#havendance reads comics

[havendance]

Ran out of steam on the Year One vs Zero Year post for now and I don't think this is going to fit in it, so I'm just going to make it it's own post, but here's the evolution of an iconic Batman line:

The "I shall become a bat" line has been there from the beginning:

Left: from Batman #33 Bruce Wayne: A Bat! That's it! It's like an omen! I shall become a Bat Right: from Detective Comics #265, a silver age retelling Bruce Wayne: A Bat! It's like an Omen! I shall become a Batman!

There are minor variations, but they're largely the same. Frank Miller knows that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. He does, however add some embellishment and make one key innovation:

(Batman #404) Bruce Wayne: I have seen it before... somewhere... it frightened me... as a boy... frightened me... yes, Father. I shall become a bat. (emphasis mine)

He added the Yes, Father bit, and that's the version that's gotten carried forward to today!

(Batman (2011) #23 (written by Scott Snyder)) Bruce Wayne: Yes, Father. I shall become a bat.

(Well, two innovations, I suppose. Frank Miller also added the little bell as far as I can tell which, while not visible in this panel from Batman (2011) #23, is sitting on the side table in the extended sequence Snyder devotes to this scene, even though it's never called out. I'm inclined to call that more of an homage though)

[mysteriousbeetle]

Helena Bertinelli :)

How I feel about this character

before i even read comics with her, just from art and panels i'd seen of her i knew she was cool. i really loved reading batman/huntress: cry for blood and after that, reading huntress (1989) is what made me love her character even more. what stands out to me the most about her is how she's driven by passion for her family, for saving people and for justice.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

i really like helenarenee as both a romantic ship and platonic ship because of how well they get along and how much they care for each other. helenababs or helbabs is fun as a toxic yuri ship. helena and vic sage are cute together too.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

i think in a way i don't have a platonic otp for her because while she has a lot of important relationships, i feel like she wouldn't really have one person who is closer to her above all others, partially because of her sense of independence. one relationship i like with her that i like in a purely platonic way is helena and dinah. dinah was someone to offer her her trust and support and that's really neat.

My unpopular opinion about this character

this isn't exactly about helena but i think the art style in huntress (1989) is good actually and works really well for the series.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

i would like to see her more involved with her local community!! i feel like she really shines during moments where she does this. also, i want to see what happened with james!!

[pokeberry5]

tfw u're on the verge of tears bc too many people are talking at once

sketchdump (again, mostly tim, bc even when i dont set out to draw him, i end up drawing him anyway):

dick & tim from gotham knights issues #8-10 have my whole heart

my friend got me a new pen:

and i've been reading a lot of upswings and havendance's fics where tim keeps showing up at people's apartments, as is his due (let him in!!)

tim using his cape as an emergency blanket!!

this stupid image has been haunting me for months:

if it wasn't clear from honeypot and the red dress comic, i like a very specific aesthetic

i wanted a red hood charm too:

(chibi catwoman tim from a old, larger spread "the latex spread" that i absolutely cannot post the full version of o7)

some really ancient doodles (proof that long hair tim has been important to me since the beginning):

roughs of my red dress comic:

[sasheneskywalker]

Weekly Batman/DC Fic Recs (1)

This week I've read two delightful character studies, one focused on Barbara Gordon and the other on Jason Todd. There's also a hilarious SI/OC fic from the perspective of Tim Drake and two fantastic fics where Lonnie Machin/Anarky plays a major role. Apart from that, two delicious smutty fics got an update: Bruce/Dick/Jason college au and Slade/Jason western au. We also have an amazing DCU, MCU and X-Men crossover oneshot! Hope you enjoy the recs <3

Delta T by Havendance In one universe, mere seconds stop Barbara Gordon from sniping Black Mask. In another, she takes the shot.

G | No Archive Warnings Apply | Batman (Comics) | Helena Bertinelli & Barbara Gordon

this city is the place to be by Jezebunny Gotham city is going to be destroyed in twelve hours.

Jason doesn't see any point in stopping it.

What does he owe anybody, anyway?

T | No Archive Warnings Apply | Batman - All Media Types | Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne

Domestication Protocols for Nocturnal Fauna by rozaceous, vermillion_crown It’s been years since Tim's thought about the secret identities of Gotham’s winged wonders. A chance encounter while searching for college roommates that won’t burn the place down gives Tim a lead and the hope of new accommodations. The only thing he has to do is pretend that he doesn’t know anything.

Easy.

("—and they were roommates!" SI/OC edition)

T | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings | Batman - All Media Types | Jason Todd/Original Female Character(s), Tim Drake/Original Male Character(s), Dick Grayson & Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) & Original Male Character(s), Tim Drake & Original Female Character(s)

The Assassination of President Luthor by the Radical Lonnie Machin by NiteWrighter "Hi. I’m Lonnie. So I guess I should start out by saying, I don’t believe violence is a sustainable tool. It’s not. It’s a reflection of our ugliest, most base instincts. But it is the current language of the state, so I apologize for bringing my voice to the conversation."

