First Impressions: Robin

A couple years back I did a post about the history of the Robin character(s) and how more than most in comics he’s always represented providing different generations of fans with what they both want and need; here’s how I found my way with the Boy/Teen Wonder.

My first remembrance of Robin is Burt Ward hamming it up on the 1960’s Batman live action series which I saw via syndication, which truth be told is how I came to know Batman period, as I watched that before I was a regular comics reader and don’t think I saw any of the movies in the theaters until “Batman Forever.” However, while a general cultural awareness probably fueled as much by Tim Burton as anything else clued me in that Batman himself was a far darker and more serious character than Adam West portrayed him at a fairly young age, Dick Grayson remained to me the smiling kid who made the ridiculous quips, as opposed to the emerging adult Marv Wolfman and George Perez were evolving him into in New Teen Titans at the time I was growing up.

The first Batman comic I consciously remember reading was Batman #425 (I think this is either Chris Sims’ first or favorite Batman comic if I recall correctly). I got it randomly as I did all comics when I was young (six in this case), so I was experiencing it pretty much in a vacuum, not knowing until years later that it was the last issue before “Death in the Family” (or what “Death in the Family” was). All I knew was that in this story, decisively darker than the TV show Batman I knew or any other I’d experienced, Robin was kind of a nutjob, having apparently let a bad guy fall to his death in the previous issue (shown in flashback) and having to be essentially pulled off another one here by Batman. This Robin was angry, didn’t make jokes, and seemed on a hair trigger to say the least.

Now I of course know this was Jason Todd, originally a Dick Grayson clone but by this point a soon-to-be-aborted attempt at creating a more edgy Robin for the post-Frank Miller Batman. However, at the time, given that visually he looked identical to the comic book interpretation of Robin I’d always been familiar with, I just assumed they were the same character, and over time something had made him snap (I don’t think I even knew then that Robin was an orphan, as his and Batman’s origins were never really addressed on the kid-friendly TV show, for obvious reasons).

I was the rare comic book-reading kid who had no real interest in Batman. I honestly never bought a run of any of his titles regularly until Grant Morrison came onboard. I checked in for stuff like Knightfall and whatnot, but never stuck around. I’ve since gone back and read a lot of the classics in trade, but to this day, I don’t really consider Batman one of “my” characters, for whatever that’s worth (not much, I’d presume).

The point being that I didn’t try to untangle the knot of how Burt Ward/Dick Grayson Robin became Jason Todd Robin in my mind and really never gave it much thought until one of the covers from the Robin II: The Joker’s Wild series (the first issue, I think) caught my eye at the shop and I grabbed it. I was intrigued enough to snap up Robin III: Cry of the Huntress as it came out and then go back to collect what I’d missed of Joker’s Wild, along the way getting to know Tim Drake, who would become very much my Robin of choice.

I think I’m cribbing a bit from my own aforementioned history of Robin here, but while Dick Grayson was created for the rough and tumble young men of the Golden Age and Jason Todd was meant to reflect the hardening youth of the 80’s, Tim Drake was less and imposing physical specimen and more of a thinking lad’s Robin, intended to appeal to a generation increasingly captivated by video games over athletics and a society where brains had gained value over brawn. I was definitely one of those kids who was ok at sports but better at being clever, so Tim Drake was a Robin I could get behind.

Indeed, Tim Drake seemed very much like a wish fulfillment character to me and likely many other slightly nerdy boys in Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle’s excellent Robin III. This kid, not the biggest or baddest dude on the block by any means, uses his wits to take down the guy who essentially is just that—KGBeast—and along the way gets the nice teen girl, spends time with and outwits to a degree a hot adult lady (The Huntress), and kicks butt, all while both his birth father and adopted mentor are “out of town” or otherwise occupied; he’s Ferris Bueller with hacking skills!

I followed Tim Drake into Dixon and Tom Grummett’s Robin ongoing series, where I really started to understand for the first time the chronology of the character as I was also broadening my grasp of overall DC mythology at the time. The Zero Hour crossover issue of Robin gave me the chance to actually see Tim team with young Dick with even a mention of Jason thrown in to really drive it all home. From there, I swung over to Zero Hour proper for my first significant exposure to Dick as Nightwing with an actual awareness that this was the original Robin all grown up.

While Tim Drake was the Robin I could most relate to as being like me (still is), I developed a separate kind of affection for Dick Grayson both in his original incarnation and more over as Nightwing in a way that emphasized my aspiration. He actually reminded me of my cousins.

My aunt on my mother’s side has six kids who were all born at least 10-15 years before me, so as a result, when I was young and went to holidays, I was surrounded by these teenagers and twentysomethings who were the coolest and almost most intimidating people in the world to me. In particular, my male cousins, two of whom were (and remain) twins, were the guys I dreamed of growing up to be; while I was still nerdy and awkward, they were all athletic, wise cracking and popular. All three of my aunt’s sons wrestled in high school, which played no small part in leading me to do the same.

Anyhow, I saw the relationship and dynamic between Tim and Dick as being very much how I idealized the one I had with my cousins: the smart and eager younger kid learning from but remaining fairly in awe and the shadow of his impossibly cool “big brother.” Like Tim, I was (and still am) pretty satisfied with the person I’ve grown into, but I’d be lying if there wasn’t some small part that still wanted to be Nightwing someday.

Following my hiatus from and return to comics, Robin wasn’t a going concern for me anymore as a solo character. I followed Tim Drake via Young Justice and Dick Grayson via back issues of New Teen Titans and both grew to be among my favorite characters—Dick more than Tim, probably due to Superboy fandom—I had no interest in either of their solo books.

By the time Damian Wayne came into the picture, I was pretty far past my period of Robin being a point of view character for me and more into appreciating the concept over whoever was behind the domino mask (worth noting, I was not paying any attention during Stephanie Brown’s stint, so I’m not omitting her out of disrespect so much as ignorance; please don’t come to my house crazy Stephanie Brown fans, I dug her as Spoiler and Batgirl). Robin has come very much to be the tail end of “Batman and” for me, even not being an avid Batman guy. I suppose just as I’ve never been attached to Bruce Wayne but as a fan of comics am intrigued by Batman as a concept and archetype, I’m interested in what Robin adds to the mythos as a counterbalance, whether Dick as the light to the darkness, Jason as the rededication to the stagnation, Tim as the deliberate thinker to the ask-questions-later figure of vengeance, and even Damian as the unruly child to the reluctant adult.

