Do Dick and Jason get along in comics? I'm kinda new to the batfam and I'm just trying to learn more about characters and their relationships with each other.
Yes and no. It honestly varies between continuities and storylines. But I’ll try my best to compare Dick and Jason’s relationship by Post-Crisis, The New 52, and Rebirth. I’m going to summarize everything at the end of each section. I’m going to differentiate the different time periods in their relationship by referring to Jason as Robin Jason and Red Hood Jason. Because Dick and Jason interact with each other differently depending on when Jason was Robin and when he was Red Hood.
Dick and Jason didn’t interact much when Jason was Robin. Their main interactions were in Batman #416, Nightwing: Year One, and then they also had a scene together in a New Teen Titans issue.
Let’s start with Batman #416:
This issue was Dick and Jason’s first time meeting each other (other than their Pre-Crisis interaction). Dick was in Gotham because he’d seen in the newspaper that Batman had a new Robin. Bruce never told Dick about taking in Jason. Dick was properly pissed off because after Dick had been shot by the Joker, Bruce told him that he would no longer take responsibility for endangering Dick’s life in the field. That’s why Dick couldn’t be Batman’s partner as Robin anymore.
Dick wanted to know why Bruce suddenly had a new kid fighting alongside him despite what Bruce said about endangering Dick’s life, and that’s why he came to Gotham to talk to Bruce.
Before that talk could occur, Dick found Jason spying on some drug dealers. Jason got himself into a bit of trouble with the dealers and Dick ended up saving his ass. At that point, Jason had no idea who Dick was because Bruce never talked about Dick or the fact that Dick was Nightwing.
Dick told Jason he’d be at the manor the next day to talk to Bruce. Later, when Bruce finally told Jason about Dick, Jason was worried that Dick was back in town because he wanted his job back as Robin. Bruce reassured Jason that wouldn’t happen because Dick had his own life and identity at that point.
Dick and Bruce finally had their talk, and while Dick wanted to know why Bruce took Jason in, he never implied that he hated Jason for being the new Robin. Dick was more mad at Bruce than anything, and I think he knew that Jason was innocent in the situation.
That leads us to this scene:
Dick was waiting for Jason to find him, and when Jason finally did, Dick gave Jason his old Robin costume. It was Dick’s way of showing his acceptance of Jason being the new Robin. He also gave Jason his phone number so that Jason could call him whenever he wanted. The issue ended with Dick and Jason shaking hands, and with Bruce looking at them fondly from far away.
This issue is probably the least dramatic interpretation of Dick and Jason’s first interaction compared to their first interaction in Nightwing: Year One, The New 52, and Rebirth.
Before we get into that, I want to show you a panel from The New Teen Titans of Dick offering Jason support.
Then we jump to the scene of Dick reacting to the news that Jason died while Dick was on an off-world mission:
Dick was genuinely distraught over Jason’s death even though he didn’t know him that well. He felt partially responsible for Jason’s death because he gave Jason his Robin costume. He ended up visiting Jason’s grave to mourn over him. If I remember correctly, he also had a bad dream about Jason, but that didn’t happen until later in the solo Nightwing run.
Quick side note. Dick actually beat the Joker to death after Joker made a comment about hitting/killing Jason. Dick was already teetering on the edge since he thought Joker had killed Tim, but the comment about Jason made Dick blind with rage to the point that he killed Joker with his fists.
Now let’s look at how Nightwing: Year One introduced Dick and Jason to each other:
In this interpretation of how Dick became Nightwing, Bruce fired Dick from being Robin. Dick then left the manor, visited Clark for advice, and then went to live at Haly’s Circus while he figured out what to do. That was when Dick made a new vigilante identity for himself.
Meanwhile, Bruce had already picked Jason off the streets by then. While Bruce and Alfred were talking in the cave, Jason took Dick’s Robin costume out of its case and put it on. Bruce started to train Jason after that.
Dick eventually came back to Gotham and he ran into Jason while Jason was trying to complete his gauntlet mission. Jason reacted by telling Dick that he was Dick’s replacement and that Dick wasn’t needed anymore. Dick was simply shocked that Bruce replaced him with a new kid.
Jason was intent on finishing his mission, and Dick chased after him because he was confused and wanted to take Jason back to the cave so Bruce could explain himself. Dick wasn’t really taking Jason seriously and he thought Jason was just a mean little punk. Jason’s mindset was that he was a better and tougher Robin than Dick was. He was definitely cocky and acting like he had to prove himself to be better than Dick.
Anyways, Dick and Jason ended up going on a mission together to save Alfred. That was when Dick referred to Jason as “Brat Wonder” and “Little Wing.” After some more bickering between them, Dick actually seemed to enjoy Jason’s presence a little bit. He took on a mentor/ big brother role towards Jason, and Jason seemed to enjoy fighting bad guys alongside Dick.
Jason later showed up at Dick’s place to give him a gift from Alfred.
Jason definitely thought he had to prove himself to be better than Dick, or at least, to live up to the legacy of Robin that Dick created. We’ll come back to this mindset of Jason’s later on because it gets brought up a few times when Jason is older.
Also, before we move on, I just want to add in a picture that Dick had of him and Jason in his apartment (this appeared in an issue that occurred before the Nightwing: Year One storyline). It implies that Dick and Jason did hang out together at least once outside of their vigilante lives. So we can assume that Dick wasn’t ignoring Jason when Jason was Robin. Although, Dick mentioned in Gotham Knights #45 that he didn’t really know Jason that well since he was no longer living at the manor.
That’s the end of Dick and Robin Jason’s Post-Crisis relationship. Now let’s dive into Dick and Red Hood Jason’s Post-Crisis relationship, and later, we’ll get into The New 52 and Rebirth.
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