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Today, we look at how Nightwing tried to dispel the rumor that Batman fired him.
In Meta-Messages, I explore the context behind (using reader danjack’s term) “meta-messages.” A meta-message is where a comic book creator comments on/references the work of another comic book/comic book creator (or sometimes even themselves) in their comic. Each time around, I’ll give you the context behind one such “meta-message.”
Last week, I detailed how the story of how Batman and Robin broke up as partners was altered by the Crisis on Infinite Earths continuity reboot (and was then changed again during Nightwing: Year One). My pal Bill Walko wrote to me to note that the Post-Crisis retcon was clearly not something that Marv Wolfman was a fan of. Wolfman was the one who had led to the breakup of Batman and Robin in the first place, as Wolfman wanted more control of Dick Grayson in the pages of New Teen Titans, but there was only so much that he could really do with Batman’s partner. Now, with Nightwing, Wolfman had much more control (Wolfman had control of Nightwing for nearly a decade before the Batman titles finally took Nightwing back in 1994).
First, let’s recap the Post-Crisis take on the Batman/Robin breakup…
HOW BATMAN AND ROBIN BROKE UP POST-CRISIS
In Batman #408 (by Max Allan Collins, Chris Warner and Mike DeCarlo), Batman and Robin are fighting the Joker when Robin is shot…
Batman is so distraught that he fires Dick as Robin, telling him that he can no longer risk Dick’s life as Robin…
In a super weird sequence, Dick is basically all, “I’m GOING to keep being a superhero,” and Batman seems fine with that, just so long as he isn’t Robin. It’s such a weird message to be sending.
Of course, by the end of that issue, Batman meets a young man named Jason Todd who is trying to rob the Batmobile’s tires. By the end of the following issue (by Collins, Ross Andru and Dick Giordano), Batman has decided to make Jason Todd his new Robin…
As I noted at the time, it really seemed like a sloppy concept. I sincerely doubt that it was something that Max Allan Collins came up with on his own, and really reads like him doing the best he could with the editorial direction that he was dealing with (I bet when he signed up to write Batman, he likely never thought he would be doing so much continuity sort of bookkeeping). While I bet Collins didn’t like it, at least it wasn’t HIS story that was being overturned, which was the case for Marv Wolfman, as he had worked closely with Gerry Conway and then Doug Moench in coming to a nice and peaceful transition from Dick Grayson as Robin to Jason Todd, with Dick deciding to retire as Robin to spend more time with the Teen Titans and bringing the costume to Batman at the same time that Batman was training Jason to be his new partner (using a name other than Robin). Dick was, like, “No, seriously, please use the name, I’m not anymore.” That was the peaceful approach that Wolfman wanted and that was now not just “ruined” by the new version Post-Crisis, but to add insult to literal injury, Batman fires Dick because it isn’t safe and then just makes some random street kid the new Robin? It really was just way too sloppy.
Wolfman was one of the writers who probably had the hardest time with adjusting to the new Post-Crisis continuity since his title, New Teen Titans, was doing well and there was no need to change it, but everything AROUND it changed, so Wolfman would be having characters in the book who suddenly had their whole deals messed up from Crisis (like Wonder Girl and now, to a certain extent, Nightwing).
In 1988, Marv Wolfman got a chance to give Nightwing his first solo feature in Action Comics Weekly…
Before that, though, Michael Reaves wrote a Nightwing one-off story in Teen Titans Spotlight #14 in 1987 that came out a few months after the alteration to the Batman/Robin breakup and it’s weird, as the issue (with art by Stan Woch and Rodin Rodriguez) sure seems to be following the angle of a bad breakup of their partnership…
Only, the way that Dick is talking to Batman (who was kidnapped and left a clue for Nightwing, knowing Alfred would bring him in to save him) sure makes it seem like Dick left Batman, right? And not fired…
The timing was so close, though, that Reaves might not have known about the change (but the previous breakup was amicable, so I think he MUST be reacting to the then-new changes).
Anyhow, this brings us to the Action Comics story, which was drawn by Chuck Patton and Tom Poston, in a story that seemed like a sort of sneaky way to continue the Speedy/Cheshire storyline from New Teen Titans by tying them to Nightwing, a more “bankable” character.
In any event, Speedy makes a comment about Batman firing Dick as Robin and Dick dismisses it as a tall tale…
Dick basically suggests that Batman was lying to people about firing Dick as Robin because he was too embarrassed to admit that Dick left being Robin on his own….
It’s a very pointed response by Wolfman. I think it probably works better than Batman firing Dick for being shot and then going out and hiring a younger kid to be Robin, but it is still a very pointed reaction by Wolfman one way or the other. Making sure that it was crystal clear that everyone knows that the new story sure wasn’t HIS idea.
Thanks for the suggestion, Bill! If anyone else has a suggestion for a future Meta-Messages, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com
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