Robin has always forced Batman to do or be something he’s not naturally (lighten up, hold back, stop and think, be a father) and thus made him a more interesting character. I rather like that every few decades we get a new one and indeed look forward to seeing who we get next.

I also wonder if some kid is confused that Damian doesn’t look or act like the guy from the Teen Titans cartoon.

Leather Fetish

I’m currently in the process on working on a fairly epic series with Marvel.com video whiz Rich “The Dragon” Herrera that should hopefully be up in the next couple weeks on the site in time for the 600th issue of Fantastic Four. Without giving away the game, we’ve got about three hours or so of footage interviewing Tom Brevoort about the history of the FF from start to finish with plenty of anecdotes and neat facts along the way. It was basically like taking a master class in Marvel from a gent very qualified teach it and one of the cooler experiences I’ve had in a very cool career.

One of my favorite bits from the whole thing, oddly enough, was when we got to the 90’s and Tom spent a substantial spot of time talking about the period where the Fantastic Four got leather jackets and specifically that The Human Torch had a leather jacket (“Was he cold? He’s on fire!”). Tom of course acknowledged that the folks working on the book at the time, Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan, were just going with the general trend in the industry at the time, but as those were the comics coming out when I was a kid and I was part of the audience who more or less said “we would like to see The Human Torch in a leather jacket,” it got me thinking (again).

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again (right now, in fact): If you wanted your comic book character to look cool in the 90’s, you gave them a leather jacket with option of earring, ponytail and possible razor stubble. But did “looking cool” actually translate to “being cool”? Heck, did it even look cool? Let’s examine…

FANTASTIC FOUR
Y’know, from a functional standpoint (if not a fashion one), leather jackets really aren’t that out of place on the Fantastic Four. After all, they’re more explorers than super heroes at heart, so it does make a degree of sense they’d want plenty of pockets to carry around gear for wherever they’re headed and whatever they’ll encounter so they can always be prepared (and also stay warm, I suppose). Although Tom is right that a jacket offers very little use to the Torch, since he’s got built in weaponry and it would take excess time to treat anything he’s going to be carrying around or picking up in asbestos or whatever. And The Thing would never actually use anything but his fists so long as those are handy, plus he’ll tear through those suckers frequently enough to make the Hulk’s purple pants budget look frugal. And a jacket would actually hinder The Invisible Woman since at least part of her power hinges on not being noticed, which becomes more difficult with something making noise, causing wind resistance, etc. Ok, so maybe Mister Fantastic could wear a leather jacket from a functional standpoint.

WONDER WOMAN
Covered this recently, but the answer is no, Wonder Woman should not wear a leather jacket (in my opinion). Her gear is more than just a costume, it’s a uniform; the honor guard of a proud people symbolizing their greatest champion yada yada yada. You can alter it slightly (as has been done currently), but in story there’s a certain level of prestige and heritage that’s integral to Diana’s character, while on a real world level Wonder Woman has one the most recognizable costumes in comics and you shouldn’t be covering that up with a leather jacket (or bike shorts). To be fair, there was a very valid story reason why she wore what she wore—she wasn’t Wonder Woman anymore so keeping the garb would be disrespectful to her mother and her people—plus it was only ever designed to be a short term gig, but Diana should never be a slave to fashion trends.

THE X-MEN
X-Men and leather go together like peanut butter and jelly; it’s a beautiful and symbiotic relationship. In the 80’s, you had Mohawk Storm’s gear, in the 90’s you had the brown jackets that carried over from the comics to the animated series, and this century you had the black and yellow (and white) gear Frank Quitely introduced. It’s my belief that the reason the X-Men floundered commercially in the 60’s and early 70’s was not due to lack of Wolverine, but because they were hung up on spandex. Also, Gambit would probably curl up in the fetal position and weep if you took his duster away from him, and that’s a story nobody wants to see (unless Mike Carey has a really good angle on it, maybe).

SUPERBOY
A thousand times yes. That Superboy to this day is not sporting a leather jacket, an earring, John Lennon sunglasses and a fade cut is a crime against fashion. And since he was supposed to be not that much older than me when he was introduced, it made total sense he would emulate the same looks I did (particularly when his genetic role model had a mullet). I only wish his aesthetic dynamic had stopped aging along with his physical body.

THE AVENGERS
No.

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES
There are aspects of the Five Years Later run of Legion of Super-Heroes that I enjoy, but on the whole, making the best bright and shiny future in comics into the typical dystopian fare was a misstep. It felt wrong all the way to the way the characters dressed, since colorful attire with potent symbolism was central to the “carrying on for the greatest heroes ever” Legion conceit while the drab gear the FYL crew wore signaled how out of place they were. Only Ultra Boy and Timber Wolf are street enough to rock leather jackets (Karate Kid could if he wanted to, but he would never want to).

CAPTAIN AMERICA
What I said about Wonder Woman, probably magnified. Cap is literally draped in the American flag; play that all out, or don’t play it at all. Covering up the symbol he’s proud/brazen enough to wear in that manner is not Steve Rogers at all. He’s also all about grace and agility, so all that extra weight is no good (again, there was a reasonable story reason, and the character was actually against the change, but it was still not so hot).

NIGHTWING
Actually never wore a leather jacket, but he made a disco collar and mullet reasonably cool well past their respective expiration dates, so if anybody is gonna bring it back, Dick Grayson is the man. Also: pixie boots.

Five Comics Worth Reading - April 2011

DETECTIVE COMICS
Following Grant Morrison’s initial foray, I thought perhaps some writers might find it a bit challenging to distinguish the Dick Grayson version of Batman from the Bruce Wayne incarnation beyond the slightly tweaked costume, but for the most part I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how it’s gone down. Dick has been played as the extremely competent hero he was as Nightwing, yet with a higher level of confidence to match his new position and distinctive whimsy to perhaps combat it; few places has this new Batman shined as nicely as in the retooled Detective Comics written by Scott Snyder, which has hit on quite a few cylinders for me. Besides nailing a great protagonist in the Grayson Batman, Snyder has also embraced the book’s title with genuinely compelling—and frankly creepy—mysteries that he layers nicely with a mix of forensics and super hero stuff. Snyder’s secret weapon has also been his nuanced use of Commissioner Gordon, either as the back-up or lately star of the story, giving this stalwart a nice stage to play on and enough moral murkiness to remind you he’s no angel, just the best cop in a bad city. Having the distinctive and striking art of Jock and Francesco Francavilla certainly doesn’t hurt this title’s case either.

