DC: Rebirth
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Robin Will Return to DC Comics in Robin Rises: Omega #1
But it's not clear which Robin it will be.
This July, Robin will return to DC Comics. A one-shot comic called Robin Rises: Omega #1 by Peter J. Tomasi and Andy Kubert will detail the return of Batman's sidekick, although it is unclear which Robin will be returning. Tomasi's Batman and "Guest" series with artist Patrick Gleason will once again be called Batman and Robin as of issue #33.
The most recent Robin was Damian Wayne, Bruce's 10-year-old son, who was tragically killed in battle last year. Currently, Batman is on the hunt for Ra's al Ghul, Damian's grandfather, who stole the child's body along with his mother's, Talia al Ghul, in hopes of resurrecting both of them in the Lazarus Pits. This would seem to indicate that Damian is the Robin who will return, but in an interview with Hero Complex Tomasi remains adamant that people not assume it's him. Seeing how comic book publishers advertise big deaths and returns months in advance, it seems curious that they are keeping this one a mystery, especially when all signs point toward Damian's return. His coffin is even on the cover. Perhaps they are keeping it a mystery because it's not going to be Damian?
Let's take a look at the other Robins and where they stand now. The announcement says that Robin will "return," meaning it must be a pre-existing Robin. ? Grayson is going to become a secret agent with his own series, so he's out. Tim Drake is Red Robin on Teen Titans, which is being relaunched in July, so he seems unlikely. Jason Todd is a bitter anit-hero known as the Red Hood starring in Red Hood and the Outlaws, making him just as unlikely. Carrie Kelley was introduced to the New 52 last year, but she was just wearing the Robin duds as a costume and didn't appear to be the crime-fighting type, although that could change. Stephanie Brown looks like she's going to be a big player in Batman Eternal, but we've already seen that she will appear as Spoiler. -
? Grayson is trading his superhero suit for secret-agent cool.
Batman's former sidekick embarks on a new life as an undercover superspy in the comic book Grayson, an action-adventure series premiering July 2 from DC Comics. It's written by Tim Seeley (Revival) and Tom King, a former CIA counterterrorism operations officer.
After a career of being overshadowed by his cape-and-cowled father figure, this is a chance for Grayson "to take off the mask and step out on his own in a world where he's not simply being another hero like the hero he grew up with," King says.
A character who first appeared in 1940, Grayson was the original Robin to Bruce Wayne's Dark Knight. He went solo as Nightwing in the 1980s and also served as Batman for a time, when Wayne was thought dead.
The current Nightwing series ends with Issue 30, due May 28. In the current Forever Evil event series, ? Grayson has been outed in a villain-infested landscape as Nightwing and captured by the Crime Syndicate of Earth 3. (He's also seemingly murdered, but it doesn't take.)
Batman, though, wants him to transition to a different heroic life for the greater good — it's "a hard sell," Seeley says — and tells him why he needs his former partner to stay dead, not only to the world at large but to Batgirl, Alfred Pennyworth and the rest of the "Bat-family."
"Obviously, he's a part of a legacy," Seeley says. "He's been Robin, he's been Batman, and now he's out in the cold by himself."
Adds King: "He's doing something that's going to cause pain to his friends and family, but he believes in the cause. That tension between having to do something good but having the cost of it being pain to his family, it drives him a little crazy."
Grayson's new employer is the international spy agency Spyral, an organization created by writer Grant Morrison for his Batman, Incorporated series. King sees it as representative of today's intelligence community: They're the people who stop bad guys from doing bad things, yet to do that, they employ questionable tactics such as mind erosion.
"He has to save the world, but he's dealing with an organization that may go beyond his comfort zone," King says.
Seeley likes putting Grayson in this strange position, working for a group "that purports to be on the side of the angels, but clearly, there's some weird stuff going in. Their penchant for manipulation instantly makes them nefarious."
King, who started working for the CIA after 9/11, intends to bring to Grayson the emotional feel for what it's like to work undercover, have bullets shot at you and cope with the the inherent pressure of being an intelligence agent.
"It's bliss to serve a higher cause and save people," he says, but "the hard part of it is it's tough to go home and lie to your family and pretend to be a different person."
For the supporting cast, Seeley is planning to reintroduce some familiar DC characters but also to create a new mythos for Grayson, including his own archenemy.
"He's always been a character who hasn't had a villain associated with him," King says. "We want to give him his Lex Luthor, his Joker."
Also, Grayson is one of the few superheroes "who is considered a sex symbol by ladies," Seeley says. "We're leaning into that."
At the very least, he is getting a wardrobe makeover, courtesy of Grayson artist Mikel Janin: Gone is Grayson's mask, and his new outfit reflects the blue-and-black color scheme of his Nightwing togs and features a "G" on his chest, reminiscent of the old "R" from his Robin days.
In terms of tone, Seeley describes Grayson as a "world-hopping" action comic, and King wants every issue to feel like a TV episode of Mad Men or Breaking Bad in that it causes a conversation.
"It's DC's The Americans," King says. "This is something where, at the end of it, you have to go and talk about it." -
Think i would prefer Night Wing. I will check out Grayson tho.
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I think Nightwing has been terrible after Flashpoint. Higgins watered the character down a lot by removing a lot of the elements that made him great. On top of that the book was always unfocused because it was always tied into a crossover with Scott Snyder's Batman book. It had no real sense of direction and Grayson deserved better than that.
