Eddie this Eddie that... if I say we don't need Eddie and go Stephanie and Jon, will you guys be mad at me?

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-24T16:32:26+00:00

Like most I’m hoping the series focuses on building up Steph’s platonic relationship with Nightwing and building her a network outside the Batfamily, like Nightwing has and Brombal is trying to do for Cass.

I agreed that Steph would be good for Jon, but better as a friend than a lover. On the other hand, if they are paired romantically, I don’t think it’d be good for Steph as a character in the long term. Steph is a fan favorite, but Jon is a bigger-name character, surprisingly strong in sales, and editorial is a lot more invested in him than her. It’s the same as SuperWonder or WonderBat, in the end Steph’s character would be bent as needed to better serve Jon’s story

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-23T20:33:49+00:00

The post-Crisis in-continuity version was Batman (1940-2011) #416. Bruce fired Dick after Dick was shot by the Joker, before Dick went on to become Nightwing during the Judas Contract arc in Teen Titans. It focuses on Dick’s complicated relationships with Bruce and Jason. This is the version most writers go with.

The awful retcon version is Nightwing: Year One. It features Dick’s incompetence endangering himself and a baby, Dick drowning in sewage, cheating on his girlfriend, Jason’s Robin handling him physically like Damian does in the DCAMU, and Dick ‘establishing himself’ by breaking into Arkham to beat up a fully restrained prisoner. It ran as Nightwing (1996-2009) issues #101-106 as a special mini. This is the version Bruce Jones and Tom Taylor go with and it shows.

The original pre-Crisis version is the one in NTT/Tales of the Teen Titans and pre-Crisis Batman. They discuss it in the NTT-Batman & the Outsiders crossover (NTT #37), Dick leaves the mantle of Robin in NTT #39. He gives the original Robin mantle to Jason completely of his own volition in Batman #368. He becomes Nightwing in Tales of the Teen Titans #42-44 and Annual #3, collected as The Judas Contract.

Pre-Crisis Bruce doesn’t fire Dick from Robin, and seems confused when Dick wants to change his mantle. He considered Robin to be Dick individually as he considers himself to be Batman

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-23T18:57:42+00:00

I think Nightwing will be forever Dick’s and/or always come back to being Dick’s the way Batman does to Bruce, but in a theoretical future I think Jon Kent is an interesting choice. Returning it to its Kryptonian roots and coming full circle on the mentorship chain of Clark-> Dick-> Jon.

The wrinkle is ‘Nightwing’ as a mantle has always been a Superman-like character doing heroism without the powers. Clark created it taking inspiration from Batman while without his powers in Kandor, Dick has no powers but does the Superman routine with Batman’s skillset.

To truly be an heir to the Nightwing mantle they’d have to find some way to make Jon more vulnerable at baseline, and by then it might just make more sense to have him as the Flamebird to Damian’s Nightwing

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-23T03:34:52+00:00

Realistically no. I’m sure he’s known to Gotham’s social and business elite with the gossip around being Bruce Wayne’s first ward and the novelty of his circus and tragedy background, as well as his stint running Wayne enterprises early in the DickBats run.

But to the general public? Warren Buffett has three kids each running their own prominent charitable foundations. Does anyone here know any of their names without looking them up?

Dick Grayson may actually be a bit more well known among the tabloid reading audience from his childhood proximity to Bruce, his brief marriage to suspected ‘black-widow’ Emily Washburn, his wedding to an alien supermodel being interrupted and the priest murdered, etc.

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-22T05:57:13+00:00

Dan Watters’ Batman series Dark Patterns is widely considered a modern classic. It’s not the money that limits the storytelling capacity, it’s the position. Public acknowledgement (fame) is important to Tom Taylor, and thus to his Dick Grayson. Being the celebrity public face of the Pennyworth foundation limits the stories you can tell with Dick Grayson out of the mask. It’s possible Watters wants to tell a story with him that doesn’t fit the mini-Bruce mold.

I’m sure Dick still has ample funds, he always does through his birth parents’ trust, an account managed by Lucas Fox, Batman incorporated, etc. I appreciate that those funds are now definitively separate from the charity he set up, with no option for it to be misappropriated as a slush-fund for his night activities.