INCORRUPTIBLE
Since its inception, Incorruptible has been a fun companion piece to Irredeemable, telling a more lighthearted morality tale off to the side of the rampant tragedy and destruction of the parent book—and seriously, I’m not joking when I say the story about the former super criminal with the underage female sidekick named Jailbait is the “softer” side of the Irredeemable Universe. As Irredeemable has moved towards a broader story and resultantly brought some its characters over into Incorruptible, it has only made the latter title stronger. It’s quite interesting to watch what Mark Waid is doing in contrasting the heroes of Paradigm with their egos and neuroses against the simple single-mindedness of Max Damage, reformed villain; Max may have been a jerk and worse in the past, but he operates on a very simple field of “this is how we fix things” with no room for grandstanding or political posturing, whereas the “good guys” overanalyze their every move because they’re so much more concerned about keeping their images intact. The side stuff where Max is falling for his old archenemy’s girl even as she moves to portray him or putting off dealing with the trauma-fueled psychoses of his new sidekick is good stuff as well, but as ever, I just enjoy reading Mark Waid pick apart the mechanics and dynamics of what’s behind super heroes and villains.

IRON MAN 2.0
Nick Spencer writes comics that I feel like should be too smart for me, but makes sure I get them. With Iron Man 2.0, he’s covering all sorts of political, social and economic issues as he sends War Machine into the government and around the world dealing with conspiracies and WMDs, but even though I’m more or less useless when it comes to any news items not posted on the AOL homepage when I sign in at work every morning, I’m not only getting it, but getting into it, as he’s using these building blocks not to talk down, but to create a world that resonates with stuff really going on and at the same time carves out an interesting corner of the Marvel Universe for his cast to explore. I dig his characterization of James Rhodes—a tougher character to nail down than most people think in my opinion—as a guy committed to his country, more committed to doing the right thing, driven by a sense of duty, but not a total starched shirt as you would imagine years of hanging around Tony Stark would loosen up even the staunchest military man. I like the mix of big explosions with whole issues that are just supporting characters introduced only months ago talking about other characters we’ve never met—and that issue had me riveted! I think Spencer and my buddy editor Alejandro Arbona are dead on with their assessment of War Machine needing to be not just lots of guns, but whatever the next cutting edge way of waging war is; again, it’s a smart book, but not too smart for a dummy like me. And intelligence aside, scenes of Tony and Rhodey talking like kids about their armors as toys are just plain fun.

R.E.B.E.L.S.
I suppose this can be filed under “too little too late” with the book coming to an end next month, but I’ve been meaning for awhile to mention how much I enjoy Tony Bedard and Claude St. Aubin’s take on the cosmic DC Universe. They way Bedard manages a large and eclectic cast, shifting the focus every page or two and keeping things fresh, reminds me of how Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen nailed a somewhat similar premise on Legion of Super-Heroes back in the 80’s, and there are few higher compliments I can give. Bedard has once again made Vril Dox the kind of guy whose arrogance and cleverness I look forward to following—if for no other reason than to see how he’ll cheat his way out of the latest situation his mouth got him into—while on the total other end of the spectrum he writes a great smart ass and crazy Lobo while also finding nice spots for Adam Strange, Starfire, Captain Comet and the rest of DC’s displaced space stars. To St. Aubin’s credit, his clean art does a great job of making the many overlapping plots easy to follow and the action pop off the page. I should also note that their take on Starro creeps me out to no end. Pick this one up in trade!

UNCANNY X-FORCE
It takes talent to mix nostalgia and continuity service with genuinely intelligent stories as well as character-driven development plus throw in a decent amount of shooting and stabbing in one book; fortunately Rick Remender is talented as well as smart with a knack for enjoying his work, so he is more than adept at serving up delicious comics stew with Uncanny X-Force. I can’t say enough good things about this book, one of my top favorites as I tear through my comics. I love Remender’s long game as he’s both playing off existing mythology when it comes to Apocalypse and also building something entirely new. I’m invested in Psylocke’s quest to save Archangel’s soul—and her own. I’m intrigued by what Fantomex is up to and how he interacts with the rest of the team. The different take Remender has on Deadpool from just about anybody else I’ve ever read is fascinating. All that aside, you’ve got Deathlok versions of the Avengers—not to mention Deathlok himself as a supporting cast member—great old school X-Men villains like the Reavers and The Shadow King coming back, and a return trip to the friggin’ Age of Apocalypse; it truly is a perfect storm and I also really appreciate Remender’s commitment to acknowledging that every single this that has happened in past stories did in fact happen and will be addressed. Did I mention the murderer’s row of artistic talent that includes Jerome Opena, Esad Ribic, Mark Brooks, Rafael Albuquerque and Billy Tan not to mention Dean White? There are few comics out there right now I am a bigger fan of—if there are any.

The Problem with the New Teen Titans

It’s no secret to anybody who has read this blog semi-regularly or spoken to me about comics more than once that Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s New Teen Titans is not only high among my personal favorites, but in my opinion a shining example of the super hero medium at its finest; I’ve gone on about why at length.

However, as great as the NTT glory years of Wolfman and Perez (and later Wolfman with others) were, they’ve also plagued the characters who starred in those stories ever since.

The prime seven of New Teen Titans—like many I always think of Kid Flash as being more of a core member than Jericho though I believe the latter had tenure—occupied a unique spot in the hierarchy of the DC Universe back in the 1980’s in that they were able to age from their traditional role as kids into older teenagers and still have a place; the Justice League were obviously the adults, but the closest thing to a truth youth movement was going on in the 30th century with the Legion of Super-Heroes, so the Titans had their niche.

In the decades since, a new generation of true Teen Titans has come along while the JLA has remained stationary as far as aging, wedging the NTT into an awkward spot. Folks get their fix of grown-up heroes with Superman, Batman and company; if they want a younger take, they’ll check out Teen Titans; you’ve even got the buffet option of the JSA where the generations match up. The former New Teen Titans have in large part become the super hero equivalent of the townies that graduate high school and then rather than go to college or move on, just hang around their old haunts trying to relive their glory days but often just coming off desperate; they’ve become Matthew McConnaghy in Dazed and Confused or Tim Riggins on Friday Night Lights, but unfortunately not always as cool.

