0 voters
Unlike some characters who have a consistent and even iconic job occupation (ex. Clark Kent) Dick Grayson has had several different jobs outside of fighting crime throughout his comic runs. Vote for your favorite and let me know in the comics why, if there are any jobs I missed, and/or if there are any jobs you’d like to see him have that he hasn’t had in the comics yet.
I VOTE FOR SECRET AGENT (even though it’s not a votable choice…
)
Currently in the comics he’s a Taxi driver, so there’s also that as an unlisted option.
I did enjoy Dick’s brief time as a spiral agent though I ultimately like him best operating as a superhero. I didn’t put secret agent because I was thinking more civilian jobs that he holds in a addition to being a superhero whereas the secret agent thing was more of his superhero gig at the time. I also have not been reading the current Nightwing run so I didn’t think about that but I also think he was very briefly a cab driver in one of the older Nightwing runs as well (Marv Wolfman maybe? I can’t remember the specific issue) so that is a good suggestion.
Not much love for Peter Tomasi’s run, apparently.
But the cop angle was just creative and interesting in a way the others weren’t. I liked how he’d have to pretend not to be too good at his job, it has a similar utility to Clark Kent’s work as a reporter in letting him be close to the action, and it makes sense for a guy who was raised as a crimefighter for the bulk of his formative years. The bartender job was also cleverly written with the way the bar was mostly attended by cops so he’d still hear buzz and get a feel for the city. I guess I’d say it had specificity to it in practice beyond just being a bartender that made it work.
The gymnastics coach stuff kind of fit his background as an acrobat but it just felt like a token thing he was doing because he had to have a job. Ditto for the others, but with even less logic behind them.
Would you count when he was technically the landlord of his building in the pre-52 run? I mean he kept that knowledge from the tenants but I feel like that was a pretty cool job he held in secrecy, even though it didn’t show up much in any story.
What years was this run? I’m interested in reading more involving his job as a bartender, but I’m not always the best at memorizing writers and their various works.
The bartender and cop jobs were in Chuck Dixon’s run in #1-70 of the '96 series. I forget the exact issues of Tomasi’s run, but I think he was the last one to work on the same series, and had Dick as a museum curator, so my comment was in reference to the lack of support for that job. I think Fabian Nicieza also had a short run in there, so I may be conflating the two of them.
Just checked, and Tomasi was #140-#153, and introduced the museum in his first issue. Nicieza just did the two Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul tie-ins. Marv Wolfman’s run had him as a gymnastics coach and came just prior to Nicieza.
Thanks! That’s series is one that I’ve been planning on reading for a while. I think it’s safe to say that it just got bumped up a few spots on my lonnnnng list of titles to read.
That’s a good question. I totally forgot about that. It also was more of a plot point than something we got much exposure to him doing but I would probably consider it. Unfortunately I can’t make edits to the poll now but that’s a great suggestion.