President Luthor has been brutally killed by a magical weapon, and Anarky has claimed responsibility. The Justice League is struggling with the ensuing fallout, instability, suspicion, and speculation, while a power vacuum opens up in the world of the Rogues. What does a world without Lex Luthor look like? Is he truly gone? Has a greater chain reaction been kicked off by this single death?

T | Major Character Death | Superman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, DCU (Comics) | Clark Kent/Lois Lane, Diana (Wonder Woman) & Clark Kent & Bruce Wayne, Lana Lang/Pete Ross, Tim Drake/Lonnie Machin

The Half-Life of Sixty Seconds by sunnymusings "The problem with thinking like a detective is not actually that thinking like one is too strict or structured. There’s organization on a document, but Tim’s mind is not a bullet journal. It’s not a legal form, it’s not a spreadsheet, it’s not a ledger.

It’s messy and human and creative. Loose, unstructured, instinctual. Detectives aren’t good at solving cases because they work like machines; it’s much the opposite. It’s that creative mess which aids in seeing between the structure of presented facts, reading the code, and then cracking it. It’s like tracing a spider web back to its center. There’s an observable track leading exactly where one needs to go— a veritable method to the madness— but it’s still art, all the same, even to the broom that ruins it.

So, when Tim is presented with a countdown, it’s not just a mechanical, factual understanding of time that pushes hard against the inside of his ribs; it’s a too-clear visual of a digital clock-face, neutral and unyielding, counting down from sixty in his neocortex. Artistic and messy and emotional.

There is only one place to go once one is caught in the web."

Based on Red Robin #16. Missing Scenes and Relationship Building.

T | No Archive Warnings Apply | Batman - All Media Types, Red Robin (Comics) | Tim Drake & Lonnie Machin, Tim Drake/Lonnie Machin

Making The Grade by MelodramaticMrTails Jason partners up with the rich and beautiful Dick Grayson and quickly finds out the Wayne family secret- and that Dick wants him to join in on it.

E | No Archive Warnings Apply | DCU (Comics), Batman - All Media Types | Dick Grayson/Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson/Jason Todd

Nothing to Nobody by Jae_Cillian The kid—Jason—stared at Slade with wide, alert eyes. Big and round like a doe—startled in its grazing, frozen in the sights of a predator. He leaned forward, one hand still gripping the pistol but the other anchoring his weight against the floor as if to stand and chase after Slade. But with Slade’s eye on him, Jason didn’t dare move an inch. All tense lines and silent shudders of breath that Slade could see quake along the kid’s ribs, Jason reminded Slade of a stray dog. Snarling and snapping its canines when he got too close, but whimpering and whining when he walked away.

Slade wondered how long it’d take to tame the kid; and, thereupon, realized he might enjoy the challenge of it.

--

In which Slade, while chasing after the Joker gang's bounties and stolen payroll, finds Jason—battered, beaten, and abused at the gang's hands—alone in the mountains. Intrigued by the kid's feral tenacity, he offers Jason a chance at revenge.

E | Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings | Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics), Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics) | Jason Todd/Slade Wilson

Five Supersoldiers Walk Into a Bar by bittercape He spots him through the binoculars, far away and disappearing fast. Logan is, more than anything, a hunter. He knows how to watch, and he watches the sniper moving away, after a single well-placed shot. He moves just like Barnes did. Everyone has a particular way of moving, if you know how to watch. And Logan, as mentioned, knows how to watch.

Logan knows it cannot be him, knows he died, falling from a train. No normal human could survive that. And yet …

He drops down from the watchtower. He’ll catch hell for this, sure. But he has to know.

T | No Archive Warnings Apply | Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men (Comicverse), DCU (Comics), Deathstroke the Terminator (Comics) | Logan (X-men) & James "Bucky" Barnes, Logan (X-Men) & Natasha Romanov, Logan (X-Men) & Slade Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes & Slade Wilson, Natasha Romanov (Marvel) & Slade Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Slade Wilson

[havendance]

Did my own survey and came up about the same: 45-47 depending on how you weigh edge case characters like Sasha Bordeaux and Lady Shiva (I feel like they shouldn't count as straight bat characters for their own sake but Batman has its own gravity).

Just did a quick survey for the meme: 46/100 of my top 100 characters are Bat book characters. Which honestly isn’t bad going, though yea I could diversify more.

[somefanficrecomendations]

Robins are an Invasive Species

Author: Havendance Fandom: Batman (comics), Huntress

Summary: Team up with a teen vigilante once and you'll never get rid of him again. Helena didn't sign up for any of this. Writing the fic I want to read, one Huntress and Robin team up at a time.

Readers Notes: This series sat in my TBR pile for months before I decided to pick it up in the hopes of reducing the size of the stack. It has 3 parts, Robins Don’t Make Great Roommates, Brothers Have the Worst Timing and, Batman for Dummies. Batman for Dummies is the longest work in the series and spans the No Man’s Land arc. I hadn’t read anything with Helena in it before this fic but after reading this I’ve gained a new appreciation for her as a character, and I love her and Tim as Batman and Robin! I love Tim, and Tim as Robin isn’t something I get to read very often. He’s difficult to write correctly, balancing the bat-competency and pragmatic realism with the optimism of a  young Robin!Tim. Havendance has done a spectacular job with these characters. If you’ve never read Huntress, this is a great place to start.