The go-to solution to “the Titans problem” tends to be just tossing them in a group together and give them a book, but more than once this strategy has just reinforced how tough it is to recapture lightning in a bottle, particularly when you want your characters to grow and mature. It’s not a conundrum limited to the Titans either, as this went on for years with the New Mutants as well; fortunately Zeb Wells finally found a take that made the New Mutants work again—and I look forward to Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning running with that baton—but it took a lot of swings and misses before the bat connected there.

For better or worse, I think the Titans have outgrown one another, at least as far as being grouped together on a monthly basis. When they have reunions, it should be an event, something truly special, but that means keeping the characters relevant and growing on their own in between. Besides: Wolfman, Perez and their successors—as well as predecessors in many cases—created some remarkable figures that really should be seeded across the DC Universe.

Here’s where I personally would put the New Teen Titans in the interest of them living up to their tremendous potential rather than festering in limbo or going through the retread motions.

DICK GRAYSON
The current Batman of Gotham City is exactly where he needs to be right now both as the star of several Bat-books and, more importantly in my eyes, leading the Justice League of America. One of my favorite aspects of Dick Grayson has always been that though he’s Bruce Wayne’s protégé, he also learned a lot from and modeled himself in part after Superman, and in the process really became the best of both. While the prime Batman is too anti-social and intimidating to be a leader but uses his genius-level strategic mind to direct things from behind the curtain and Superman does better as an icon since he can inspire but not really plan, Dick amalgamates those two skill sets and is the best pure leader in the DC Universe, a point that was made for years in NTT and then reinforced everywhere from The Obsidian Age to Infinite Crisis; he’s DC’s Captain America, able to direct his team both on and off the field. One of the best characters in comics, Dick Grayson has never really been hit by any sort of “New Teen Titans curse” and is right where he belongs at the forefront of the heroic community.

DONNA TROY
On the other hand, I appreciate James Robinson’s efforts with Donna Troy in Justice League of America—a book I feel compelled to note I quite enjoy, by the by—but something’s just not working for me. Obviously when you look up “damaged goods” in the imaginary encyclopedia of comics books I just created in my mind, there’s a picture of Donna staring back at you; the character has had her origin broken and glued back together so many times by sweeping continuity changes that along the way her sense of identity shattered and each subsequent fix seems to do more harm than good, regardless of the creators involved having best intentions. While she’s not a bad sub for the Wonder Woman spot in JLA, something about “den mother Donna” from New Teen Titans seeming so angry all the time doesn’t jive; certainly if any fictional character has earned the right to have a chip on her shoulder, it’s Donna Troy, but she also became so beloved lo those many years ago because she was the levelheaded Amazon who would put people in their place with kindness before resorting to throwing fists. You risk aging her by doing so, but it always seemed a natural fit to me that Donna would reside in the permanent mentor/bridge to their past role for the current Teen Titans that Cyborg and Starfire have filled in recent years to limited success. I’d enjoy seeing Donna in the big sister position not to just Wonder Girl, but the rest of the next gen heroes as well, and it would certainly give her a unique spot to fill in the DC Universe as a veteran taking an interest in the future who the kids could actually still relate to—and crush on—in contrast to the octogenarians of the JSA. Or maybe she should just stay in the JLA doing what she’s doing; Donna Troy is always going to be a tough knot to untangle.

WALLY WEST
I’m not going to get into a rant here, but Wally West belongs as The Flash in the Justice League of America. The beauty of having so many guys calling themselves The Flash should be that you can disperse them around where needed and everybody who needs a speedster gets one, plus every speedster gets some love. Barry Allen has the solo book, and besides, a big plot point for him thus far seems to be that he’s having a bit of a hard time readjusting to being around his old friends, so the JLA is no place for him. Wally, on the other hand, is one of DC’s most tenured and talented team players and was a fixture of the League for years; he’s not doing anything else and no starring roles seem in the offing, so put him where he belongs on the premiere team that happens to be led by his best friend. Obviously I’d personally be fine with jettisoning Jesse Quick to accommodate this—no offense to Ms. Quick—but if you wanted you could have both on the team like back during Devin Grayson’s Titans run, where it seemed to work fine.

RAVEN
I don’t dislike Raven’s current role as a revitalized—i.e. young again—member of the Teen Titans, but I could also see her doing more in the DC Universe at large, and with the character supposedly getting a CW show in the near-ish future, that seems like a good idea for all concerned. Given the substantial amount of younger mystic heroines already kicking around—Traci 13, Black Alice, etc.—Raven could be nudged back up into her late teens as she was when NTT wrapped and perhaps establish herself as the next level up from those ladies but still a bit beneath Zatanna or Doctor Fate. In the same way that Doctor Strange is the go-to guy whenever any Marvel hero needs magic help, Raven could be the DCU’s guide to the mystic realms and become a valuable guest star that stars in the occasional miniseries when somebody has a good idea. This may seem redundant given the folks I already mentioned, but with her demonic heritage, Raven is a more sensible shepherd than stage magician Zatanna or the still-novice new Fate when it comes to exploration into other dimensions or whatnot; she could be akin to Daimon Hellstrom in some senses, but she’s got a far richer background and more years of good stories to her name. In short, I think a break from the Titans would benefit Raven and give her a chance to grow into a vital part of the heroic structure of the DCU rather than just serving as a plot device to spawn new Trigon-related threats for her old teammates.

CYBORG
In recent years, Cyborg has become one of the science experts who get called in when Red Tornado gets broken or Arsenal needs a new arm, which has never rung true with me as it seems totally out of line with the core of the character. Vic being a smart guy should certainly be an aspect of his persona, but not the dominant trait; he shouldn’t just be played as Mr. Terrific with cool robot parts. I’m not suggesting Cyborg should be in angry young man mode indefinitely and certainly he no longer has the giant chip on his shoulder he had back when NTT kicked off, but even as recently as the Grayson Titans, he still had a healthy bit of attitude and street smarts to go with his burgeoning brain. I’m glad that the character has grown, but it feels sometimes like they went from point A to point Z skipping all the steps in between. I’d love to see Vic as a strong-willed team leader, rather than just the muscle, tech support or even mentor for a group. With the Outsiders name going into limbo again shortly, it would be neat to see some of DC’s true outsider characters, the ones who have been screwed over by normal society, band together—which is honestly how I’ve always wanted to see that name used—with Cyborg at the helm as a guy who found friends, family and acceptance, but also knows what it’s like to be desperately seeking.