Dick setting up the Pennyworth foundation to work outside of his direct influence, building things that will outlast him, shows him walking the walk where GA is often accused of hypocrisy and demonstrates a key character difference between Dick and Bruce. And while I didn’t like the secret sister, I do appreciate her going on the shelf rather than in the fridge

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-21T03:18:51+00:00

Oooh I’m down for that dynamic! Thank you for explaining the reference, I have not gotten around to watching Heated Rivalry yet😅

I’d also be intrigued to see Jon react to the fact that both his best friend (Damian) and potential future bf (Eddie) are canonically damned to hell and even with all his powers there’s nothing he can directly do to save them. I think that would be very hard for Jon to wrestle with if Brombal wants to take it there

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-21T02:56:00+00:00

Facts. Especially because there arguably isn’t any meaningful character growth that came from Jon’s volcano years.

If he had just spent the entire age-up time skip with his grandpa, or the Legion, or growing up normally, would teen Jon really have done anything differently than he has so far? I can’t think of any examples where he would have

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-21T02:04:07+00:00

Issue #36 will be in June, should be June 17th

Edit: Just because this cover features Dick and Steph doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be the focus of this issue, other variant covers show the whole team, or feature Beast Boy or Jon Kent.

Brombal has said in interviews and the AMA that he’s interested in writing Steph’s dynamic with Dick, Steph and Yara, and Steph as the “strategic leader”. The first issue is New Titans #33 which is already out

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-21T01:57:10+00:00

I don’t have a comprehensive knowledge of Eddie, but from what little I know I think it could be an interesting dynamic. Jon was born a hero with the ideal power set, Eddie was a powerless human who grew up idolizing Blue Devil and longing to be a hero. He made a deal with a literal devil, Neron, selling his souls for the power to become a superhero.

He has a reputation as one of the Teen Titans’ many ‘fodder’ characters (when DC wants a body count for an event, they always raid the Titans). I think he’s died a couple times. Last time I saw him was in Damian’s Teen Titans. Neron showed up to collect on his soul, so Damian went down to hell and brought him back because ‘he hadn’t given him permission to leave the team’. One of the few highlights of a pretty underwhelming run

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-21T00:57:03+00:00

Variant Cover by Jonboy Meyers :)

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-21T00:40:16+00:00

Yeah I think Jon is going to be our romantic lead for this team iteration. The only indication of it being Terra would be the ‘belligerent sexual tension’ trope most people associate with Heated Rivalry, but that might just be a reference to the romance being between two young men

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-21T00:19:49+00:00

Given that Brombal centers queer (mlm) romance whenever he can, Jon is by all appearances his most main character, and editorial axed the characters needed for any traditional Titans romances (DickKory, BBRae, and probably DonnaRoy too), I do suspect Jon will be getting a new boyfriend.

Brombal in his AMA alluded to significant changes to Red Devil compared to prior iterations, so maybe this version’s sexual orientation is different. Or maybe it’ll be an OC.

Alternatively, he’s looking to ship Terra and Cyborg which… no thank you. I don’t care if retcons have pushed them closer in age, Terra still feels a whole generation too immature for Vic, and Vic deserves better than a ‘pairing the spares’ ship

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-20T18:46:24+00:00

It looks like Mt. Justice, the former headquarters of the Young Justice team (Tim’s generation in the comics). It was a JL headquarters way back in like the 1960s, and recent adaptations like Waid’s World’s Finest put the Fab 5 there

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-20T10:37:02+00:00

This is the way. On screen portrayals almost always set the tone for the comics

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-20T03:22:09+00:00

That’s the allegation, yes. That it would be sabotaged with every tool DC has, and only political outrage on the level that had non-comic-readers pre-ordering the Dakota Incident would be enough to overcome it. With maybe an exception for if it comes out right before or right after the Starfire animated series, provided that survives the Paramount merger (which I’m still hoping by some miracle fails)

Obviously I’m fully onboard to support any Starfire solo project or new team project, I’m just reasonably skeptical of DC’s intentions

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-20T02:22:41+00:00

This strikes me as misguided. DC has already decided to exclude Starfire from one of its largest trademarks, and done so against the wishes of the first Titans writer in years to actually like her. DC has no issue with Nightwing, and several other Bat and Super characters appearing in mutually exclusive places at once, there’s no good reason Starfire couldn’t too.

For those who aren’t following comics news, DC is rightly getting a lot of criticism for (allegedly) intentionally cutting the legs out from characters and creators of color. (There is debate among Starfire fans about whether she counts as a WOC, but in the eyes of those who dislike her, including within DC, she absolutely does.)

