Reasons I love Dick… Where to even start?
Apologies in advance, because this post is probably gonna get super long.
I only just started reading comic books in 2016/7.
I wasn’t really allowed to watch any superhero TV shows when I was younger since my parents deemed them ‘too violent’. (Although me and my sister used to sneak downstairs really early in the morning to try and watch power rangers and transformers before my parents were up ) The one ‘superhero’ show I was allowed to watch at that age was ‘Krypto the Superdog’. I remember my favourite episodes being the ones where Ace the Bathound made an appearance. I also have faint memories of a Robin character in a couple of episodes too.
But I digress.
When I was in my mid-teens, I was watching youtube, and just so happened to recommended some clips from Teen Titans, and Batman the Animated Series. Needless to say, Robin immediately became my favourite character. So, I sort of ended up binge-watching all of the Teen Titans episodes I could find. After that, I watched as much BTAS as I could - which led me to discover the multiple Robins.
At this point, I decided I wanted to start reading comic books, and took a trip over to my nearest comic book store. Honestly, I was kind of overwhelmed by just how many comic book titles there were to choose from. I think I must have spent about an hour just scanning the shelves, trying to decide what to get. I knew I wanted something Batman/Robin related, so I was really just looking at the covers, trying to find something that had Robin in. The comics I ended up buying were ‘Teen Titans #6’ and ‘Nightwing #18’. Now, it was just by chance that I actually picked up that issue of Nightwing - at the time, I didn’t actually know who he was - I just saw Damian on the front in the Robin costume and so I bought it.
I’m kind of impatient when it comes to reading, so I didn’t exactly wait to read these comics. As soon as I sat down on the bus home, I started reading. And I immediately fell in love. I can’t believe it took me so long to start reading comic books, but I’m so glad that I just happened to pick up Nightwing. It’s hard to imagine that if Damian hadn’t been on the cover of that issue, that I might not have discovered Nightwing until much later. As soon as I got home, of course, I went online and ordered Nightwing #16 and #17 (so I could have the complete current story arc). I also set up a subscription so I could get all the future issues. And the rest is history…
There are many, many, many reasons why I love Dick.
He’s got all those skills Batman taught him, as well as all the things he learnt from his parents with the circus. He’s funny, he’s trustworthy, he’s a great leader. Importantly though, he does have the other emotions which make him feel more human. He’s easily bored, and can sometimes be a ‘little’ hot-tempered… I think this range of emotions kind of makes him more relatable, as a character. I guess it sort of shows that even superheroes have their off days - even ones as smiley, talkative and seemingly fearless as Dick.
As for fanart, here are some shoes I painted a while ago:
They’re a bit worn out from where I’ve worn them quite a lot
There’s probably a lot more I could say about Dick. I can’t count the number of times I’ve basically lectured my friends on things I’ve learnt about the character, or what I do/don’t like about his current storylines. But I’ll leave it there for now