Rating: Teen  Warning: None Apply.    Words: 42,848k          Characters: Helena Bertinelli, Tim Drake, Barbra Gordon, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson Additional tags: Helena Bertinelli & Tim Drake, No Man’s Land, Batman: Knightfall, Helena Bertinelli is Batman, POV Helena Bertinelli, AU-Canon Divergence, Helena Bertinelli-Centric, Canon Typical Violence

[acediscowlng]

2024 WRITING REVIEW

tagged by @vechter <3

tagging uhh I haven't really been on tumblr for the past few days so I have no idea who's done this but @havendance @ahyperactivehero and anyone else who wants to do it <3

number of stories posted to ao3: 42 works.... uh... most of that is for whumptober to be fair....

word counted posted for last year: ..... 169,314. You could say I might have lost my mind a bit for the second half of the year. Just a bit, though.

fandoms i wrote for: Dead Boy Detectives, Honkai Star Rail, Genshin Impact, a little bit of DC Comics, and one Les Mis fic that I aggressively pretend doesn't exist.

pairings: Payneland, Catwin for dbda. I accidentally stumbled and fell into rarepair hell with Avenhill in HSR. I think I wrote one ratiorine fic? But I am still mostly a gen writer tho, and all my DC fics this time are various combinations of batfam interactions.

stories with the most kudos, bookmarks and comment threads:

Kudos - Thrice is a Pattern from HSR aka Aventurine exploring his suicide options in a land where he can't die.

Bookmarks - just a little fun on the road to hell also from HSR which is technically about avenhill but actually mostly about me temporarily losing all hints of sanity for 48 hours in an attempt to answer a question of how a guy who is metal robot from the neck down would fuck.

Comment Threads - The Case of the Anonymous Confession from DBDA. Another one where I temporarily lost my mind. Spent two whole days coding the CSS for it. It was a whole thing.

work i’m most proud of (and why):

His Pain Be Ours to Bear is my baby. It's been in the works since 2022 but I never really got started with it until 2024 for the Batfam Big Bang. I just really love it. It's not perfect and there's a lot of things about it I would change, but I also just really like how it turned out.

Also, I would be remiss not to give a special mention to The Case of the Anonymous Confession just because, again and I cannot stress this enough, the coding made writing the thing An Endeavor. I suffered so much, but it was worth it. The end result was pretty cool, though, if I do say so myself.

work i’m least proud of (and why): A Steady Anchor in the Open Sea. It was just so painful to write. It fought me the whole way through and I had to completely redo it so many times. It was for whumptober, and I liked to have my fics mostly done two weeks before they're set to post, but I was completely overhauling this thing two days before it was meant to post. And I'm gonna be real, I'm still not entirely happy with the end product but uggghhh. It's fine. It turned out fine. I know it turned out objectively fine, but there's so much bad associated with it that I'm still kinda mad at the fic.

share or describe a favorite review you received:

just one lmao? i love all of them. But if I had to pick one, I was really touched by this one just because I never really considered that people would be reading my writing through the years and still liking it. It was simultaneously very touching and very terrifying.

a time when writing was really, really hard: My first fic for the year was in May and I started it around mid-April? All the months before that were excruciating. I could not get a single word out. I don't even remember why, but I just couldn't make myself write for the longest time and it was awful.

a scene or character you wrote that surprised you:

I feel like I'm learning who Crystal Palace is as I'm writing her fic. There's just so many layers to her, and she's so complex that the more I think about her and write about her in the fic, the more she surprises me.

a favourite excerpt of your writing:

I am just. Really proud of this section from His Pain Be Ours to Bear.

Jason doubts the Nightwing costume will ever feel completely right against his skin. It’s not his, and maybe it never will be. Would he have picked it out if it was just him? Probably not. He didn’t pick Robin, either. But maybe that’s not really a bad thing. Any asshole could put on a few bright colors, come up with a dumb name, and start beating people up in the dead of night. Being a hero at all hadn’t really been an option for him, not until he first glared Batman down with a tire iron and the kind of bravado only a twelve-year-old could have. Jason doesn’t know the person he could have become without that. He might have been better, he might have been worse. He might not have died the way he did, or he might not have lived a life not worth living. Jason doesn’t think he wants to know. Dick probably wouldn’t have approved, but he’d still smile and clap his hand on Jason’s shoulder and he’d say, you’ll do great, kid, and he’d mean it with complete sincerity. Legacy is the weight of love. It’s not a bad thing to have.

how did you grow as a writer last year: Did I grow tho? Lmao. Of course I did. 2025 is the year where we stop self-deprecating language.

