Dick Grayson has dropped yet another superheroic identity and now operates undercover in a series titled simply Grayson, adding a new wrinkle to the career of comicdom's original sidekick. The aging and replacing of Robins in the DCU has been one of the main problems when trying to streamline continuity, and I don't see that improving any time soon. For the New 52 reboot, I think DC would perhaps been better served by de-aging Dick Grayson and returning him either to his Robin role or his first days as Nightwing, with a young Tim Drake assuming the mantle. They could still have reintroduced Jason or Damian eventually, but with all of Batman's partners running around simultaneously, it just clutters and dilutes the concept in my opinion - not to mention being anything but new reader friendly.
What DC has done and how they are currently using/not using/misusing the original Titans: Dick, Roy, Garth, Wally, Donna and to a certain extent Gar Logan, shows me as a DC reader that there is no larger blueprint. I used to read a lot of DC Comics. I also used to have a sense as a reader that the stories and characters were going somewhere. Maybe I'm older, but I get a feeling as a reader that the characters are just drifting aimlessly in this new "growth".
ReplyDeleteI'm probably older than both of you, and I really miss the days when each series was controlled by one editor, crossovers only happened in the pages of JLA, Brave & Bold, and World's Finest, and each story stood on its own and didn't have to fit into any company-wide blueprint. That said, I have to admit that the team-up titles were always my favorites, even though (or maybe especially because) they didn't have to tie in to each hero's own regular continuity.
ReplyDeleteI didn't think it would ever happen. But, I finally stopped buying mostly DC Comics after the travesty known as the "JLA Trinity War." The latter proved that the story arc called "Final Crisis" was oxymoronic.
ReplyDeleteEmphasis on the "moronic."