5 Reasons Dick Grayson Is a Better Batman Than Bruce Wayne
If you don’t stop by your local comic shop every Wednesday to pick up new books, you might not be aware that billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne is no longer Batman. Bruce is dead or lost in time or some such thing in current DC Comics continuity and his adopted son (they no longer use the term “ward”) Dick Grayson has taken on the Mantle of the Bat.
And here are five reasons he’s better at it than his predecessor.
Dick Is Not a Dick – My big problem with Bruce Wayne’s Batman over the years since Frank Miller totally re-envisioned the character in 1986’s The Dark Knight Returns, is that everyone began to write him as a complete dick. All the time. In every comic, in every scene, everywhere. It got boring. It made a great character with tremendous potential for depth into a one-note snooze fest. It’s tough to make Batman boring but when he does the same thing every time, congratulations, mission accomplished. But that’s the thing about Dick Grayson: he’s not boring and he’s not a dick. Here’s a character with a lifespan only about two years shorter than Bruce Wayne, and he still seems fresh and vibrant because he consistently changes.
Characters die, then come back ALL THE TIME. But Dick Grayson is a perfect example of how this maxim does and doesn’t work. He was Robin, Batman’s faithful sidekick, for years… until he wasn’t because it just didn’t make sense to have a 20-year-old guy running around in short pants. Then he was Nightwing, the hero trying to become his own man in the Shadow of the Bat. Now he’s the “Current and Future” Batman, because it just makes sense that it would be him. Of course it’s him! And along the way, he’s led his own teams like the Teen Titans and the Outsiders, had and lost many friends and loves, and just basically grown as a character. Dick Grayson has changed in just the right way. He’s grown up, into a character that we didn’t stop identifying with, but into one that we could only identify with more so over the years. His 70-year arc as a sidekick, son, leader, hero, and lasting fictional character should be a lesson to all comic writers. Change isn’t such a bad thing if it makes sense.
Dick Is the Most Trusted Character in the DC Universe – After years of sidekicking it with Bruce, Dick has become friends with just about every other character in DC Comics. He’s admired, respected and he’s easy to deal with. Unlike Bruce. Everyone is scared of him and creeped out by him and even a little distrusting of him, especially after he put that Artificially Intelligent satellite in space that went evil and almost killed everyone. Dick is the go-to guy that everyone loves and loves to work with. He’s just like Bruce but without all the baggage! And just think of the guest star potential!
Nope, he’s been doing this since he was, like, 12. When his parents were killed, he jumped right into being a hero. He’s got natural athletic talent plus the years of training by the World’s Greatest Detective, not to mention years of on-the-job know-how. How could he not surpass his mentor?
- Welcome to Years of Stupidity, Population: Dick Grayson
