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And in fact one of the most important panels regarding Dick period.

It looks mundane. It’s not common to see in the wild at all. Barely circulated. So: Why is it important, you ask?

Well, there’s this classic conception of Dick during New Teen Titans as, well, an asshole. And he was. Point to how he handled the marriage in Tamaran, or other relationship conflicts. Point to the decrease in his quippy humor and personability, in NTT and in other books. Point to his uncharacteristic struggles to empathize.

All of these things were out of character for the Dick Grayson that had been established nearly a half century prior, up to and including the early issues of NTT itself. But these changes are some of the most common examples used to paint Dick as a cold, sometimes mean, dickish (no pun intended) guy.

So, isn’t it very very funny that he was partially mind controlled this entire time, SINCE HE WAS CAPTURED BY BROTHER BLOOD LIKE 40+ ISSUES AGO, OR MULTIPLE YEARS WORTH OF COMICS IRL, with the DIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF MAKING HIM LASH OUT.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND???

DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS? HOW MUCH THIS CHANGES THE CONTEXT OF EVERYTHING??? DO YOU????? I DON’T THINK YOU DO. THINK ABOUT IT AGAIN.

christmas with the superheroes (1988) #2

I do work with underprivileged middle and high-school aged children (8-16ish), and a lot of things people label as intrinsic character flaws or unforgivable behavior are actually… really common for that age, if not exactly a one-to-one because they’re not fighting crime or getting shot. But, generally speaking, the ways in which various Robins lash out, misbehave, or antagonize each other are all pretty admissible. In any scenario where you can cite a character doing something mean, or irrational, or driven by anger, I have witnessed an equivalent behavior that is 1000x less warranted because the catalyst was petty bs rather than the burden of lives and a legacy on your shoulders.

Not only did Tim go looking for bloody vengeance after his father's death, but he spent time planning out how to get Mr. Freeze commit the actual murder, so he'd have plausible deniability, only to stop the plan when he decided that wasn't personal enough. Tim then tried to kill Captain Boomerang himself with the same weapon Boomerang used to kill his father.

He had Captain Boomerang defeated and it's not until Boomerang nearly falls to his death, at the very last second, that he decides to save him instead.

But it doesn't end there because Bruce confronts him, and at first Tim deflects a lot of the blame, before declaring that maybe this is how he is and implying he may be willing to cross that line. This comes at the end of Red Robin, where he's gotten closer to morally grey and bloodthirsty at times, seemingly grappling with the decision of where his moral stances are independent from Batman's (and while having a personal crisis, he was not doing well during this series and that definitely played into things).

Jason does calm down quickly after a conversation with Bruce back at the Batcave, which leads to him being the one to track down Two-Face and save him when something goes wrong during the chase. Bruce is proud of him at the end, and it earns him more trust.

Despite the ending, this was still a moment where another robin attempted to kill their parent's killer. At this point if there were any other robins with avengable parents I'd be asking questions, because it almost seems like Grayson is the odd one out in cannon for not trying to kill his parent's murderer, which only adds to the irony that his fanon reputation is so focused on him supposedly doing so.

Please send me robin suits!

I’ve been working on a comprehensive guide to the history of the robin suit, trying to gather as much information as possible, the artist who created each design, any inspirations they mention in interviews, any writers who were given input, etc. Everything I can get my hands on, but there are a lot of robin suits. So, I wanted to request that if you have a suit you love/hate/think I may not have heard of, anything, please send it to me so I don’t forget any. Doesn’t matter if it’s their main suit or a rare one, it all helps and I like dissecting super suits anyway, so it's always appreciated. If you can tell me what it’s from even better, and if you know any interviews that even mention a robin suit, I’d love to read them, I'll take anything. I’ve already done a fair bit of research so I’m happy to share what I’ve learned upon request (I can't guarantee how quickly since I'm doing this for fun). I am including elseworlds as well, but only suits from their time as robin, not any mantles that come after.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of comic book families are at best dysfunctional, and at worst held together with questionable legality and duct tape, and none of them are like what you find in Wayne Family Adventures. BUT!!!! it’s also crucially important to me that people realise that the vast majority of relationship building in comic books happen off-panel.

