hello! i read both barbara gordon and dick grayson so i was wondering if you have any comic recommendations for both of them as a couple? the only thing i've read so far about their relationship was the convergence and i wanted to know some more. thanks!!
Helloooo. In general, if you stick to the Nightwing solo series, the first Birds of Prey Volume, and Batgirl: Year One, you’ll be hitting their core stuff. I’m staring at this DickBabs word document that I made a year ago, but I’m not sure how much I trust it since I made it a year ago.
I recommend reading Batgirl: Year One first because it’s the retcon that establishes the early DickBabs relationship. It’s the miniseries that the rest of their modern relationship is based off of. If you enjoy reading 1970′s comics, then you might be interested in The Batman Family Vol 1 #1-20.
Either way, before you read anything else, I recommend Birds of Prey Vol 1 #8 because it establishes the modern status quo for Dick and Babs. #8 is where we begin to see what they mean to each other as adults, which preludes all the development they go through in the Nightwing series.
Nightwing Vol 2: #½, 7, 9, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22-24, 27-28, 34-35, 37-39, 42, 44-47, 53, 55-58, 60, 62-63, 65-66
Stop there for now, because their relationship is in a nice place. Dick and Babs only ‘officially’ get together around #56.
Birds of Prey Vol 1: #15, 19-22, 27, 37
Dick and Babs appear in other Gotham Knights issues, but they’re mostly written by Devin Grayson, which blah blah Devin Grayson. If you want to look at them anyway, they’ll be issues #1, 17-18, 20-21, 25-26, 30, 32-34.
This is where Dick ‘kills’ the Joker. I’m sure there’s other random issues with moments between them, but it would be nitpicking if I continue much further, so we’ll hop back over to the Nightwing series.
Nightwing Vol 2: [[71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 94, 96, 97, 98, 104, 105, 106, 114, 117]], 150, 153
The issues listed in brackets were written by Devin Grayson, which I guess you can read if you want to know how she ruined the DickBabs relationship. I don’t personally recommend it (when do I ever recommend Devin Grayson), but the quick recap is that she undid all the character development that Dixon spent over 50 issues building up. I sound bitter; moving on
Every comic that comes after Devin Grayson’s Nightwing run is basically Dick and Babs being in a relationship limbo where they care about each other but can’t bring themselves to be a couple again. You see this sporadically throughout
Birds of Prey Vol 1: #43, 54, 61, 76, 79, 83-84, 86, 100, 108-109, 127
Although I think it’s mainly highlighted in Dick’s Batman era.
Batgirl Vol 3: #1, 5-7, 15
Detective Comics Vol 1: #871-881 (The Black Mirror)
There’s more random issues, like Batman #693, but… it gets too hard to list them all from here on out. I will very very tentatively recommend Nightwing Annual #2 even though I hate its existence. The comic isn’t bad if you ignore Dick cheating on Kory with Babs on his wedding night. (But since that’s a pretty huge fucking deal, it’s hard to ignore.) The flashbacks can be pretty cute, just… please understand that that comic is OOC in regards to Dick’s loyalty in a relationship. I want to faceplant just thinking about it
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