My Favorite DC: Nightwing

Very soon, very, very soon, the epic sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum titled Batman: Arkham City will be released, and earlier today there was a press release which featured a picture of Nightwing, one of three new playable characters (Catwoman and Robin are the other two) who will be accessible via an upcoming DLC pack. Coincidentally, I was reading through my blog notes and the next project that I was planning on writing about was how much I love the character of Dick Grayson, once Nightwing, once Batman, best known as Nightwing, and always fantastic.

On a road trip to Detroit, I mentioned to my girlfriend Amy that most of my friends have three superheroes or superhero teams that they are thoroughly committed to. Mine are the X-Men, Batman and Green Lantern. My friend Josh's are Spider-man, Superman and Green Lantern. My friend Chad's are Green Lantern, Hulk and Flash. My friend Zac's are X-Men, Daredevil and Flash. But who were Amy's favorite? The first was obvious: Amy loves Batman probably more than anyone else. She generated her second favorite pretty quickly, though it was kind of surprising to me. Amy really likes Captain America. We thought for a minute about who would complete her trinity, but the answer was obvious: Nightwing.

But in order to understand why Nightwing is fantastic, you have to begin by flashing back to his origins. As Robin, Dick Grayson provided a little bit of light in the world of Bruce Wayne / Batman, and this balance of light and darkness has been an essential part of Batman's success ever since. When Joker killed the second Robin, Jason Todd, that darkness was blotted out. Batman fell down a disturbing rabbit hole, became reckless and nearly killed himself. Years later, though he had a third Robin by then, it could be said that the destruction of Bruce Wayne that lead to his defeat at the hands of Bane was still connected to Todd's death. But Bruce Wayne would never have chosen to take on bright souls such as the various sidekicks that he's worked with if not for the tragic murder of Dick Grayson's parents. When the Flying Graysons were gunned down right before Dick (and right before Bruce, for that matter), Bruce Wayne saw two things: 1. someone he could finally relate to after all of those years, and 2. someone he could divert from becoming a dark creature of the night like himself.

I think one of the greatest questions one has to ask is how Bruce Wayne became a haunted beast of the night and Dick Grayson became a symbol of hope and happiness and mental health. I think that a lot of people would credit Bruce Wayne for being there for Dick Grayson. This is certainly part of the issue. But Bruce always had Alfred there for him. Sure, Alfred didn't go through the same difficulties that Bruce went through, but he has always been a positive, guiding force for the young man. Others might simply suggest that Grayson has always been more of a happy-go-lucky kid, whereas Bruce, even before his parents died, must have had some darkness in him. This is also possibly true. The story I go with revolves around when each learned to fly and what circumstances brought them there. Bruce Wayne experienced the death of his parents, had difficulty making right what went wrong, and as a result, punishing himself for surviving, he traveled the world in order to learn how to avenge, how to serve justice. When Bruce Wayne learned how to fly from one building to another, it was of necessity: he simply had to be the good that the city of Gotham needed. Dick Grayson learned how to fly from trapeze to trapeze long before his parents were murdered. Why is Dick Grayson a brighter soul than Bruce Wayne? Because Grayson's every-day antics as Robin / Nightwing remind him, perhaps simply through muscle memory, of a good time when he had the time of his life surrounded by friends and family. When Bruce Wayne does the same he can only remember the assignment he gave himself after his parents died.

When Dick Grayson became a man of his own right, he moved out of Gotham and donned the costume of Nightwing. On his own, he was based in the city of Bludhaven, that is, until Bludhaven got completely destroyed by Chemo. As the leader of the Teen Titans, he operated out of New York City. Nightwing was to Bludhaven what Batman was to Gotham, and this is essentially the first bit of evidence that Grant Morrison's concept of a Batman, Inc. would work out. If Nightwing could be the Batman for another city, why couldn't you have a Batman for every city, state, nation and continent? Why couldn't you have a Batman for another planet? Where Nightwing really distinguished himself as his own hero, not merely mimicking Batman, was when he was with the Teen Titans. As leader of the Teen Titans, Grayson evolved Bruce Wayne's detective training into a kind of military leadership. His intelligence told him where every member of the team could be best used and his bright personality inspired morale and motivated those around him to do what needed to be done. In this way, he was to the Teen Titans what both Batman and Superman, and to some degree Green Lantern are to the Justice League.

