've been losing my shit about here and here because this is exactly what I read comics for) both Bruce and Dick into acknowledging that they're becoming father and son--but it's clear that both of them are terrified of stepping into those roles, Bruce because he doesn't know how to raise a kid and he's afraid he's hurting more than helping, Dick because he's not sure Bruce even wants him around as Robin, much less as Dick Grayson, but you watch the way Alfred barely has to nudge them and you see them both start to lean into the idea before they get scared again and jump back into saying they're partners and friends instead. And it's so validating because it's the good stuff--Dick running away because he feels like Bruce doesn't want him, Bruce coming home to tell him that he's going to find Dick a new family because he's scared he's molding this kid into himself but he can't because Dick's already run off, but when Dick says he's going to stay with Mother Grimm, Bruce looks gut-punched like he can't actually believe Dick would leave. Meanwhile, Bruce tries to leave, but Mother Grimm secretly doses him with psychotropic drugs which send him into hallucinations about how he's dragging Dick into this violent world of his, and how he's setting him up for death, that because Bruce didn't die with his parents, now he's trying to get this kid--this kid who mirrors him in so many ways--killed instead. And it's all just so much terror at the thought of letting someone else in after their losses--Bruce because he's scared of losing more people, Dick scared because he's not sure he's wanted, and it'll take years yet for them to actually put anything into words, so instead they settle for "partners" and it might feel unsatisfying and half-assed, except honestly Dick Grayson and Alfred Pennyworth were working miracles here. There's plenty of room for other interpretations, including soft dad!Bruce who eagerly embraces the idea (and it's not too far off from this, this Bruce very clearly does want that, he's just scared and so he keeps chickening out), but this is where I live, this is why Dick Grayson is so fundamentally important to Bruce Wayne's story, that neither character is complete without the other. Bruce Wayne is a character who lost his entire world on that night he was eight years old and didn't know how to grow beyond it for so long, and how do you make a character arc like that satisfying? How do you take a character that is defined by a child's loss of his parents, that shapes everything of who he came to be, and make a satisfying conclusion?

You do it by making him a father to a child who needs him. A child who mirrors him, where they could bring out the worst in each other--and sometimes they do tend to slide into those fears getting the better of them--but instead Bruce struggles his way to being someone who openly admits that he's fallible, he makes mistakes, but he loves his kid and he is a father, that he needs to step up. I've been reading a lot of Bruce & Damian comics lately and it's been striking me how different Bruce is--he's still emotionally constipated, but he understands that he has to get in there, set boundaries, set rules, and make sure the kid knows that he's proud of them. Has to be the adult that looks past the scared kid's bravado and harsh words, to see the vulnerability underneath.

Bruce could never have done any of what he's doing with Damian currently without THIS RIGHT HERE. Without the yearning for something he doesn't know how to put into words (even when Alfred basically spells it out for him), without Dick Grayson bringing light and love into his life, without Dick being such a bright and loving child who was still scared that he wasn't wanted, so Bruce has to open up and learn to start actually saying what he means.

You don't get Bruce & Damian (or Bruce & Jason or Bruce & Tim) without Bruce & Dick first. You don't get any of that without Bruce's relationship with Dick making him put his fears into words and learning to trust his heart to this kid, step by step.

Bruce and Dick's relationship being rocky in the early days isn't a mark against how much Bruce loved that kid, but instead a sign of just how miraculous it was that Dick Grayson got him this far in the first place. Dick Grayson had to be the first, because you don't get to current day Bruce Wayne with any of his other kids without him. (Overall, this was a fairly silly comic that was very much of its era, but I thought it was a great read because it really nailed how hard it was for them to even begin to approach the idea of Bruce being a dad, he couldn't even say it at the end of all this, despite that he literally pulled the most dad move of all time by waiting in the dark for his kid to sneak back in and basically tell him he was grounded. GOD THEY ARE SO EMOTIONALLY CONSTIPATED AND IT'S SO DELICIOUSLY FUN.)