#1 Matt Murdock Hater

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A long while ago I had started making a list of all the pop culture references that Kon makes in the Superboy comics after noticing his dialogue is full of them, so finally after starting that first list a year or so ago, I have finished looking through Superboy (1994) and compiled that list.

I set out to do this because I thought it would be fun to see what sort of implanted knowledge Kon has in the '94 comics. I've noticed that he loves talking about Star Trek (his favorite character is clearly Captain Kirk) and Star Wars, he has a varied taste in music, and he mentions Jennifer Lopez three or four times.

Rob: “you’re a good person.”

Art inspired by chapter 3 of @vinelark’s fic “buy back the secrets” (ao3 link to fic)

(A no text version is under the cut)

These heroes -- some of the only heroes still active in the modern day with more experience than Dick -- are bickering like children:

And he's just like "STFU scrub":

And they do.

Bruce is proud of him.

And then Dick continues to lead, and no one fucking questions it. Not the Bat God. Not any of the near-immortal beings of supreme intelligence or legitimate military commanders. Fucking Nightwing. AND HE'S GOOD AT IT.

Bro is compassionate and caring about the lives of every single Leaguer and other hero until the bitter end. Dick knows it would be easier to kill mind-controlled Jon. He does not give a shit.

He's giving out orders to guys on all rungs of the heroic totem pole. Actual gods. And again, because I cannot fucking get over it, they just listen to him????? In the Justice League comics everyone’s always double questioning Bruce’s decisions, but they’re just like “yeah we trust Nightwing implicitly because he’s that guy”.

Dude unironically chucks his escrima stick at a subordinate and says "because: (A) I'm in charge" like the sassiest son of a bitch on the planet while also executing legitimately brilliant battle tactics.

The whimsy. The ferocity. The intertwining of the two. Christ, man.

And he STILL manages to keep up a good humor in spite of world-ending conditions, proving once and for all that you don't need a stick up your ass to be an effective leader.

And then like, in the final assault, "yessir Nightwing, sir"??? "ITS TIME TO BRING THE THUNDER" AFTER A GENUINELY INSPIRATIONAL ON-THE-SPOT SPEECH????

YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKING DORK OF A LEADER OH MY GOD. YOU FUCKING GOLDEN BOY. GRITTY DEPRESSING ANTI-HERO TROPE: 0. ASPIRATIONAL HOPEFUL KIND-HEARTED GOOBER: 9001.

And that fucking smirk. The tiniest vestiges of early-Nightwing Dixon Demon reveal themselves, ever so slightly. Just to remind you that somewhere buried underneath the perpetually collected, warm, mature Dick is a dramatic mischievous little motherfucker.

I just. Like this event comic was objectively mid at best. The plot barely made sense. It was mostly dramatic explosions. The status quo felt completely unchanged even if there were legitimate ripple effects, which just goes to show how poorly those implications were delivered. And so many other characters were done dirty ("I don't have enough willpower" from Hal, like shut the fuck up man I don't know what you did with him).

But the glaze. Oh, the glaze. The glorious, glorious glaze. You had brilliant strategist Nightwing flexing his severely-neglected intellectual and tactical capacity. You had inspirational eternal-big-bro Nightwing, even towards individuals who are literal centuries older than him. You had goober Nightwing. You even had a little bit of sassy bitch Nightwing, which has been neglected in recent years almost as much as smart-serious Nightwing has.