STARFIRE
Of all the New Teen Titans characters, Starfire is the one who was among the richest back in the day, but has aged most poorly. Unfortunately, so much of what made Kory work when she was introduced was that naiveté and her raw displays of emotion that made her so alien even amongst a fantastic cast; she was the hot foreign exchange student and it worked great. However, when a character has been around for 30 years, you can’t write her as if she’s fresh off the bus—or spaceship—so a lot of what fueled Starfire has been stripped away and she’s too often played as bitter to try something different or falsely bright-eyed in attempt to recapture the glory. She’s at her most interesting around Dick Grayson playing off their long history, but he has evolved so much since they were seriously together that she’s almost like an anchor. I’m not sure quite what to do with Starfire, but I do feel she has too much untapped potential to waste. Her current spot in R.E.B.E.L.S. has some merit, but I think she’s more interesting as a stranger in a strange land on Earth. Perhaps with the Outsiders group I already mentioned? Serving as one of Oracle’s Birds of Prey and bonding/feuding with the other love of Dick Grayson’s life could certainly be interesting.

BEAST BOY
Gar Logan is another tricky fix as he embodies the Titan who is probably still a bit young to be in the big leagues—sure Supergirl is technically younger, but she’s more iconic and that carries with it a weird illusion of security—but comes off a bit as the skeevy college dropout who moved back home on the Teen Titans. A lot of Changeling was wrapped in being the “baby” of the NTT, but as with Starfire, it’s unrealistic for him not to have grown since that era. Geoff Johns and Ben Raab actually did a great job breaking Beast Boy out when they penned his miniseries, moving him up the dial a bit in large part by introducing his even more irresponsible cousin Matt for contrast and giving him a less experienced hero like Flamebird to provide guidance for. I think the Titans L.A. pitch that never was remains a good place for Gar and would like to see him heading up something like with guest appearances in the Titans book and elsewhere and whatever side projects the characters can support.

The Definitives: Dick Grayson

A couple months back, I wrote about the evolution of the Robin character, in the course of doing so hitting largely on the progression of Dick Grayson, the original Boy Wonder as a character.

Whether as Robin, Nightwing or currently Batman, Grayson has always been one of my favorite comic book heroes. This is a bit a departure for me as I’m generally more beholden to the snarky rebel types as my touchstones, but there’s also that well-concealed nice guy side of me who really roots for the true blue Heroes with a capital “H” of comics. With Dick Grayson, he’s a guy who represents both sides of my fandom there, as he’s certainly among the more wholesome good guys even in the virtuous DC Universe—particularly when you consider his mentor—but also has that devil-may-care swashbuckler attitude born of the carnival.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Dick Grayson is that in addition to his longevity, he’s probably been successful in more diverse identities than any other major character in comics as noted above. Sure lots of heroes and villains undergo the occasional name or costume change, but Dick has full-on reinvented everything about himself twice now and not really missed a beat as far as remaining at the forefront of the DCU as one of its most popular leading men.

Given that Dick Grayson has a history stretching back to 1940, I certainly make no claim to have read anywhere near even a majority representation of his appearances—I haven’t really read any Batman comics pre-dating the 80’s, including the crazy Silver Age stuff and really good 70’s stuff—but even so, I’ve got quite a few stories that spring to mind when thinking about why I dig comics’ original sidekick.

ROBIN: YEAR ONE
Few writers of the modern era have more familiarity with Dick Grayson than Chuck Dixon, who spent over five years writing him on the Nightwing ongoing title. Here, Dixon teams with co-writer Scott Beatty and artist Javier Pulido not to re-tell Robin’s origin story, but to flesh out his earliest days with Batman. Pulido’s art is perfect here, as he nails the brightly-clad figure of the Boy Wonder but drags him into the slightly darker situations Dixon and Beatty have concocted without dimming his luster. This is a great coming-of-age story that sees young Dick Grayson attempting to prove himself worthy of the responsibility given him by Batman—your basic father-son dynamic cranked up to superheroic proportions—by taking on way more than he probably should be on his own and coming up against Two-Face, foreshadowing later feuds between the two characters across various identities. Dixon and Beatty also show Robin’s nascent relationship with Batgirl and emotionally explore his connection with Alfred, the series’ narrator.

“The Murder Machine” (NEW TEEN TITANS ANNUAL #2)
The climax to the simmering storyline that introduced Adrian Chase into his costumed role as Vigilante is also an extremely important chapter in the life of Dick Grayson, as he reaches his final days as Robin. Having grown distant from Batman, the now-Teen Wonder finds himself partnering with Chase for a harder-edged war on crime and searching his soul for what kind of man he wants to be as he draws closer to true adulthood, seeing both positive and negative reflections of himself in his new ally. This extra-sized tale by the superlative Titans team of Marv Wolfman and George Perez sees the crew team with Vigilante against an army of assassins in an action-packed thrill ride, but more importantly it is for all intents and purposes one of the last true Robin stories as far as Dick Grayson is concerned and key reading if you’re looking to understand the character.

“The Judas Contract” (TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #42-44, ANNUAL #3)
Maybe Wolfman and Perez’s greatest Titans opus—and that’s saying something—this one has it all, from the origin of Deathstroke to Terra’s betrayal to Jericho’s introduction and much more, but for our purposes, no aspect of the story is more important than Dick Grayson’s dynamic debut as Nightwing. Even before putting on his new disco-collared duds, the former Robin proves the only Titans capable of eluding The Terminator, an impressive feat when one considers his teammates, but also a reminder of what makes the character so special. Again, a crucial stage in the larger Dick Grayson tapestry, not to mention of the best comic stories of all-time, so call this a win all around.

“Nightwing: Year One” (NIGHTWING #101-106)
Wrote a whole entry on this one.

“Wings Over Gotham” (ROBIN #13)
The conclusion of “Prodigal,” the 1995 storyline that saw Bruce Wayne temporarily hand over the role of Batman to Dick Grayson while recovering from a prior ordeal that saw Jean-Paul Valley sullying the mantel. This issue, written again by Dixon, has Bruce returning, ready to be Batman again, but Dick not quite ready to give up the cowl until they have a conversation years in the making that has been building ever since he abandoned the Robin persona. It’s another big growth moment for Dick as he stands up for himself against his father figure and asserts not only his independence, but calls Bruce out on his lapses in judgment; for his own part, the original Batman stands his ground, but admits he has sold his protégé short more than once. It’s a watershed encounter that re-establishes the Nightwing-Batman relationship more as one between equals and alters their dynamic moving forward (also, Tim Drake fights a bad guy, but that’s pretty secondary).