Some years later, Dick Grayson won the battle for the cowl and became Batman while Bruce Wayne was presumed dead. With Damian Wayne as his Robin, Grayson turned the dynamic of the Dynamic Duo on its head. For the first time, there was a hopeful Batman and a haunted Robin. Bruce Wayne has returned to the role of Batman and he certainly has his hands full with his own son as Robin, and in the meanwhile Nightwing has returned to Gotham City in order to fight crime. I've read the stories of Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne in the new 52 reboot of the DC universe, and I feel that the success of most, if not all, of the bat-books is directly related to the influence of Dick Grayson.

Nightwing can stand on his own. Let's just hope that when he does he's not played by Chris O'Donnell.

My Favorite DC: Green Lantern

The story of my relationship with Green Lantern of Space Sector 2814 Hal Jordan is also the story of my friendship with a guy named Chad. Whereas Hal Jordan proved that he would be the proper Green Lantern candidate when his father died before his eyes and he no longer feared anything, I first met Chad when our Hebrew Bible professor was over fifteen minutes late to class and he proposed that we take a moment to get up out of our seats and dance. I thought to myself, "Why didn't I think of that?" Little did I know, but the entire previous summer Chad had worked his way into my group of friends and turned them all to Dungeons and Dragons. It was only a matter of time before I was a part of this group, and Chad was one of my best friends.

While Chad was infiltrating my video game playing group of seminary friends, I was spending my time in Michigan getting introduced to the woman of my dreams, Amy Bolan. When I met her, I said that my comic book interests included Marvel Comics plus Batman. The fact that she was a Batman fan made me delve into Batman all the more. I'm still working on a Batman reading list that I had originally intended to be a kind of book club for Amy and I. But when I returned to school, Chad's passion for Hal Jordan converted me from Marvel plus Batman to Marvel plus Batman and Green Lantern, and eventually to Marvel plus DC. "The cool thing about Hal Jordan," Chad would say, "is that he would be a hero even if he hadn't gotten a Green Lantern power ring." Having read the recent Green Lantern #1 from the DC reboot, this fact has been proven. A de-powered Hal Jordan jumps from balcony to balcony in order to save someone who appears to need help. But I knew this before I read Green Lantern #1, because Chad had given me a must read list for Green Lantern comics.

While Chad has adored Green Lantern for some time, it is largely the work of Geoff Johns that makes Hal Jordan one of my most favorite comic book characters. Another friend of mine, Zac, was once commenting on how complicated Hal Jordan's story was at one point. After all, when his home town of Coast City was destroyed during the events of Reign of the Superman!, Hal Jordan's fear opened him up to an ancient entity named Parallax, the enemy of the Guardians of the universe who was once imprisoned in Oa's power battery and supposedly responsible for the fact that Lanterns are historically weak to the yellow element. Hal dies in order to reignite the Earth's sun in Final Night, only to be brought back to life as the Spectre in Day of Judgment. The entire thing was way over the top and completely over-complicated. But it gave Geoff Johns a chance to shine. In the Green Lantern: Rebirth mini-series, Geoff Johns pits Hal Jordan against both Parallax and the Spectre. When both the Spectre and and Parallax are purged, Johns re-introduces Hal Jordan as Green Lantern in the fourth volume of Green Lantern, one of the most wildly successful comics of the last decade. In many ways, it was a reboot of the entire Green Lantern story (making it unnecessary to reboot Green Lantern with the events of the new DCU). All of the inconsistencies were made consistent. All of the evils of Hal Jordan's and the Guardians' past were returned upon them. And now Green Lantern is known for great stories.

You know that my initiation into Green Lantern was the result of a fantastic friendship with Chad. You also know something about the history of Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern. But I don't think that tells you why Green Lantern is one of my favorite DC characters. The truth behind that has something to do with the balance of will and fear in the Green Lantern books. Sometimes I believe that I have the will to overcome great fear. But mostly I fear that I do not. Every time I read a Green Lantern story, I am forced to know if I have what it takes to do the right thing, and honestly to do magnificent things beyond the abilities of normal people. Because if I am conquered by fear, I am conquered entirely. The question of whether I am ruled by will or fear has become very important to me, and I honestly think that it has built me into a better person. Sure, I compared myself to Batman in my previous entry, and Batman was offered a Sinestro Corps ring. Does that make me a character who is ruled by fear? I don't think so. Maybe it just makes me smart and unrelenting, if not a little bit haunted. But I think I can be something better. I think that I can inspire. After all, the way that Green Lanterns overcome the taint of the yellow element is to feel the fear and then to defeat it.