I don't know. I'm a lot more comfortable with smut now, which is nice. I think my fics are a lot more ambitious now. Outside of fic weeks and whumptober, I have Projects(TM) now where I just really dig deep into the writing and the prose and the characters. I think I've been doing that more and more as the years pass as opposed to just working on a fic for a few hours and throwing it out into the wind the way I did when I was younger, and it's an interesting change. I like to think that I'm better at giving my characters complex emotions, but I wouldn't say that definitively.

how do you hope to grow this year: I'm actually planning on trying to translate a few of my fics into Filipino this year. Just for practice. I don't really write in Filipino (or read much if we're being completely honest), and that's a pretty severe oversight that should probably be rectified. Also there was one tweet that went viral a few days? weeks? back that mostly had Filipinos talking about how good fic smut was in Filipino. And you know. I never tried that. It sounds like fun. I want to write degenerate shit in Filipino too.

who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer, beta, cheerleader, etc.): @redhoodieson has been putting up with my writing insanity at 1 in the morning for nearly a decade now, and 2024 was no different. god bless <3

anything from your real life show up in your writing last year:

The Case of the Anonymous Confession is technically set in Port Townsend but it's actually heavily inspired by that one FB post from UP Diliman Freedom Wall. In my heart, it's actually set in UP and those kids are iskos and iskas.

Oh yeah, I also made Catherine Todd Filipino in one of my fics and made her from my specific province. It's hard to describe in English, but we 100% speak Filipino with the same accent lmao.

any new wisdom you can share with other writers: Just keep going. I promise your writing isn't as bad as you think it is. Trust yourself and your voice and give yourself grace when your writing ends up in places you didn't expect or plan for.

any projects you’re looking to starting (or finishing) this year: I have a few things lined up for fab five week and jaydick week. I also plan to finish my wips from whumptober 2024. There's also one other dbda fic exchange that's due in February, so I should probably start that now.

There's that omegaverse avenhill fic that's gonna get written at some point. I promise. I will write it.

And uh, yeah. Translations. I'm still trying to pick out fics that wouldn't be too painful to translate, but I hope to get a few ones done for the year. Hopefully, I can also write a full fic in Filipino by the end of the year, but that's more of a long-term goal.

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Nightmares

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/XkNrDWS by Havendance Bruce came to wake Tim, the day of his mother's funeral. A companion piece to Batman #455 - Identity Crisis pt. 1 Words: 100, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 14 of Drabbles Fandoms: Batman (Comics) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen Characters: Tim Drake (DCU), Bruce Wayne Relationships: Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Drabble, Canon Compliant read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/XkNrDWS

[androxys]

I was tagged by @havendance for a "get to know you!"

Last Song: "Mama's Broken Heart" by Miranda Lambert, because sometimes you have to listen to a woman going a little crazy. As a treat.

Currently Watching: The only show I'm currently keeping up with is My Adventures with Superman, but I'm hoping to sit down and watch all of Good Omens Season 2 soon!

Currently Reading: Comics-wise? Uhh... for brevity's sake, let's just say Batman Chronicles and Batman: The Cult. Non comics-wise, I'm about to start Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous.

Current Obsession: Yeah it's going to be DC comics forever. More specifically, I recently resurfaced from a deep dive on Barbara's recovery timeline once she gets out of the hospital post-paralysis. The timeline makes no sense and I keep digging deeper. In other realms, I just finished moving, so right now I'm spending a lot of time thinking about houseplants.

Sorry if I ping anyone with this who has already been tagged in a past version of this! The original prompt said 9 folks, so here goes: @azbats @clearbluewaters @upswings @wildflower-ditch @theultimatepomegranatestan @sporkberries @scintillyyy @silverwhittlingknife @mintchocochipsposts

[havendance]

To build on my previous post, I think of the new52 comics I’ve read, Nightwing is the one that I think is best in terms of what the new52 was trying to do and how it was executed. That being said, it is still hindered by the new52-ness of it all. Working off of the premise of ‘we are rebooting these key characters to reintroduce them to a new universe with a compressed timeline’, Nightwing takes full advantage of the reboot to tell stories that are very much NIGHTWING stories but that couldn’t have been told in the post-crisis universe, revisiting classic Dick plot threads like Haley’s Circus and Tony Zucco in new ways.

I like how the initial plot line explores Dick’s childhood at Haley’s circus. The compressed timeline means that he’s spent more time there, and that means that the story has the opportunity to explore his friendships and relationships with the other performers in a more complicated way than warm nostalgia. Instead, he has a rival and a childhood love, and the guy that died after he left. It gets to take advantage of the reboot to spend more time in that part of the story.

(Of course then it proceeds to burn down Haley's Circus not once but TWICE, and also tie them into the court of owls. We're still trapped in the early new52 era edginess and endless crossover events.)

Volume 4: Second City also does this well imo. Tony Zucco is a pretty resolved plot thread in post crisis canon (I believe Dick wrestled with it in Batman Year 3? but also I didn't read year three so don't take my word for it), but once again the reboot and Dick being younger gives the opportunity to dig back in and re-imagine it. Post-crisis Dick doesn't need to wrestle with his parent's murderer, but it's juicy plot thread for new52 Dick, and I like how it has Zucco trying to start anew after what he did and Dick wrestling with that means in terms of the justice he's searching for.

I still think that Nightwing would be stronger if they hadn't erased so much of his history and relationship and the fact that he wasn't just Robin for a couple years, he BUILT the mantle, but the bones are solid and I think, regardless of whether or not the premise of the new52 was a good idea, Nightwing is doing it's best to execute it in a strong way.