“A Knight in Bludhaven” (NIGHTWING #1-8)
Dixon and Scott McDaniel’s kickoff to their lengthy run on Dick Grayson’s first ongoing series and they hit the ground running, creating a brand new playground for Nightwing to establish himself in Bludhaven, a sort of mini-Gotham that’s even more gruesome than the original in some ways. For the next several years, Bludhaven would serve a key role in giving Dick Grayson his own identity separate from Batman or the Titans, complete with his own rogues gallery, supporting cast and unique locales, but especially establishing him as the sole guardian of a place that needed him, not just a stand-in or supporting player. The first eight issues have Nightwing setting up shop and declaring war on Blockbuster, the bulky and brilliant mastermind who would become the Kingpin to his Daredevil, so to say. My personal highlight from this initial run is “The Visitor” from issue #6, in which Tim Drake drops by and the two “brothers” spend a night talking over Dick’s latest adventures as they hop across rooftops and moving trains, really giving McDaniel a chance to show off.

“Till Death Do Us Part” (NIGHTWING ANNUAL #2)
You could argue all day whether Dick Grayson’s true destined love is Starfire or Barbara Gordon, but Marc Andreyko and Joe Bennett make a pretty heartfelt case for the latter in this touching, sweet and often heart-wrenching one-shot covering the “missing year” from after Infinite Crisis and what became of Nightwing’s marriage proposal to Oracle. As the star-crossed duo recovers from the latest upheaval and mull over what’s next for them, Andreyko revisits the high and low points of their lengthy courtship in great detail. That Robin-Batgirl kid crush that became something more is something I feel like is almost woven into culture beyond just the DC Universe, and it’s certainly one I feel like I can relate to, so to see it so thoroughly dissected here and ushered into adulthood not only makes for a good story, but feels integral to who Dick Grayson is. The creative team here does an excellent job showing why this may be DC’s best couple, and at the same time why they can probably never be together for too long.

“Batman Reborn” (BATMAN AND ROBIN #1-3)
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s first arc in this brave and bold new era of Batman showed once and for all that Dick Grayson was more than fit to wear the cowl, but also that he’d be a very different kind of Dark Knight—and that’s a good thing. I remember being really impressed with how Morrison acknowledged every stage of Dick’s past, from jubilant sidekick to defiant young hero, and made this very much the logical destination for the character. Quitely’s art is dynamic and the creative duo usher in wonderfully creepy new villains and a nicely refined status quo for the latest Dynamic Duo.

The History of Robin

When the original Robin the Boy Wonder was introduced way way back in 1940, he was meant to be “our” character, the one fans could relate to. At the time, it was a largely youthful audience who read comics, so the idea was that while you could look up to and admire Batman, you could actually be Robin, and that was your ticket to hanging out with the cool adults who had planes and fought crime.

So followed Bucky and a slew of other teenage heroes of the Golden Age and beyond, but best I know (and please correct me actual comic book historians), Robin came first.

What’s interesting to me is that over the seven decades Robin has existed as a concept, I do believe no major character has seen as much turnover as far as the fellow wearing the mask (and again, please correct me—but Green Lantern doesn’t count). Also of note is that the original Robin, Dick Grayson, is one of those rare comic book characters who has actually aged significantly during his existence, starting out as a young teenager and these days sitting comfortably in his mid-20’s; his successor, Jason Todd, also seems to be at least a good five years or so older than he was when he was introduced.

I think the turnover rate of Robin as well as the aging of the mantle’s former holders all ties back to this idea of the original fan service character and how creators have been quite diligent in evolving him as the audience has grown, changed, regressed and done it all over again. Let’s take a closer look…

DICK GRAYSON – V1
As covered above, the original Robin was created to be an audience identification character, and in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s, said audience consisted largely of children or younger teens. To dig even deeper, this was a generation of young people who did not have video games or even widespread television to occupy their time, and were thus generally more active, physical kids. It’s easy to see why Dick Grayson, with his acrobatic flips and grinning wisecracks, was exactly the hero this audience aspired to be like. He was an incredibly physical character whose aerial exploits were the natural though extremely heightened extension of what the youngsters who read about him did for fun; his cavalier attitude and wide-eyed heroism was the type this generation looked up to, not largely having discovered cynicism despite hard times, as they were trained to overcome adversity with positivity, not by cutting it down. The brightly-garbed, kinetic inaugural Boy Wonder was the perfect representation of at least three decades worth of young comic book readers.

DICK GRAYSON – V2
In 1969, Robin is sent off to college, now a Teen Wonder, and separated in large part from Batman by the creative team of Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, the same guys who had just dragged Green Arrow into social relevance in the pages of Green Lantern. As the 70’s dawned, an audience that had for years consisted mostly of kids was beginning to expand to the enlightened college crowd, who welcomed fringe forms of culture like comic books onto their campuses and into their lives. This more mature era and more adult audience called for Robin to grow up in order for them still to use him as an entryway to the DC Universe (across the street at Marvel, the same thing was happening with Peter Parker, who slowly shed his bookworm image for the slicker ladies man of his college days and beyond). Pursuing more solo adventures, Dick Grayson relied less on acrobatics and more on the detective skills he had inherited from his mentor, also discovering his sexuality and engaging in more romantic entanglements along the way. Around this same time, O’Neil was influencing much of the DC line, returning Batman to his roots as a grim avenger, reducing Superman’s power set to make him more relatable, and setting up Green Lantern and Green Arrow as a buddy team in search of the American dream; all of the characters were intriguing adults whom teenage and college readers were eager to learn more about, but Robin remain the one hero whose pixie boots they could conceivably inhabit, Dick Grayson having softly come of age to allow such a fantasy to remain intact.