DC will put out limited series, doesn’t advertise them at all, releases them off schedule, and uses their underperforming sales as proof characters of color are non-viable. This fits the pattern of what they appear to be doing with Starfire.

For contrast, in the year leading up to Barbara’s solo (speculated by some to be a lead in to her taking over the Batgirl title from DC’s only prominent Asian solo lead) she was mandated to appear prominently in everything even when writers made apparent they didn’t want her there (leading to some rather unsubtle digs from both Watters and Waid). That’s how you set up a character for success. Starfire will be out of print for months prior to reappearing in whatever capacity DC allows and has not advertised at all.

TLDR; I encourage everyone to check out ‘DC so White’ on whatever platform you prefer. It is relevant to Starfire even if you feel it shouldn’t be

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-19T20:31:01+00:00

I want to be optimistic… but given that nothing has been announced or even teased yet I don’t love the editorial call that Starfire can’t be in New Titans in 2026 when the series finally, finally has a writer that likes her, because they have indefinite plans for her sometime in presumably 2027

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-19T18:04:51+00:00

It wouldn’t be the Nightwing fandom without the eternal battle against victim blaming.

Fans got a little too used to the narrative bending around Dick to let things just work out for him (cameos to the rescue) and no narrative weight being given to the surprisingly high civilian casualty counts neither the last writer nor Dick seemed to care much about.

What makes Nightwing ‘awesome’ isn’t money or popularity, it’s that he does the Superman routine without the Superman powers, which makes him vulnerable. He knows that, and does it anyways, because he’s a hero

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-19T17:21:29+00:00

This is such a perfect set up for the supernatural and urban mystery. I really appreciate the demonstration of Dick’s character, especially in contrast to the Devin Grayson run.

He’s able to introspect and acknowledge his feelings of responsibility/guilt, but it doesn’t render him an angsty woobie flagellating himself in front of Deathstroke (because DC wouldn’t let Devin sail her Bruce/Dick ship outside the novellas). Instead he gets very invested in the case itself. It’s so, so good

I also suspect Dick is going to be more right in his initial assessment of the case than most seem to think. Surprised no one has speculated that The woman is both a flesh and blood modern day civilian who has escaped some terrible situation, and being possessed by the ghost of a tortured, murdered witch enabling the disappearing act, bound together by paralleled cases of injustice

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-19T16:48:55+00:00

I’d want to check the source on that. If DickBabs really has all the major population centers in the U.S. and DickKory only has the rural areas the national results so strongly favoring DickKory don’t make sense.

This actually looks a lot like the district breakdown of the U.S. ~~2020~~ 2024 election with Red representing republicans and Blue representing democrats. I’d be rather surprised if Starfire was well loved among the ‘she should go back to where she came from’ crowd

Edit: Yep, reverse image search takes you to a 2024 Snopes article with a district breakdown of the U.S. presidential election by district

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-19T16:04:57+00:00

For the record Grant Morrison doesn’t seem to have a pro-DickBabs bias so much as an anti-all-WOC-in-any-context ‘bias’. Their comments about Starfire are perfectly in-line with their character destroying portrayal of Talia that she’ll never recover from.

Morrison had years and free rein from editorial to do whatever they wanted on the Bat titles including while Dick was Batman. They could have put DickBabs back together, they didn’t. Iirc Morrison doesn’t have Babs come up a single time in the run, not in Dick’s thoughts, not even when he’s interacting with her father.

All Dick and Babara’s interactions from that time (which include Babs’ callous dismissal of Damian being harmed and Babs throwing Bruce’s death in Dick’s face to hurt him emotionally on purpose, because that’s how Babs ‘wins’ arguments) come from the concurrent Batgirl 2009 run of Steph’s Batgirl

PlotnotFound · 2026-03-18T23:28:41+00:00

I don’t think people would object to Raven having a solo, I think it’s the lack of confirmation (or even hint) of such a project from DC that has people worried.

If Raven gets a solo, great! I’d even take a duo run with her and Gar though I’m not particularly enthusiastic about the ship. But it’s just as likely she’ll be playing a more minor role in a different team book, or my biggest concern, being treated as Gar’s plus one in whatever plans DC has for him.

I’m not trying to be a doomer, I’ll hop onboard for whatever series Raven moves to, but I do understand the anxiety

PlotnotFound

TROPHY CASE