dickbats was so good… r.i.p.

IT WAS SO GOOD

why did this have to die so new 52 could live…

dickbats

DICKBATS

so good

dick and damian were also v v good

Dickbats!!

damian… what a shitbird.

never forget jason's plot to give the internet dick grayson shirtless

i mean, this is a pretty kooky jason direction that even morrison went back on later on in the same run, but, still

also this is like my third or fourth time reading this comic and I can't believe I never got the meta-joke about "jason todd's phone poll to decide batman's fate"

me: what exactly is a religion of crime?

also me: plays eugenides

look

who DOESNT like a shirtless dick

that lady knows what she's about

see, dickbats is good

damian… also good. and sad!!

dickbats… was so good.

it's really striking to me even returning to these comics years later how well this status quo worked on multiple levels. like, this is a great robin story and a great batman story.

and detective circa black mirror didn't involve damian at all, and it's also really good.

even the other random six or seven batman ongoings during this time are like… not memorable in the same way, but pretty fun. there's at least a new plotline to tackle.

the only losers are jason because…… grant morrison gave him zits for some reason

and tim, who turned into an asshole and has never really recovered from this era

I loved Tim in this era but his asshole transformation happened during infinite crisis

to be more specific, I don't think it's really the asshole shift that's the problem, here

and I read the first four or five issues of Red Robin just now and he's… quite unlikable to me there, but it's clear that it's the result of a ton of things crashing down, and it's also clear that he's got a direction

but the bigger thing is that Damian wound up being Robin permanently, and they haven't figured out what to do with Tim

my evidence: his current superhero name is apparently "Drake"

and like, they really aren't sure what to do with Dick either, that has long been an issue and is also why they were so close to killing him off pre Dickbats

finding niches for ex-Robins has long been a trouble of DC, and this is what turned Tim into an ex-Robin

while he was Robin he had a clear role in the universe and it was also sort of the "heir apparent"— Tim isn't as athletic as Dick or as… idk, whatever Jason is as Jason, Tim is kind of a nerd, but that brainyness made him the most Bruce-like in some ways, as Robin? And that made him maybe the best Robin.

But I think they've struggled to find ways to make him relevant as not-Robin.

poor tim and cass have had the absolute worst luck with solo ids

honestly they should just let tim be nightwing when dick is batman

a good writer could make cass work as flamebird but cass isn't allowed to have good writing

Whereas, like, Jason Todd, not a character to look at for good or consistent writing, he's at least got immediate and clear reasons for why he's separated himself from his own role and they've set up his motivations ever since

As opposed to the vague "aging out of it" or really "editorial wanted to pass the codename to someone else"

which yeah is a huge issue with Cass, too

editorial also really really took issue with yj characterizations for some reason???

too fun geoff johns hates fun

like soooo much of their post yj team books were just writers (geoff johns) trying to smooth over all their individuality with ANGST

fun exchanges with commissioner gordon

I have not read "commissioner gordon becomes batman" though… I think that was a thing that happened

cold, babs.

got damn the francavilla artwork here is stunning. the colors, especially.

loving the title page integration, too:

i will say that the whole "cops love him" aspect of dickbats has not aged as well, nor lines like this about moral cop-o-vision

regardless of what I said earlier Tim is good in this run

there are two good things about kate being retconned into bruce's family and one of them is dick unknowingly hitting on his dad's cousin

also, jim becoming batman was actually better than it sounded

he spent the whole time going "how has this become my life"

we all wonder that sometimes

jim climbing into a batman mech and flying around shooting evil plant creatures: very relatable actually

the dick v gotham theme in this run is fascinating, sort of even more since it takes place after bruce comes back and dick is specifically the batman of gotham city

vs "the only batman because someone needs to do it"

the court of owls was meant to be an extension of that until the reboot happened and bruce was back in the batman role

there's still a hell of a payoff

but yeah they fucked it up!!

I do think this is a little weak as an explanation, the way James has just figured out everyone's ID because?? like it's hard??

but again there's such a good payoff

there are other small things that kind of bother me, mostly like "why are dick and babs implicitly the same age, she should be older" but it's hard to feel too mad about it because… gestures at new 52

and this arc is stronger b/c of all the weird family interplays

hah, yeah, that bugged me more at the time

now it's like "well she's oracle and doesn't look twelve so whatever"

and yeah, snyder was talking about how he wanted to showcase how dick's empathy makes him a different kind of detective, because he has an emotional intelligence

basically

I did like this part

and then the fire nation attacked, and everything changed

anyway who will bring me a dickbats/buckycap crossover psl

/bangs fist

IT'S BEEN HOURS AND NO ONE HAS APPEARED TO GIVE ME MY PSL

i only know one dickbats rper

i'll accept regular flavor dick

i may be able to assist

i played dickbats for a while but i haven't read in years

sharkly can be the dick part and medieval can be the bats