How Robin Became Nightwing
[George Pérez Interview - Amazing Heroes #50, 1984]
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George Pérez:
"The one thing we suggested, but never thought we'd
get, was to simply make Jason Todd become Robin. Give him
the costume, make him the new Robin and just let Dick Grayson
become someone else."
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The story of Nightwing is one of the unique tales in the annals of the super-hero and an exciting new chapter in the life of one of DC's founding characters. It transformed one of comicdom's original kid sidekicks into an adult leader, changing the original Boy Wonder into an even more formidable young man. Gone is the pain-in-the-cape of the Burt Ward TV days, and with it is gone the confused methods of handling the character even while The Batman received massive narrative re-investment from the likes of O'Neil, Adams, Englehart. and Rogers.
From the first appearance of the New Titans, the dynamic change in Dick Grayson's character has been a high point of the series, It's a miracle which Wolfman and Pérez have accomplished in an especially unique fashion.
Most of the time with the super-hero, no matter what the identity, it's the super-hero which comes first and the human being identity which comes second. Understandable when one remembers the super-hero is basically a dream projection of our fondest aspirations, an image of who and what we wish to be.
With Dick Grayson, the original Robin since his debut in Detective #38 over 40 years ago, this process has been wondrously reversed. The attention has been focused on the person behind the mask, showing that the costume he wears is a basic outpouring of the man, Instead of an escape from his humanity.
"Dick Grayson had no identity other than being the other part of Robin, and Robin was nothing but the bottom half of Batman, The biggest problem, as far as the Titans were concerned, was taking Dick Grayson, because much of what we wanted to do with the Titans couldn't be done since Robin couldn't be altered. So we were playing with Dick Grayson. Since he was never defined, it didn't matter what we did with him. We couldn't do the same thing with his alter-ego, because Robin had to appear with Batman.
"Gerry Conway, who was handling the Batman series at the time, had priority over Robin. Since he was the leader of the Teen Titans, it put us in a compromising position. Marv was being complimented on his characterization, I was being complimented on making Robin look like an adult at last. Yet we couldn't do anything more than just maintain a certain facade; we'd just make a very virile Robin. but couldn't do anything with his personality or his basic character. That was all the responsibility of whoever was writing Batman.
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Nightwing design by George Pérez
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"It wasn't until Gerry Conway said that he had no intentions of using Robin that we were given carte blanche. Then, there was talk that they wanted to give Batman a new kid sidekick, in order to bring back the father image of the character. I was called into a meeting, Doug Moench, Marv Wolfman, Len Web, myself, and Dick Giordano all sat down and talked about the new sidekick.
The one thing we suggested, but never thought we'd get, was to simply make Jason Todd become Robin. Give him the costume, make him the new Robin and just let Dick Grayson become someone else. We didn't think they would really accept that; [laughs] at least, not readily, because Dick Grayson had been Robin for almost 43 years! Dick Giordano said 'Let's go with it!' Since Dick Grayson has been established as being 19, and Batman has been established as 29 (the way Superman and all the other male characters are). suddenly the man-boy relationships between men 29 and 19 did not work; they were two men.
"They wanted to bring back the old formula. Doug was anxious to try the idea of the original Batman and Robin team again. The only suggestion I had was to establish Jason Todd as a blonde or a redhead; obviously, they've written their way around that [laughs]! But they gave up, they said okay.
"Dick Grayson, since he had no real identity before we got to him, now belongs to us. We're even listed now as the creators of the character. Now he's become Nightwing, a name that's been used before, but not in the same character at all. I want to make him a swashbuckler, an acrobat, an incredibly good fighter. In many ways, he's the Titans' answer to Captain America.
"I want to make him happy-go-lucky, bring back the enjoyment of adventure that he had. One thing I liked that Marv did in issue #39 was how openly Dick speaks his affection to Koriand'r now, calling her 'm'Iove' and everything, making passes at her right in front of everybody with absolutely no worries anymore. The hang-ups are disappearing. He's not going to be that morose character he had been in trying to find his identity. Now he's found it. Now we're going to use Dick Grayson the way we want to use him, utilizing both his detective and acrobatic skills."
A seminal turning point in the Grayson affair was captured by Wolfman and Mike W. Barr in the Titans' crossover with Batman and the Outsiders last year. ''It established that Dick is a very good leader. Batman is not a born leader; he's never had to lead men. But Dick Grayson is a born leader. He has full control over the Titans, which Batman does not have over the Outsiders. That was a very good point which they'd brought out, what makes Dick Grayson different. As Nightwing, we're going to have fun with Dick now. He's definitely become a character independent and mature."
