Rivals In Love

There's a bitter irony to Nightwing becoming more popular in the last few years - it's mostly a result of Taylor's abysmally saccharine and bland characterisation. A fondant version of DG - all sugar, no complexity of flavour, no nutritional depth. Like many other long time readers and DG fans, I have been starved for a truly stellar representation of Dick since Flashpoint.

Enter Dan Watters.

First there's this interview, which made me weep with joy.

I had forgotten it was possible for people to praise Dick without putting down Bruce. And while it may seem that Watters is painting Bruce as unempathetic, all you need to do is read one single issue of Dark Patterns to know that he most certainly does NOT think that. What he is talking about is the way Bruce and Dick approach detective work differently - which is absolutely correct.

More importantly - "He grew up knowing he was loved. That's what Batman gave him that Batman didn't have."

Utterly perfect assessment, and borne out in full in Nightwing #137 (2026) this week.

Nightwing is accused of causing a pileup on the Bludhaven bridge which led to nine deaths. So of course, in true Bat fashion he is beating himself up in guilt and trying to figure out what happened - but he's not the only Bat on scene.

There's immediate defensiveness in typical Dick fashion.

There's Dick being reckless with his life and Bruce panicking out of his skin.

(Hey Dickie, remember THE LAST TIME YOU GOT SHOT IN THE HEAD IN FRONT OF HIM?????)

There's Dick actually being COMPETENT and SMART again, not just some performative cheerleader cutout who gives a speech and is then inexplicably hailed as a great leader and hero without actually proving it on panel.

There's Bruce's usual concern (this scene is so clearly Bruce in a Batsuit and not simply Batman).

(On a related note I'd tell Bruce to practice what he preaches but that's never going to happen with ANY Bat, let alone the prime Bat.)

Then there's Dick crashing out at him - the usual way he processes his guilt and stress.

And this is where Watters' understanding of the Bruce and Dick relationship is so clearly outlined - Dick is able to rage and crash out at Bruce BECAUSE he knows he's loved. And Bruce lets him crash out and weathers it - acknowledges Dick's feelings without once taking it personally. An outlet Bruce himself never had, no matter how much lore-deficient writers like Taylor and Williamson try to retrofit Alfred into a role and pedestal that never existed.

THIS is what the Bruce and Dick relationship has been for the longest part of post Crisis DC history ever since Prodigal cemented the reconciliation. This is what Batman and Nightwing were under the best Bat editorial tenure.

And of course there's the pot-kettle panel, where Bruce pulls a Dick and Dick pulls a Bruce. Also a cornerstone of their relationship.

Dick warming his cold hands on Bruce's trousers by xylo_bee

Artwork posted with the artist's permission. Please do not reupload or repost it anywhere else.

Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"

The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointee—not a career expert or peer reviewer—to ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people exist—through its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processes—could be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to “support the notion that sex is mutable” and have its federal funding blocked.

Cancel your pull lists, don’t buy DC comics, and sign the petition here to help fight for Black representation in comics: https://www.change.org/p/dcsowhite-end-the-black-superhero-drought

When a company goes over three years disrespecting its Black characters like this (in a way its’ competitors don’t btw, even Marvel has multiple mainline Black ongoings rn) it becomes really obvious that they’re committing an intentional act of anti-Blackness. Black comic book characters matter and DC already has so many cool ones that they’re squandering and they deserve better. But even more than that, Black comic book *fans* matter. And we deserve better than this.

You can find more information about the boycott on the website I’ve linked below, and on JPenumbras YouTube, Instagram, and/or TikTok: https://www.dcblackout.com/

Tales of the Dark Knight #100 | Robin: Year One #1 | Gotham Knights #11 | Bruce Wayne: The Road Home

Nightwing - Everyone wants a piece of Dic... Discowing!.

to start with, it's important to understand that rudy's motivations and drive come from a place of deep-seated envy. as a child, he had a troubled relationship with his own father, which only further deteriorated with ira west's favoritism towards iris and the opportunities and accomplishments that she had because of this. as someone stuck in a dead-end career, rudy could never achieve the same on his own merit, and it was this want for power and control over his life that drew him into the cult of the manhunters and ultimately forms the basis to his relationship to his son. when wally got his powers, rudy perceived this sudden transformation as a threat to his authority as the man of the house, since it was now impossible to maintain control over an "all-powerful" son.

The Flash (1987) Annual #2 + The Flash (1987) #8

in addition, rudy had a fraught relationship with his wife that would would trickle down onto wally and have him latch onto the flash as an escape from his tense home life. rudy heavily disapproved of this new development as he considered it an unrealistic dream and, later on, would come to resent barry for his importance in wally's life over his own comparatively lesser position. in his childhood, wally would also be exposed to corporal punishment before his powers earned him a sense of "freedom" from the restrictive expectations of his parents.

The Flash (1987) #0 + The Flash (1987) #38

all this being said, it's important to note here that rudy did, genuinely, love his son, albeit in a manner that harmed him more than it ever did reassure or comfort. i think it says something that a man so aggressively sure of the pecking order of the universe and his own superiority in it, to the point where wally explicitly calls his rhetoric fascist, would on multiple occasions risk life and limb to try and protect a son that he fears and may even hate for a power he himself does not and will never have. it's more than accurate to say that rudy was a bad father and an even worse person, but i don't think that this contradicts the fact that he did, at least in some capacity, care for wally in his own way.

The Flash (1987) Annual #2 + The Flash (1987) #65

as for wally's perspective over this whole ordeal, well, of course it's complicated. in his childhood, wally despised his home life and his father's perceived lack of care for him and wanted desperately to live with iris instead. as an adult, he resents that rudy couldn't have been a better father for him and guiltily wishes it could've been barry instead, but feels that he can in some small part understand the position that rudy was coming from and has a decent amount of good memories with him. still, each time that wally reaches out to try and connect with him, rudy continuously proves that his own self-interest and potential to profit is more important than the world and people around him, something that wally can neither abide by or respect. regardless of how much wally wants to and in spite of himself does love his father, it ultimately means nothing in the face of rudy's inability to change for the better.

The Flash (1987) #21 + The Flash (1987) Annual #2

Bat Dance III