[thrakaboom]

For the comic ask, 29?

29. The comic you’re currently reading (or want to reread soon)

Right now I'm reading Immortal Thor, which I'm catching up on! Actually, BOTH the letters I sent were in issue 12 which was ASTOUNDING and very exciting! (I included them below the cut)

Ask game by @havendance and located HERE

[zahri-melitor]

so i'm reading certain nightwing volumes from '96 - 02 for my current reading run following NML (shout out to @havendance, cannot thank you enough 🫶🏾) and while some aspects of how he's written is very compelling and interesting to chew on, for the most part it's been pretty....boring?? like i'm gonna keep reading it so i can have as much context as possible, but it feels more like a chore 😩

anyways, i read your response on that “who’d you choose to write nightwing” poll and i’d love to get your opinion on what nightwing runs/writers to read outside of those 8 volumes. i really wanna get into dick grayson’s character and personality! also, if it’s cool with you, anyone else please feel free to add to this!

-dominomasc

Hey, dominomasc. Unknowingly you've just raised one of the fundamental incongruities of how comics work.

Comics are about layers of stories providing depth to a character and about dozens of different interpretations more than they are about a single amazing run. (Some characters have That Run! But on average, most don't). Dick Grayson, a character that has existed for 84 years, has some very fun stories from all sorts of writers. His title, Nightwing, is also an excellent example of how a lot of long running titles often don't really have a stand out section that's head and shoulders above the rest.

I promise, you are never going to run out of stories to read about Dick Grayson (Comicsvine has him at 9,593 appearances as I write this). So yes, this is going to be about two things: advice on finding stories about Dick that vibe for you; and advice on understanding Dick alongside other storylines.

Taking into account what's listed above and the fact I'm moderately obsessive, I have compiled a discussion of most of the major writers who have written Nightwing runs, or who have written major titles that Dick also prominently appears in.

I am at heart a 'Dick belongs to the Bat Office' person and my expertise in most characters starts with COIE. On that basis I'm not going to dip into pre-Crisis here.

Marv Wolfman & George Pérez: New Teen Titans (1980-1993ish). I am not going to explain all the title names here; you're going to have to go get more detail from someone who treats NTT period as their special interest. Wolfman and Pérez are the architects of Nightwing as a character, separate to Robin, that Dick grew into. Read this period if you're interested in Dick as a young adult among the other Titans going through the transition into adulthood and independence, and his relationship with Kory. Basically it's a superhero young adult soap opera. It can be quite uneven in places, particularly towards the back end, and there are approximately a thousand discussions over which storylines are good and which should be fired into the sun. I am not a subject expert for this period.

Because of the state of the Titans titles in the early 1990s, the Bat office demanded Dick Grayson back under their control. Exactly when they got him back is slightly debated, but it would be fair to say Batman #500 (October 1993) marks his transition back to being a Bat character (around the start of Knightquest); by KnightsEnd and Prodigal (July 1994-January 1995) Dick is once again firmly a member of the Batman set of characters, and has remained so to date.

Prodigal, by Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, Doug Moench: (Batman #512 to Robin #13). Use a reading list here as the stories are spread across multiple titles. Prodigal is 12 issues about Dick's first time being Batman, with Tim as his Robin, and his feelings about returning home to Gotham as an adult. Robin #13 in particular is possibly the most important issue of the story, as it's the foundation of a reset in Bruce and Dick's relationship with each other and how it is going to be characterised for the next decade or so.

Chuck Dixon: (Nightwing #1-70 1996, Nightwing: Alfred's Return, and a bunch of other one shots) So Dixon is probably DC's most prolific writer of all time, and is the architect of what's been treated as 'default Nightwing'. In this run, Dixon creates Bludhaven and the situation of Dick being its protector, out of a desire to be his own man apart from Bruce. He sets up an extensive Rogue's Gallery for Dick, the most famous of which is making Blockbuster one of Dick's main enemies. He has Dick working at a cop bar and then decide to enter the Bludhaven Police Department in an attempt to investigate it from the inside due to the levels of corruption. This is also the run where Dick and Babs get together as adults. Basically, everything about 'default' Dick that you probably know comes from this run. Dixon's great for character interaction, for world building, and and particularly at making various titles tie together - because he was writing at least 1/3 of DC's entire line for a while there he's the king of crossovers, giving a lot of depth to friendships because characters just pop between titles he's writing. His actual plots however vary between middling to occasional flashes of greatness. I'd consider The Hunt for Oracle (#45-46 and BOP#20-21) and the Shrike story (#55-58) to be the standout storylines in his Nightwing run; for individual issues I'd also point to #6 and #25 for his relationship with Tim, #16 for Dick building his car, and then his crossover issues in events tend to be quality.

Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty: (Robin: Year One 2000, Batgirl: Year One 2003, Nightwing: Year One - Nightwing #101-106 1996) I am separating these three out from the rest of Dixon's work as they're quite important as retcons over Dick's backstory. Robin and Batgirl are well regarded rewrites of events; Nightwing is less so, partly because it's a solid example of the Jason personality retcon, and partly I think because a lot of people reading this were still well across the two 1980s versions of Dick's transition from Robin to Nightwing. I highly recommend Robin Year One, particularly with the Shrike storyline of Nightwing, as they are interlinked.