JASON TODD – V1/DICK GRAYSON – V3
For a time in the mid-80’s, DC attempted to have their cake and eat it too, so to say. They still wanted to give older teens and college age readers their gateway character in Dick Grayson, but also wanted to recapture some of the younger audience they had lost over the 70’s and who weren’t as taken with Kid Flash or Aqualad. The elegant solution: keep the “new” Grayson around albeit in a new identity, and at the same time reintroduce the “old” Grayson with a new name and make him Robin. So it came to be we had Dick Grayson—at this point one of comics’ most popular characters as a principal in New Teen Titans and ensconced in an extremely mature physical relationship with Starfire—as Nightwing, plus Jason Todd, who originally had pretty much the exact same personality as his predecessor’s youthful incarnation, as the new Robin. The Nightwing half of the equation worked nicely, but the Robin side still needed a bit of tinkering…

JASON TODD – V2
In 1986, following Crisis On Infinite Earths, Frank Miller changed Batman—and comics—forever with The Dark Knight Returns. A year later, he hammered home the point with Batman: Year One. For better or worse, the “grim and gritty” era of comics had begun, an age tailor-made for the hope-battered pessimists who had grown out of 80’s excess. This was a world that had no place for a Robin who bounced about while dispensing quips, but yet there Jason Todd was, so he was retooled to try and serve as the identification character for a new generation of young readers. Jason became a young hoodlum from a broken home whom Batman was attempting to rehabilitate through crime-fighting. This new Robin had a mean streak, fought dirty, treaded the line between justice and vengeance with not always so much regard—and was not well-liked at all. Young readers had no desire to imagine themselves as a jerk with violent tendencies, no matter how grim the world may have become, while slightly older readers still preferred the more three-dimensional Nightwing as their avatar of choice. In short: comic book readers in the late 80’s did not want a Robin (or maybe they wanted Carrie Kelly, but they never got her, so it was a moot point). In 1988, Jason Todd was (allegedly) murdered by The Joker who served as stand-in for an audience who voted Robin dead via a 900 number.

TIM DRAKE
It only took about a year for DC to give it another shot with a new Robin following the demise of Jason Todd, but as the 90’s appeared on the horizon, a lot more thought was put into the creation of Tim Drake. Another comics boom was just around the corner, and with the “Batman” movie having hit big in 1989, a burgeoning group of young readers was descending upon the industry and the character. However, the kids of the 90’s were a different breed from their 1940’s counterparts who fueled Robin’s initial birth (and I can speak from experience here): with the increased emphasis on things like television and movies plus a superior education system and the early onset of the Internet among another advancements in computers and technology, a child raised in the 90’s tended to be generally less physically orientated and more cerebral. This was taken into account with Tim Drake, a character who in many ways resembled a young Peter Parker more closely than he did Dick Grayson, stumbling into a place in the Batman family due to impressive powers of deduction and a knack for cracking computer codes. Tim was a nice, likable kid, but also far more down-to-earth than circus performer Dick or car thief Jason; he still had a living parent, he was ok but not great with girls, and he had to learn to fight rather than just taking to it intuitively. Basically, even if Tim Drake as Robin wasn’t necessarily a role kids in the 90’s and beyond felt they could aspire to, he still seemed like a guy you’d want to hang out with. In his own way, Tim connected with the audience just as Dick had originally done half a century earlier, and perhaps even more successively as DC was able to parlay his solo adventures into an ongoing title that ran well over 150 issues and continues in spirit today as Red Robin. The success of Tim Drake as Robin demonstrates clearly that the character can remain viable so long as it changes with the times to fit the broadest audience.

DAMIAN WAYNE
And that brings us to maybe the most intriguing Robin of them all: Damien Wayne, the quite possibly sociopathic son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul who has wrapped his hands firmly around the neck of the Boy Wonder legacy and squeezed. So is Damian’s ascension to the role of Robin a sign that the kids of today can relate to a pint-sized nut job who likes to mouth off to Alfred and cut bad guys’ heads off? Hardly. I think Damian—and the dimension he’s brought to his role in a relatively short time—is indicative of the fact that these days comics does in large part play to an older audience, and there aren’t a lot of kids who need Robin to be their “way in” to Batman comics. For one thing, Tim Drake is still around as Red Robin and functions much the same as he has the past 20 years for younger readers who need somebody to relate to. For another thing, I think readers of today, even kids, don’t have that stigma of not being able to put themselves in Batman’s shoes that was there in the 40’s; they’re a generation who has been raised to dream big and thus they’re not going to settle for being the sidekick when they can be the hero.

And of course to finish, the richly ironic fact is that the current Batman is one the average reader can relate to probably a lot easier than they could Bruce Wayne, because, coming full circle, the Dark Knight of today is none other than…Dick Grayson. The more things change, eh?

Comics Coupling: Almost Weres

The seconds are ticking away rapidly before Valentine’s Day weekend concludes (and President’s Day begins!), but before it all came to an end, I wanted to commemorate not by looking at the best couples in comics or most romantic moments or whatever, but instead the pairings that could have been…but weren’t. Y’know, those characters you were rooting for to get together, but then due to a writing change or because it made no sense in the first place, it just didn’t happen.

I promise these will not all just be Nova and some girl (not all of them).

CAPTAIN AMERICA & THE SCARLET WITCH
Right before and carrying into “Avengers Disassembled,” long-time teammates Captain America and the Scarlet Witch began striking up an unlikely romance in the pages of Captain America & The Falcon which would then be touched on briefly in Avengers. Ultimately I believe the whole thing turned out to be another symptom of Wanda Maximoff’s hastening trip off the rails on the crazy train, but I thought there was definitely something there. In those Cap & Falcon issues, writer Christopher Priest touched on some interesting stuff with Wanda basically telling Steve Rogers flat out he still thinks of her as a little girl because that’s how she was when she first joined the Avengers, but she’s a woman now and he should be able to see her as such. I don’t really have a dog in the whole “older man-younger woman” romance race in the real world (I’m only a couple years older than my wife), but the idea in fiction of a female character’s ultimate “coming into her own” moment being telling the guy who thought he was her father figure “Hey, I’m pretty hot now, and if you want to give this a shot, it’s not weird” has always intrigued me. What does that say about me? Who knows, but I did think this would have been an interesting break for both characters, as Cap doesn’t generally dally with fellow costumed heroes and Wanda was married to an android for years (there was an interesting What If? one-shot that further explored it).

