From the Batman News Desk: Little Bird, Big Leagues Part 2: Dad’s Dead & the House is on Fire

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.

It would almost be a decade before Dick would be a part of the League again. At this point in DC history, Nightwing has become the protector of Blüdhaven for the first time and is also leading the Titans. As for the League, they are about to undergo a major shakeup in their roster, which is also coincidentally the story in which Dick rejoins the team.

Due to shenanigans that took place in the event Our Worlds at War, Aquaman – along with the entire population of Atlantis – has been sent 3000 years in the past. The current League (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, J’onn, Plastic Man, Wally, and Green Lantern Kyle Rayner) plans to get them back, especially after discovering “JLA” carved into a re-formed but empty Atlantis. However, Kyle’s been seeing visions of the League dying, and with that prep time, Batman activates “Omega Gabriel Alpha” before jumping into the time portal.

Never bet against the Bat

So, as it turns out, “Omega Gabriel Alpha” was a recruitment drive for the League in case the current lineup went missing for a month, and the world was in crisis, which it is due to an unexplained global water shortage. The heroes brought on-board are the Ray Palmer Atom (who has been a regular guest star in JLA), the Oliver Queen Green Arrow (recently back from the dead and extremely horny), the Kendra Saunders Hawkgirl (because of the TV show), Faith (an original creation by writer Joe Kelly, who would be turned into a vampire by John Bryne and promptly forgotten), Jason Blood (but not Etrigan), the Ronnie Raymond Firestorm (who has full control of the Firestorm Matrix but still uses ‘we’ to describe himself), Major Disaster (recently reformed and whose current return to villainy is being addressed in the pages of Action Comics right now), and of course, their leader, the best man to do it according to Batman, Nightwing. (Bats also tried to get Captain Marvel, but he turned it down).

We get to see how much Nightwing has grown since his first stint on the League, as he shuts the team down before they (well, Ollie) start squabbling and reminds them of where they are and whose shoes they are putting on. It’s an effective speech that shows Dick’s confidence as well as his respect for the League and the work they do.

However, Dick is still Dick, and despite strict instructions left behind by Batman, he is constantly looking for ways to find the League, consulting with Jason Blood on the matter. However, he doesn’t ignore the crisis at hand and talks with the Atom about the global water shortage. He is even able to pick up little things about his teammates, like the fact that Firestorm refers to himself as ‘we’ or that everyone inherently trusts Faith despite knowing nothing about her.

But of course, Dick is also a master strategist, and when the villain of the story, Gamemnae baits the team in a similar manner to the original team, he uses himself as bait to get her attention. This lets Hawkgirl and Faith bring her down while Firestorm restrains her. Unfortunately, Gamemnae had absorbed Zatanna and used her powers to get free and absorb Major Disaster, but it was a pretty sound strategy.

Again, since this is mainly focused on Nightwing, I’m not going into much detail about how the League stops Gamemnae, but it involves unleashing an undead League on her…

Yes, that’s Batman’s cowl by itself

…and Aquaman merging with the world’s oceans 3000 years ago.

Still think he’s lame?

Nightwing doesn’t stick around after the League returns, even though some of the others do. However, we do get to see him hug Batman after he sees him return to life, which was quite heartwarming.

Batman’s greatest weakness: Affection from his close ones

That concludes Nightwing’s stint in the pages of JLA. There is a brief moment near the end of the series where the remaining members of the team consider bringing him on board to piss off Batman after his involvement with the creation of the OMACs (well, Ollie considers it). However, despite the differences that had cropped up between them during that time, he refuses to be a pawn for the League (once again, mostly Ollie).

So join me next time as we see Dick lead the League as the Dark Knight!!!

Next week: the penultimate installment of “Little Bird, Big Leagues”!