Devin Grayson: (Nightwing #71-100 & #107-117 1996, Nightwing/Huntress 1998, Gotham Knights #1-11 & #14-32, The Titans #1-20 1999) Oh, Devin. Devin Grayson is a Dick Grayson superfan (she uses Grayson as her surname because of Dick). She is really good at character introspection - Gotham Knights #1-11 contains some amazing character work. She's also not shy about establishing her own headcanons on characters and retconning their backstories. Devin's biggest contributions to the Dick Grayson lore are in establishing him as Romani and actually writing Bruce adopting Dick. Her run on Nightwing is best understood as a whump, break-the-cutie run, where Blockbuster sets out to destroy Dick's life, and in the process gets Dick fired, breaks up Dick and Babs, burns down Haly's Circus (for the first time), blows up his entire supporting cast, chases Dick out of Bludhaven and leads to Dick going under cover in the mob essentially to punish himself (also not the only time). Dick's also sexually assaulted in Nightwing #93 but I really beg people to read this in context of the rest of the run; this should be looked at as PART of the whole flow of whump, rather than as a separate situation. Grayson also had the title taken off her before she got to the 'comfort' part of the extended hurt/comfort storyline she was writing. It reads a lot better if you think of this in a more transformative fandom, ficcish manner of story rather than as a more standard run. If her Nightwing run is too grim for you, I highly recommend Gotham Knights and her Titans run; Devin Grayson is honestly best when she's writing a constellation of characters around Dick more than when she's writing Dick himself. She adores his friends and family. Standout issues to get a sense of Devin include: Nightwing #100, a self-reflective issue on Dick's history; Nightwing #81, where Dick's in hospital and Cass goes after Slade for him; Titans #15 1999, where the Fab 5 go on a camping trip together to get back to their roots and deal with a lot of tensions in the group; and Gotham Knights #8-11, Transference, where Dick and Tim team up to rescue Bruce, who's been brainwashed by Hugo Strange.

Jay Faerber: (The Titans #21-41 1999) Honestly Faerber's run on The Titans is not that Dick Grayson focused. It's entertaining if you want to read some solid Titans dynamics, but the standout characters you read this run for are Roy and Donna. Seriously, if you're into Roy, Cheshire and Lian drama I highly recommend Faerber's work; otherwise it's not an essential run for Dick.

Judd Winick: (Outsiders #1-25, 34-49 2003, Batman & Robin #23-25 2011) Winick tends to write an angrier and darker edged Dick Grayson, and he has a bunch of really common tropes you see pop out in his writing. These are no different, and thus include an awful lot of violence and characters having sex (so much sex). He can be quite funny as a writer, but honestly his Outsiders run does not have much of that humour. The Batman & Robin story is basically Winick finding some space to tie up his Jason Todd plot before Flashpoint obliterated it, more than an actual story about Dick. If you want a good encapsulating issue to get the vibe of Winick about Dick, take a look at Outsiders #21, which has a good chunk of Dick and Roy AND Dick and Bruce in it, though it's helpful to remember that this issue is set very shortly after War Games and so Dick is in a massive guilt spiral.

Bruce Jones: (Nightwing #118-124 1999) It's One Year Later! Bruce Jones moves Dick back to New York City (as Bludhaven went boom due to Chemo in the lead up to Infinite Crisis) and theoretically sets up Dick's status quo out to Reborn. So. The story Jones is most famous for is the first 4 issues of the run, which are generally referred to by fans as the TentaTodd story. Jason Todd turns up to run around annoying Dick by ALSO dressing up as Nightwing and committing crimes. He also turns into a tentacle monster for a bit. It is certainly a story that exists, but it actually is pretty in line with Jason and Dick's relationship up to Flashpoint: Jason turns up to be a brat who wants attention, does violent things, and Dick exhaustedly kicks the shit out of him and gets him locked up while despairingly going 'why is this my life'. Because of Jason running around killing people as Nightwing, the NYPD get mad at Nightwing and start trying to hunt him down. Jones is for the completionist.

Marv Wolfman: (Nightwing #125-137 1999) Lacking any better ideas, Wolfman gets a run on Nightwing. It's not Wolfman's finest work, to put it bluntly, and it's very obvious that Marv hasn't actually read any of Dixon or Grayson's runs. Marv does set Dick up working as a gymnastics and trapeze coach, which is always a decent job for him. If I had to pick one story from Wolfman, read Nightwing #127, where Dick gets buried alive and digs his way out of the grave.

Peter J. Tomasi: (Nightwing #140-157 1999, Batman & Robin #20-22 2011) Tomasi loves Dick Grayson, and particularly loves Dick's connection to his friends and family. Let me put it this way; in the lead up to Final Crisis and Blackest Night every title got an Origins and Omens short story on the back of an issue. Most books used it to write creepy or introspective reflections on awful stuff especially deaths that have happened to the characters. Tomasi used his to have Dick take Barbara skydiving for her birthday, and echo a bunch of themes from his first issue. I think this is one of the most mature and grown up looks at Dick prior to Flashpoint; Tomasi treats Dick as a grown adult with an adult relationship with Bruce. I love Freefall. Read Freefall to see some really interesting meta on Dick's relationship to the concept of falling and to the concept of catching falling people, a theme that's frequently present in his stories.