Like Grayson trying to kill Zucco? Never happened as far as I can tell, and his time as Robin wasn’t about vengeance, almost every version of his backstory I could find stops to specify that he’s either becoming or continuing past the first case as Robin to help people, it’s compassion and a desire to make sure no one else has to go through what he did, along with a healing moment for him. (he even tries to save his parent's murderers in multiple versions)

His fight with Donna during NTT 1984 #19? He was being brainwashed by Brother Blood, they even say he wouldn’t have been lashing out had he not been brainwashed multiple times during the arc and treat it as weird that he’s acting that way. (brainwashing revealed in New Teen Titans 1984 #22)

Killing the Joker in Joker's Last Laugh? Yet again brainwashing. There was a villain named Rancor whose power is amplifying emotions until they’re uncontrollable, who was in prison for amplifying people’s rage until they committed murders they wouldn't have otherwise committed, who commented about amplifying Nightwing’s rage at the start of the fight, and Nightwing commented after that he didn’t know what happened he just suddenly lost control. (full rundown on Rancor and his powers found in Joker: Last Laugh Secret Files and Origins 2001)

I am still working on a full deep dive of Outsiders because there’s so much context, but that’s the important thing which I think gets missed a lot, the context. It is a direct follow up to Young Justice Graduation day (Donna’s Death and him getting trauma around leadership) and it’s linked to both the Devin Grayson run and Under the Red Hood, so yeah he’s lashing out, because he’s well past any reasonable human breaking point, this is him actively self-destructing, not his baseline personality. (Yes, it is a part of his character but in like the same sense the one-time Bruce attempted murder after Jason's death is, like no being murderous isn't normal for his character it's him at his all-time low)

I can't find anything like that in Teen Titans: Year One, so I'm assuming you mean World's Finest: Teen Titans, since it's similar and has the closest moment I can think of to what you've described. He doesn't say that in World's Finest either, but he does have a moment where he yells at Wally, calling him immature for ignoring him and putting himself in danger to impress the team, still mean and he was angry, but it makes more sense in context since his entire arc in that book is an explanation of why he's so stressed and lashing out.

Grayson's arc is about Batman trying to pressure him into leaving the team and putting extremely high/unreasonable expectations on him some of which actually making it harder to be an effective leader, even telling him, a teenager, that he's responsible for it should his friends die under his leadership (which yes what they're doing is dangerous, but that's an insane amount of pressure to put on a kid). It gets so bad that Robin stalls going home as long as he can, sitting alone in the dark just to avoid facing Bruce. I bring this up because that stress is kind of the backbone of why he's acting the way he does, the insults he throws at both Wally and Roy even mirror the criticism Batman keeps leveling at the team, like he's trying to get them to meet Batman's expectations to minimize the risk that Bruce will finally go through with taking him off the team, which he's been using as a safe space/support system. He immediately lightens up once he lets go of Bruce expectations (even though he fully believes it means losing everything he's worked for as Robin and never seeing his friends again) and takes the time to make amends with those he'd yelled at.

The plot of the overall book is also the early days of the Titans as they learn to work together and get along despite their clashing personalities, so every titan at some point takes their anger out on one of their teammates, not just Grayson, he only stands out because he started at that breaking point rather than building up to it like the rest, as said because of Batman.

This book also has the same author as the World's Finest Superman/Batman, and exists in the same world, which in that series that depicts Grayson as pretty easygoing with this one moment of extreme stress standing out. (I know that's a bit off topic, I just want to make it clear, I'm not arguing that he doesn't get angry, just that he's not out of control and defined by it like some of the fandom seems to think, he does get mad at reasonable times to get mad so I don't think it's wild that in a book about all the Titans getting progressively angrier at/mean to each other because they're teenagers butting heads before they learn to get along, that he would also be mad when dealing with borderline emotional abuse, but totally fair if you interpreted the book differently, this is just my two cents, and I'm totally willing to take criticism on this one cause I know it may seem a bit forgiving - also not saying that he did nothing wrong there's a reason he needed to make amends with those he yelled at, it's just not an insane moment to me since it's so thoroughly explained)