Green Lantern has actually been a driving force toward my personal betterment, and I'm not sure that there are a lot of characters who will ever do that for anyone else. I have to say that I've held high a variation of Professor Charles Xavier's dream for nearly all of my life, but the person of Charles Xavier does not do for me what the person of Hal Jordan has done. He is the man without fear and he lives in the city without fear. But none of this would be true if fear had not once been there only to be conquered.

My Favorite DC: Batman

A couple of the most interesting relationships in the DC universe are that which exists between Superman and Batman and that which exists between Green Lantern and Batman. Both of which are being explored in the first story arc of the new Justice League. While this particular comic won't deal with the relationship between Batman and Superman until the second issue, we know that Superman believes Batman to be fighting the right cause but that Superman does not like Batman's methodology, and vice versa. Justice League #1 does have plenty of time to deal with Batman and Green Lantern by showing that Hal Jordan wants to shine bright and let his enemies see him coming whereas Batman wants to stick to the shadows. Batman sees Superman as a boy scout and Green Lantern as a glorified police officer (and let's face it: Batman has a pretty bad idea of what police officers stand for from living with the corrupt police of Gotham), while they see him as a mistrusting misanthrope dwelling in the darkness. And yet all parties deem the others necessary.

When I lived in Fort Worth, Texas, I was attending a Divinity School. If you don't know what that is, then I guess it's pretty similar to a Seminary. I was attending a Master's degree program aimed toward Christian service, toward service of for the sake of God and man. The further I got into the program, the more I became skeptical and even cynical of Christian ministry, not because of the ministers, or, at least, not for the most part. I was surrounded by people training to be ministers who were incredibly thoughtful, critical and brilliant. They cared about people and were willing to devote their lives to them. But the people in the churches wanted their churches to support their laziness, their decision not to help their fellows in need, their businesses and their political parties. They wanted the Christian message to cater to their needs rather than allowing the radical ideas to unsettle them.

Each and every one of us was given a choice. We could serve in a church and project the light and the hope. We would be constantly hurt by those who chose selfishness of Dallas Cowboys football games over the socially conscious message of the Bible. And we would be paid better and have better job security if we didn't rock the boat. Or we could rock the boat. We could say what we felt called to say. We could do the right thing by suggesting that we ought to help those who have no protector, to do whatever we can to make sure those who have never had a voice can speak for themselves, to question the powers on this planet, the government, the wealthy, etc. Most of my friends have chosen to serve in churches, to hold the banner up, and to do the right thing in the brightest, most visible way. But I felt like I couldn't do that. I couldn't be paid for my service, because I feared that it would corrupt me and silence the voice in my ear that tells me what is right. I had to be able to point out hypocrisy wherever it arose, be it in my country, in my school, in my church, in my apartment complex, in my family, or inside of me. For the longest time, I felt alone because of this. I wondered why I couldn't just be like the other people. I felt sick to think that I was pursuing another degree and adding money to my student loan debt only to emerge without viable job options.

Batman was my way of making sense of all of this. Batman was the individual who was willing to put everything else aside for the sake of what must be done. And I'm not talking about the ends justifies the means sort of stuff that Kiefer Sutherland is always doing when he's Jack Bauer on 24. (Batman does not use firearms. Batman does not kill. And Batman does not torture. He takes the high road, even when it makes everything harder for him. He chooses the smart option and the right option over the expedient option.) I'm talking about the fact that sometimes people have to sacrifice their own well-being for the sake of doing the right thing, the fact that sometimes you have to risk losing friends and you just have to be a prickly individual because justice hangs in the balance.

Now, I am making my way in life. I continue to look for teaching and writing positions, but until then I just have to do hard work where work can be found. I'm starting a family with my girlfriend Amy. And I'm doing everything I can to stand up for what I believe is right. You may say that all of this diverges from Batman's identity, but I think you're wrong. Batman's life is devoted to hard work in the form of preparation and confrontation. And though he's something of a rough individual, he has one of the biggest families in the DC universe. He's mentored a variety of Robins, Batgirls and Batwomen. He's loved, truly loved, a couple of women. And after all of his time playing the surrogate father and mentor to orphans, he now has his own son named Damien to father. Though he's a difficult man, Batman is a beloved member of the superhero community.

In all truth, I think I kind of agree with Green Lantern and Superman. Batman shouldn't exist. He shouldn't have to exist. But, like them, I think it is a better idea to fix the world that created such a difficult man than to try and "reform" the Batman himself. Batman is a mechanism of our broken world, our corrupt world, and his purpose is to right the wrongs of a sick society, not by any means necessary, by the right means. This is why I look up to Batman, and this is why he is one of my favorite DC characters.