Grant Morrison: (Batman & Robin #1-16 2011) Astonishingly given how much of Reborn was designed by Morrison, they don't actually seem to care that much about Dick as a character more than as a prop to set Damian against. Dick's extremely focused on Damian in this title but also does not actually appear to like Damian very much. If I were going to recommend one story out of it I'd probably point to Batman & Robin #7-9, because Dick gets to be a giant hypocrite in them and tries to resurrect Bruce. It goes badly, for all involved.

Scott Snyder: (Detective Comics #871-881, Gates of Gotham, and like every Bat event during n52) The Black Mirror is probably my favourite piece of Dick!Batman storytelling set during Reborn. It's just elegant in terms of how hard Snyder pushes Dick and how his reactions are very much not those that Bruce would have. This is helpfully extremely obvious in that The Black Mirror and Gates of Gotham are actually part of a trilogy, the third act of which is Court of the Owls and due to Flashpoint Snyder had to rewrite CotO quite extensively including swapping Dick out of being Batman and having Bruce as the lead. Read The Black Mirror for Dick having a minor breakdown while solving a complex case with links to James Gordon and Babs. Read Gates of Gotham for incredible Dick & Tim & Cass & Damian fourway storytelling that shows the dynamics of every pairing out of the four.

Fabian Nicieza: (Nightwing #138-139 1999, Batman #703 & #713, parts of Battle for the Cowl, Nightwing #51-56 2016) The thing about FabNic is when he's on, he's very much on, and when he's not it can be painful. I actually almost would have skipped him on this list, but he very much deserves recognition for writing the Nightwing issues of Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul, which alongside the Robin issues portray exactly how far Dick will go for Tim; and for Batman #703, which is the only issue prior to Bruce's resurrection that actually puts Dick, Tim and Damian on page together as heroes. He also got saddled with writing the start of the Ric Grayson saga under the script of Scott Lobdell, which, well, is definitely at the 'not well regarded' end of his oeuvre. FabNic is again a writer that is really good at character interaction, and I tend to find whenever I'm reading events where there's heaps of writers involved and he's there, the issues I really enjoy are the ones he's had a hand in.

Tony S. Daniel: (Battle for the Cowl, Batman #692-699 & #704-707 & #710-712) Oh, Tony Daniel. Why. Daniel's stories are probably the most classic-Batman of the Dick!Batman stories. His stories revolve a lot around drama at Arkham Asylum, with Harvey and Gilda Dent, and with the Falcones. On balance I think you could probably actually trade Dick out for Bruce in half these stories and it wouldn't make a huge amount of difference. If I were going to suggest one to try, maybe go with #710-712? It's Harvey focused and it has Kitrina Falcone and doesn't actually depend on the whole Jeremiah Arkham thing.

Kyle Higgins: (Nightwing #1-12, 0, & 15-29 2011) For a reboot of Dick Grayson down to his fundamentals, and working within the requirements of the 5 year time line, I like Higgins' work on Nightwing. Sure, I could have done without him burning down Haly's circus, again, and all the Court of the Owls revelations, but some of that was clearly dictated to him, and they way he gave Dick time as a teenager with relationships with other characters at Haly's before his parents died worked quite well. If I were going to cite a favourite part of this run it's probably the last section, #18-29 when Dick moves to Chicago and tries the 'strike out as my own hero with my own city, screw you dad' thing for the first time in the new timeline. Higgins put in quite a bit of cast building work and it's a shame none of it ever got used again between Forever Evil and then Rebirth just ignoring everything during this period.

Tom King and Tim Seeley: (Nightwing #30 2011, Grayson #1-20) I'm going to treat these two together here as I can't actually easily subdivide the run between them. This is the longest period Dick goes undercover working as a spy because his life has just gone to shit. He is both spying on Spyral (for Bruce) but also his job within Spyral is as a spy and special agent. Think James Bond, except Dick also gets to be the focus of the objectification camera. Some people enjoy it as a change of pace, some people can't stand it because it's just a very weird story for Dick and Dick's generally personally unhappy when he's stuck undercover, and it definitely is a highlight in the 'did you know Tom King worked for an intelligence agency? Tom King is working out his feelings about working for an intelligence agency again' oeuvre. If you want to try an issue, I recommend Grayson #5 as probably the best character and storytelling piece in the entire run.

