Warning: Spoilers for Nightwing #116!
Summary
The biggest fan criticism ofBatmanhas been exposed byNightwing. For years, many fans have believed that Batman is too brutal to his criminals — and not just to his rogues gallery, but to petty criminals, too. Some have suggested thatBatman’s addiction to violencemay be causingmore harm than actual goodin Gotham.
The harm that Batman is doing may be worsening, judging byNightwing#116 by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. Afterhe’s framed and unmasked as Heartless, Dick takes a beating while in police custody. When he returns home to Barbara Gordon, she’s shocked to see the state of his face, but as he assures her,“we’ve done worse to people we suspected of being murderers.”
Not only isGrayson aware of when Batman goes too far, he knows the whole Bat-Family joins in on the brutality. There are layers to this a problem that reveal more about the state of the Bat-Family.
Nightwing’s New Origin Makes His Relationship with Batman Way More Contentious
Dick Grayson gets a new origin that reveals his early ties to Gotham’s criminal underworld, setting him at odds with Bruce Wayne’s Batman.
Batman Goes Too Far with His Brutality
And So Does the Bat-Family, Confirms Nightwing
It’s clear thatthe creative team is aware of Batman’s reputation within the DC community. Rather than ignore it, they are incorporating jokes, memes, and actual debates about Batman’s methods into storylines, which isn’t a bad thing. Addressing these accusations from readers, even as a throwaway line like this, is enough to justify years' worth of debate concerning Batman’s methods. Nightwing’s line in particular adds a few dark layers to that brutality, including to how he extends that brutality to his Bat-Family.
No one understands that violence better than Batman’s first student, Dick Grayson.
Batman taught all of his sidekicks and partners everything he knows, so it’s easy to forget thatwhen readers criticize what Batman does, they are criticizing the Bat-Family,who are just as likely to commit the same offenses. After all, that’s what they were trained to do. No one understands that violence better than Batman’s first student, Dick Grayson. He’s watched Batman rough up criminals, and even worse, he’s watched Batman do it to people he’s only suspectedof crime without true confirmation.
Could Bruce Tarnish Dick’s Identity Further?
Keeping in mind the creative team’s influence, they could continue to expound on this idea in future issues based around this issue’s ending. Bruce Wayne has decided to adorn the Nightwing garb while Dick is away. Batman will be personally dishing out that textbook Gotham brutality in Blüdhaven under the guise of Nightwing. Even if Dick’s brutality doesn’t compare to Bruce’s, Batman could tarnish Nightwing’s reputation by going too far with the locals, regardless if they deserve it or not. Bruce wants to honor theNightwingname, but if he does so usingBatman’sviolent methods, he might do more harm than good.
NIGHTWING #116 (2024)
Nightwing
Nightwing is the superhero moniker taken up by Dick Grayson, upon his aging out of the Robin role and becoming a superhero of his own. Inspired by the original Kryptonian hero of the same name, Grayson has risen to comic book immortality with the identity, earning respect as one of the greatest leaders in the DC Universe.
Batman
One of DC’s most iconic heroes, Batman is the vigilante superhero persona of billionaire Bruce Wayne. Forged by tragedy with the death of his parents, Bruce dedicated his life to becoming the world’s leading martial artist, detective, and tactician. Recruiting an entire family of allies and sidekicks, Bruce wages war on evil as the dark knight of his hometown, Gotham City.
