From the Batman News Desk: Little Bird, Big Leagues Part 1: Dad Got Me a Job in the Company He Founded

1 month ago 10

Welcome to From the Batman News Desk, a new series of op-eds and articles covering various aspects of Batman history. Each week one of the Batman News writers will share their thoughts on Batman characters and concepts across comics, film, television, and more.

While Batman was a founding member of the Justice League, a decision that can be attributed mostly to popularity over ability at the time, several of his Bat-proteges have also served as members of the League. These stints vary from Cassandra Cain’s short tenure as the assassin Kasumi in the pages of Justice League Elite to Oracle’s time on Grant Morrison’s JLA, which led to her eventually becoming the key source of intelligence for the superhero community and made her as important as the Trinity at one point.

But out of all of the Bat-family’s members, the first son, a.k.a Dick Grayson, has the most interesting career trajectory when it comes to the League. A trajectory that I felt was worth taking a closer look at…

Dick’s first stint as a member of the Justice League came in the first arc of the spinoff title Justice League Task Force (no relation to the videogame of the same name). This is an interesting time for the League, as we are still in the international era, but the books are no longer defined by the humor of the Giffen-DeMatteis-Maguire run. But it is possible to infer that the Justice League books were still popular enough to warrant a spin-off series with a rotating cast. As for whether or not the idea was well-received, well, halfway through the run, the book turns into an X-Men knockoff with the younger members of the League being mentored by Martian Manhunter (young superheroes mentored by a bald psychic; c’mon, it’s right there) so if the entire premise shifted at some point, it probably wasn’t. However, thanks to a number of great writers like David Michelinie, Mark Waid, Peter David, and Christopher Priest, the book was mostly coherent despite the constant shuffling.

So that brings us to the first arc, where we see new character Hannibal Martin being tasked to put together a strike force to deal with a “touchy” situation involving a dictator backed by the U.S. on an island of strategic importance and the rebels who have acquired a death weapon. Martin goes to Martian Manhunter, who brings over Aquaman and the Flash (Wally West) from Justice League Europe and personally recruits Cynthia Reynolds (whose superhero name I will not mention because it is a slur). Martin also states that he would have liked Batman to be part of the mission, and that’s when Nightwing shows up in the glorious 2nd Discowing outfit.

Since this is meant to be a series focusing on Dick in relation to the League, I’m going to avoid talking about the overall plot and instead focus primarily on the stuff with Nightwing. I’ll just give a soft recommendation for this arc, which does have a lot of talking instead of superhero action, but I’ve never disliked those types of stories, and the writer, David Michelinie, gives us a decent plot to follow. The art by Sal Velluto is actually pretty great with expressive facial work…except for the fact that he gives J’onn hairy arms. Like in every scene he’s in. Only on his arms. Not relevant to this article, but I noticed it, and now you won’t be able to unsee it.

The assembled Leaguers are not quite willing to bring Nightwing along, with Aquaman even going so far as to say that as a member of the Titans, they didn’t know where his loyalties lie (Wally, the former Titan’s reaction to this is, “Aw man”). But Martin is impressed with how Nightwing was able to sneak into the building without detection and puts him on the team anyway.

J’onn and Aquaman continue to be very hostile to Nightwing whenever he starts making suggestions during their first encounter with the rebels. However, Dick mostly takes it in stride and continues to be a team player. For those of you who think that Nightwing is a bit too accommodating, it’s worth remembering that during this time, he got evicted, and his relationship with Starfire was on the rocks as a result of the Team Titan (yes, seriously) Mirage. Also, at this point in his career, Dick isn’t quite the beloved nephew of Batman’s peers and definitely has a chip on his shoulder. And somehow, he got this gig thanks to Alfred (Bruce is currently in the middle of having his back broken).

J’onn, Aquaman, and Dick try to stop the death weapon, leading to J’onn getting knocked unconscious. So Dick ends up taking charge and getting the rest of his team out of a precarious situation without destroying the weapon. Martin is pissed that the League didn’t destroy the weapon at the cost of their lives, but Nightwing counters that he values his teammates’ lives first and foremost.

Interestingly, Martin seems ok with that and even orders that Dick be the one to stop the dictator if he were to ever get near the death weapon over the protests of the rest of the team. As luck would have it, there is a situation where the rebels end up bringing the death weapon to the dictator’s palace to ensure he can’t escape, and he ends up running toward the weapon. Nightwing is the only one left standing, and as he is out of the range of a Batarang or a grapple…Dick has to shoot him with a rifle to stop him.

However, Dick cannot bring himself to do it (which funnily endears him to J’onn for the first time in the story). Luckily, the dictator is an idiot and tries to stop the weapon by shooting it with a pistol, blowing both it and himself up…which was what Martin’s intentions were all along. The reason he wanted Batman (and anyone who followed his morality) was that they wouldn’t kill someone if they had the chance. This led to a win-win situation for the U.S. as they were able to get rid of the death weapon and remove the tyrant while keeping the treaty with the island nation. Disgusted at having been played for a chump, Nightwing quits the Task Force.