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THE UNVARNISHED OPINION 2018-05 (May)

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Avid Wingnut writes...

Good day Mr. Weisman
I'm a big fan of Dick Grayson, and as such I've read most of the Titans and Nightwing trades, but my interest in the character was sparked by watching Young Justice, so thanks for that. I was wondering: how would you describe him as a character? There have been varying depictions in the comics so I was wondering how you think of him. In YJ Season 2 he was very serious which reminded me of Nightwing from the Wolfman/Perez era. Anyway, I just wanted to know your thoughts. Sorry for the length of this, thanks for your time, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Greg responds...

I could probably write a dissertation on Dick, but I'm not going to do that here. For the most part, I like to let the episodes and issues speak for themselves. I don't want to sound like I'm trying to justify anything.

But basically, I think Dick was a fun-loving kid who experienced a horrible tragedy, but had two adult male role (Bruce and Alfred) models who stepped up and gave him a way to work through his anger and grief and reclaim the fun-loving kid that he was

Dick is, to my mind, extremely competent, which was born out in both the Teen Titans series of the 60s & 70s and the New Teen Titans series of the 80s. And so with that competence, and with the hard-earned knowledge of the responsibilities of leadership learned as early as "Drop-Zone" and "Failsafe", comes the serious-minded Nightwing that we often see in Season Two.

But I don't think that's his natural disposition. Instead, I look to the Robin of the 40s and 50s. Dick is the acrobat. The trapeze artist. The performer. Dick is the kid who learned to disappear like Batman but finds it so funny, he can't stop himself from laughing. That's the real Dick Grayson. A kid/teen/young adult that is so winning and naturally guileless and honest that even his ex-girlfriends still love him. (That is his super-power, after all.) He knows how to do the other thing - and he's actually scary good at it. But he kinda hates that too.

Response recorded on May 17, 2018


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