The fact that he went from Robin to Nightwing to Batman and then back to Nightwing also felt pretty uneventful and anticlimatic. This opens the possibilities for new experiences and fresh stories being told with the character which is what should've happened after he stopped being Batman in the first place. So for that alone I'm actually interested. Doesn't hurt that they're going to bring back Spyral for this either. I always found that concept interesting. -
Its ? cool they got an Ex CIA guy involved. Maybe it will have a Gambit type vibe, except it wont be him stealing, but doing missions and stuff.
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I think it'll be like those old DC King Faraday comics from the 50's but with a more modern twist. Which could be fun. I just don't like the idea that Batman talked him into it though. I mean it's annoying how according to DC editorial he always has to be in the shadow of the bat somehow when he grew into his own character over 2 decades ago.
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Wally West debuts this week in The Flash Annual #3.
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I wonder if the internets went all crazy about him being mixed now.
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Wally is mixed?
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I think his look is pretty generic. They should've kept the red hair and the freckles; it's not like black gingers don't exist but whatever.The other big change for Wally, beyond being dead, is his skin color. Was it your decision to introduce a black Wally West, or was that a decision made by DC editorial?
Venditti: He's actually biracial. When DC asked us to about introducing the character to the New 52, that was pretty much what they said. They wanted to reintroduce him and they wanted him to be biracial. I think that's to their credit that they wanted to show diversity across their line. With the New 52, there are new versions and new takes with a lot of these characters. In a lot of ways, that's what's great about the New 52.
Jensen: I was excited about it. It's a great idea to bring the character in like that. No one wants to retread the same stories that we've already all read before. They are already collected in trades and this is truly an opportunity to put a new spin on those stories. That's the challenge and that's what's exciting about this.
Now that we've seen him in the story, what can you tell us about Wally West that you couldn't tell us when we last spoke?
Jensen: Wally is Iris West's nephew, and his father is one of Iris' brothers that we haven't met yet. And yes, that's plural, which we'll be exploring a lot more in the coming months. We'll also be learning more about his mother. It's a very new take on the character in some obvious ways, but there is still a lot of classic Wally that's included. He still has a fiery personality. There's a passion and intensity in Wally that we will continue to see in the series moving forward.
Venditti: In terms of his parents, it's built very much on two things. What has already been established about the history of the West family remains intact, and because Central City was such a central focus in "Forever Evil," and is one of the places hit hardest by that story arc, we really want to show the effects of what happened. It's not like that didn't happen -- it did. In "The Flash" #30, you see that, and throughout the forthcoming issues, you'll continue to see that. The circumstances under which Wally enters into this series grew very much out of the aftermath of "Forever Evil."
This is a young Wally West. How old is he exactly?
Venditti: He's 12 years old. He's not 12 years old when we see him in "The Flash" #30, because that's five years into the futur,e but when we meet him in "The Flash Annual," he's 12. -
I really don't like James Tynion's art. It's bothering Batman Eternal for me
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lord nemesis wrote: »I really don't like James Tynion's art. It's bothering Batman Eternal for me
He's not an artist; he's a writer. You're confusing him with someone else. I'm not interested in Batman Eternal though so I don't even know who is doing the art.
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.........................
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You're right. Dustin Nguyen is responsible for this ugliness.lord nemesis wrote: »I really don't like James Tynion's art. It's bothering Batman Eternal for me
He's not an artist; he's a writer. You're confusing him with someone else. I'm not interested in Batman Eternal though so I don't even know who is doing the art.
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It's funny to read that since in my view as well as many others all across comic book forums he's been one of the best Batman artists during the last 5 years. I'm sure that's why they put him on the weekly too. But as they say one man's treasure is another man's garbage.
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New 52's reincarnation of Starfire:
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Im.reading like.10 different.books trying to catch up
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Nobody been following JLA or Vibe? i picked up Vol 1 of JLA, aint read it yet though. I had the first issue of Vibe, i stopped buying coms at that point tho, was gettin spendy droppin money every wednesday lol. Vibe was really interesting to me though, new to the character, and its a geoff johns book, or was.
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JLA got retitled/relaunched right?
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Nah they still got the regular Justice League book.
Justice League of America is a team put together by the US government, and amanda waller to protect america if the Justice League ever turned on the world.
They picked each member to fight a diff member of the regular Justice League.
Martian Manhunter to take on Superman
Catwoman to Take on Batman
Vibe to take on Flash
Baz (Green Lantern) to take on Hal Jordan
Green Arrow to take on Wonder Woman or aquaman
and theres another character i cant recall. I wanna say Katana or Hawkman, i dont got the book in front of me tho. -
just ran through injustice year 1 in like an hour
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Lou Cypher wrote: »Nah they still got the regular Justice League book.
Justice League of America is a team put together by the US government, and amanda waller to protect america if the Justice League ever turned on the world.
They picked each member to fight a diff member of the regular Justice League.
Martian Manhunter to take on Superman
Catwoman to Take on Batman
Vibe to take on Flash
Baz (Green Lantern) to take on Hal Jordan
Green Arrow to take on Wonder Woman or aquaman
and theres another character i cant recall. I wanna say Katana or Hawkman, i dont got the book in front of me tho.
No, JLA did get relaunched as Justice League Canada. Adam Strange, Supergirl and some new Canadian female are on the team.
Vibe is ok, but it's done now.
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? canada!
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Biracial wally west means it's matching the flash show. Iris west gonna be blacc in it.
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Anybody checking out that Future's End?
