The Four Color Media Monitor: DiDio's ambiguous dislike for Dick Grayson

In this CBR entry, they tell about Dan DiDio's inexplicable dislike of the first Robin and later Nightwing, Dick Grayson, whom DiDio wanted to wipe out in Infinite Crisis but was persuaded not to by Marv Wolfman and George Perez:

DiDio recently found a discarded 2004 pitch for “Crisis II,” or “Crisis in Infinite Futures,” which he characterizes as the “first serious attempt at pulling the continuity together during my tenure” (he joined DC in 2002, and was named executive editor in October 2004). The document lays out a scenario in which the future is being destroyed, with the multiple timelines of the DC Universe collapsing into one. The premise is intriguing, but the possible effects (“echoes”) may be more interesting.

From what we can see from DiDio’s photo of the document, in addition to Gog from Kingdom Come emerging as a major villain, “Crisis II” would trigger “the Breaking of Dick Grayson,” as Batman’s former sidekick “travels down a dark path” to emerge as his greatest nemesis.

Just why DiDio wanted so much to get rid of Nightwing - much like his known hatred for Spoiler - is unclear, unless it was because he thought Nightwing was recognizable enough to make media headlines for all the wrong reasons. The line about pulling together continuity is a true laughingstock, because they've spent years on end doing everything they could to pull it all apart. This brings to mind how, back in 1989, already 3 years after Crisis on Infinite Earths, they abruptly rebooted the Silver Age Hawkman continuity in the Hawkworld title, and a few years after, it all became a mess. I wonder if the editors in charge of Hawkman at the time regret what they did?

And while Wolfman/Perez's opposition to terminating Dick Grayson was right in itself, the exact motivations were not: from what I remember, they apparently protested because of the monetary benefits they could get from the secondary role they created for Dick, not because they thought it was wrong to just casually kill off any particular character, major or minor, on a mere whim for the sake of 15-minute publicity. Speaking of which, wasn't Jack Drake, father of the third Robin, Timothy, a creation of Wolfman's? If he never objected to turning Jack into a sacrifice in Identity Crisis, how come? His failure to defend a recurring co-start creation is honestly troubling as it's puzzling.

The idea of turning Nightwing into a villain isn't all that new either: I think in 1986, the clan of Brother Blood was seen trying to do just that in New Teen Titans. So all DiDio would be accomplishing was publicity stunts, if he'd had his way.

And DiDio's plans for Nightwing weren't the only thing he'd been planning early on:

There’s also the targeted dissolution of the marriage of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, which also appeared on that original Infinite Crisis “hit list.” [...]

And now, several years later, they've certainly accomplished that goal, keeping Clark and Lois apart via editorial mandate not unlike what Marvel uses on Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson.

Labels: bad editors, Batman, crossoverloading, dc comics, golden calf of death, Superman, Titans

One wonders how things would've been had Time Warner not look at DC's direction that paved the way for DiDio inserting himself into the company and all the half-ass actions to bring corporate synergy.

But, yes I wished Wolfman fought for Tim as well. Its clear not only DiDio has hate for certain character but he has a huge lethargic discontent for him, Perez or anyone else who's superior to a sad sack who should've kept his ass at Mainframe instead of pretending to be a Editor

Posted by Kory Stephens | 10:17 AM

I think Wolfman and Perez only care about their Teen Titan members and not subsequent ones/related teams.

Posted by Drag | 10:32 AM

Has anyone ever asked DiDio directly, "why do you hate Dick Grayson?" I've been aware of this animus since Infinite Crisis, but apparently, it's nice or not to know that he hated Dick long before. Sooner or later, DiDio will get his wish, unfortunately. Forever Evil did its job in ruining Dick's life, before the current spy-series.

And while Wolfman/Perez's motivations for not killing Dick is a valid one, as they're finally being paid on royalties, but it isn't a savory one, as you said. Didn't Geoff Johns complain on that, too? Although, I don't know what was his motivation, but I don't think it was because of money.

Posted by Killer Moth | 11:01 AM

They already began the ruining as far back as Devin Grayson doing her worst impersonation of Daredevil: Born Again complete with her pet character raping him and usurping herself into the Bat Clan for the equally god awful War Games.

A huge factor in his hatred of Dick and also legacy characters that comes up often especially from DiDio himself at one point is how having sidekicks grow up age the characters. For a man who once started his career in working behind-the-scenes of a forgotten ABC soap, he should know that logic doesn't fly; even when soaps age up the kids regardless of the main adult characters aging in real-time. I can imaginr him getting tons of complaints and death threats from Daytime viewers had his career path was from production grunt to Executive Producers. Even the recent on screen soaps deaths in-story were motivated by stopping a core character from aging.

Posted by Kory Stephens | 1:15 PM

Someone else said the same thing on the CBR thread about the legacy character aging issue, so I'll go with that as the actual reason until confirmed otherwise, Kory.

Same goes with Devin Grayson, as another poster said the same how her Nightwing run started all this (and I do agree). However, she has apologized for it within the past year. Not much of a consolation, but it's something.

So, I guess all it really confirms how much Dick Grayson is like Peter Parker, and how much their parent companies don't want them to age (or create back-ups like Tim and Jason for Dick and Ben Reilly for Peter). And yet, weirdly, Dick is still allowed to grow up some (become Nightwing, his relationship with Starfire is now over and done, even became Batman for a while) vs. Peter's constant regression -- as OMD is getting to the 10 year mark, or will in a few years.

Posted by Killer Moth | 1:39 PM

Unsurprisingly, Ron Marz, Mark Waid, Patrick Zircher, Gerry Conway and Gerry Duggan exploit the tragedy in Charleston, NC to preach about gun control and malign conservatives on Twitter. Others like Gail Simone and G. Willow Wilson are blaming America for the shooter's racism.

Posted by Anonymous | 11:57 PM

Not only the regression but Dan Slott's Moffatization of Spider-Man lore and the multiverse at the expenses of his Mary Sues and his desire of himself being more remembered than the shitty stories he penned.

Posted by Kory Stephens | 4:32 PM