Tim Seeley: (Nightwing #1-34) Good stuff I can say about Seeley's run includes that he used Rebirth as a impetus to rebuild Dick's status quo. He did quite a lot of world building for a new version of Bludhaven, he got Dick back into Nightwing and back into a blue V costume for the first time in 7 years, he's interested in looking at the Grayson family and not so much in terms of the Court of the Owls stuff. He likes Dick and Damian's time as Batman & Robin. Seeley's also a fan of a lot of character beats in terms of Dick's characterisation that were pioneered by Devin Grayson - particularly in terms of Dick being easily attracted to women, being impetuous and hot headed at times, and in the Romani retcon. I don't necessarily see eye to eye with Seeley on all of his characterisation and story choices, but he does a lot of repair work on getting Dick back to being Nightwing, including things like repeating beats from the Dixon and Grayson runs so that Dick has that backstory again, and what that means for his character. I might suggest Nightwing #8 2016, because it revolves around Bruce and Dick and the concept of falling (I'm a sucker for a good falling metaphor) or #9, which is literally a discussion of the changes between n52 and Rebirth with both of the Clark Kents, and in which Clark points Dick to return to Bludhaven (in a sort of re-encapsulation of Clark originally giving Dick the inspiration for the name Nightwing, but this time pointing him to what people treat as his default 'home'). If you like the shape of Dick as Bludhaven's hero from fic, you probably will find Seeley's run has stuff to enjoy.

Sam Humphries: (Nightwing #35-41 2016) So Humphries' storyline is another good example of what a lot of the current run of Nightwing contains since 2016 - reinterpretations and new versions of old stories. In this case, it's an adaption of the Hanging Judge storyline to have taken place in Bludhaven in Bruce and Dick's past. I don't mind it as a story, but it's definitely there to remind you of old story beats.

I haven't yet read Benjamin Percy's run, or any of Ric Grayson yet (which is a combination of Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza and Dan Jurgens), or Tom Taylor's run, so I don't want to give you too explicit opinions on these.

In general terms from experience on other titles and what other people have said: I really loved Benjamin Percy's Detective Comics #35-36 story in n52 and I suspect his Nightwing writing is a perfectly acceptable fill; nobody particularly likes the plot surrounding Ric Grayson, and the fact Scott Lobdell had a hand in plotting it seems to me to explain a bunch of the aspects of the scenario premise that upset a lot of people; Dan Jurgens is a DC workhorse who can turn his hand to anything; and Tom Taylor's run has been described as many as 'rewrite the arc of Devin Grayson's run but make it light and fluffy and free of consequences'. I honestly think if you haven't read much Nightwing yet, Taylor's run may be a good transition run to try to see if he's your vibe; I keep getting the impression he probably makes a good intro for new readers.

If you have any other writers you would like my impression of, please ask specifically; as I've said, Dick's been written by a LOT of people over the years.

[mysteriousbeetle]

Ten People I'd Like to Get to Know Better

tagged by @dangerousdan-dan thank you ^_^ <3!

Last song: Wild Sage by The Mountain Goats

Favorite color: Orange 🍊🧡

Last book: I haven't finished any books this year because I've mainly been reading short stories and comics ^^; but the last book I finished in it's entirety was the no man's land novel and the book I'm currently reading is the dumb house by John Burnside.

Last movie: In the mood for love! I just watched it this saturday and I really liked it :]

Last TV show: I think it was revolutionary girl utena which I last watched in august I think and I still haven't finished it

Sweet/savory/spicy: Sweet!! I love sweets a lot.

Relationship status: I don't do that kind of stuff I guess.

Last thing I searched: My university's website.

Current obsession: I think it's still just comics for now.

Looking forward to: Winter break!!!! and more of batgirl (2024) too

Dan's bonus topics :)

Favorite drink: I love a shirley temple!!

Song playing on a loop in your head 24/7: Virgin Suicide by Kinoko Teikoku

Current favorite character: A character that I started really liking recently is Tim Hunter! otherwise I still have the same old favs <3

Fun activity you would like to get into: Hmm I guess watching more movies. I don't really watch movies usually but I remembered how cool they can be and there are a few I'm interested in watching. Also, I'd like to get back into modular origami when I have the time.

Last video game: I guess it was dark souls... I last played it in the summer.

Last comic/graphic novel: Last night I finished when I arrived at the castle by Emily Carroll and I'm currently in the middle of reading nightwing (1996) and hellblazer (1988).

no pressure tags: @franollie @vechter @chepib3 @havendance @lemonlimestar @mrsbertinelli and anyone else who's interested!!

[corujalesbica]

Hey @magic-crazy-as-this , @tatchling , @evandarya , @punkeropercyjackson , and specially @havendance , thank you SO MUCH for the advice on what to read first the links and the general kind response to my post. I'm THRILLED to start reading more DC comics and will be taking all you said into consideration! Have a lovely day, you nerds. <3

Hey dc batfam fandom PLEASE adopt me 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

[havendance]

(Batman and Robin (2011) #14)

Robin (Damian): —and these people are under my protection! You want them, you’ll have to get through me.

Batman (Bruce): Through us.

Robin: Batman!

Batman: Nothing to be smiling about, boy. Get to work.

There’s something about this page… Damian’s face glad to see Batman when facing down a crowd… Batman’s “Get to work” and calling Damian ‘boy’… The way that the letterer emphasized each word in that phrase through the bubbles to give it that sense of space

[havendance]

(Batman #14)

Batman: Nightwing, earlier today the Joker… he took Bruce Wayne’s butler.

Now THIS is such a Bruce panel. He’s distancing himself from his emotional response to Alfred being gone through obsessive opsec. He is totally coping with all of this.