THE FLASH (Barry Allen) & BLACK CANARY
Wow, two in and my running theme seems to be girls with daddy issues, awesome—don’t judge me! Anyhow, I haven’t been shy in the past about saying I don’t find Barry Allen to be the world’s most interesting character. However, I never enjoyed him more than in Mark Waid, Brian Augustyn and Barry Kitson’s JLA: Year One re-imagining of the Justice League’s formative year together, where he was the true blue and calming central hero steering the team through that awkward “getting to know you” phase. His burgeoning “opposites attract” friendship with Hal Jordan was part of that, but the sparks between him and the young Black Canary were certainly another. Barry was the consummate straight arrow of course, dutifully devoted to Iris West, but he fell into that all-too-familiar trap of the bombshell at work—Canary—showing interest and him not knowing how to handle it. For her part, young Dinah was overwhelmed by following in her mom’s footsteps and looking for a stable port in the storm which reliable Barry filled much better than obnoxious Hal. The way Waid and Augustyn played this “office romance” felt very genuine and though you knew it could never work (in part because we know Green Arrow has to show up at some point), it gets you wondering what that path would have been like, but also realizing the reality probably never could have lived up to the potential.

ICEMAN & ROGUE
Just after the Age of Apocalypse, there was a period in the X-Men books where Rogue and Gambit were split up because she had kissed him just before reality went all wonky and learned all his dark secrets (basically that he had worked for Mister Sinister). She went off to discover America on some sort of road trip (really she was just trying to learn more about Gambit by following his memories) and Iceman came along to keep her company. From what I can remember, all signs seemed to point to Rogue and Bobby hooking up, but the writers and editors pretty firmly denied this in letter columns and whatnot, saying theirs was more of a brother-sister relationship (there was some reference to Luke and Leia in “Star Wars” in one reply, but I can’t remember if it had to do with Rogue and Bobby or a reader saying he thought Gambit’s secret was he was Rogue’s brother). Regardless, it went nowhere steamy, but I was hopefully both because it was something different and because I was a huge Iceman fan, so I wanted to see him end up with one of the hotter X-Men ladies. A decade or so later, the two characters got together not in the conventional comics, but on the big screen as well as in Ultimate X-Men, so apparently I wasn’t alone.

NIGHTWING & DONNA TROY
Speaking of “brother-sister” relationships that could have gone the other way (what is wrong with me?!)… This is one I know many folks have thought about over the years, both because the two characters have always been so close and also because it’s the mini-version of Batman and Wonder Woman getting together (though I guess these days it would be half of the full-version of Batman and Wonder Woman getting together). Around the mid-90’s, both these characters were so damaged in the relationship department, what with Donna being divorced and then almost immediately widowed and Dick Grayson coming out of a decade-long (in our world) thing with Starfire that ended horribly. One potential direction would have been for these two close friends to see something more in one another and leapfrog into romance. It would certainly have created some dynamic tension with their shared friends and former flames (Arsenal, Starfire, Oracle, Kyle Rayner, etc.) and made for some sweet moments and hard choices. The “best friends-turned-lovers” route is one we see a lot in real life and explored more often than not (though not so well) on TV, so I’m a bit surprised this has never happened, but I guess the stars have just never aligned—maybe now that they’re both on the JLA…

NOVA & FIRESTAR
Ok, gimme just this one. There’s actually a really emotional and well-done back-up story written by Fabian Nicieza in New Warriors Annual #4 where Firestar’s friend is a victim of date rape and after going after the dude and feeling powerless to do anything about it, she heads back to the Crash Pad and Nova ends up being her shoulder to cry on as he’s the only one there (and Justice is still in jail). The New Warriors were such a small, tightly-knit team with three set couples (Nova-Namorita, Justice-Firestar, Night Thrasher-Silhouette), so as a fan it was only natural to wonder about the possibilities of partners being traded (not in a weird way). The idea of alpha male Nova with nice girl Firestar as opposed to brash Namorita, and Angelica Jones swapping smart and sensitive Vance Astrovik for the more down-to-earth Rich Rider intrigued me more than any other potential pairings, and this story just reinforced that. Hey, I’d still like to see this!

Well, writing this has made me feel oddly dirty. Enjoy the remainder of your weekend, freaks…

Six for Smallville

Despite the fact that I regularly watch Melrose Place and Gossip Girl (one I even blog about regularly), I would still label Smallville as my guiltiest television pleasure. It’s corny, it’s generally over-acted and not about to be nominated for any Emmys any time soon, but I’ve still got a soft spot for the adventures of Superman when he was a boy (or late-20-something at this point).

I actually didn’t watch the first few seasons of Smallville on any regular basis, but became a regular viewer while working at Wizard as I became the magazine’s semi-regular correspondent on the show, available whenever interviews needed to be conducted or articles written. I was fortunate enough to speak with the show’s various producers and writers on numerous occasions and conduct interviews with Clark Kent himself, Tom Welling (one of the nicest Hollywood types I’ve ever chatted with) as well as the likes of James Marsters, Dean Cain, Kane and others when they appeared on the series.

Over the past few years, Smallville has inched away from its roots as a more realistic (or as realistic as you can get) chronicle of a young alien learning about his powers in a rural area and embraced its comics roots as almost a live-action tween-friendly version of Justice League Unlimited, with Green Arrow, The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, The Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Zatanna, the Wonder Twins and more showing up in color-coordinated casual wear. This week, the show hits a milestone, as my boy Geoff Johns pens an extra-length episode that brings the Justice Society of America to town.

To celebrate that and because I thought it would be fun, here are five more hero types I’d like to see done up Smallville style before the show wraps (and to make things a bit more interesting, I took the obvious Batman and Wonder Woman picks off the table since I believe it’s already been stated numerous times there are legal entanglements preventing either from happening besides).

STEEL
It’s not a stretch at all to imagine that a younger John Henry Irons is already hard at work in Smallville’s version of Metropolis, probably for either Oliver Queen or whoever is running Luthorcorp this week. I’d actually go with the classic Steel origin of John Henry getting his weapons poached by some nefarious corporation (be it Luthorcorp or Intergang), then have him whip up his Steel armor to try and police the matter. Given the cool effects Smallville has done on the relatively cheap, I’m thinking they could create a fairly dope-looking Steel that would wipe at least a bit of the Shaq stink of the character’s mainstream cred.

JOHN CONSTANTINE
How sweet would it be to see a smooth-talking, chain-smoking British conman sweep on into Smallville (or Metropolis), charm Lois Lane, piss Clark off, and then bring some hellish mystic nightmare in his wake that he needs Super-help to deal with? Smallville hasn’t had many occult-tinged episodes (at least not while I’ve been watching) so this would be a neat change of pace, and the contrast between Clark and Constantine is just too delicious for me. Besides, The CW already has the perfect teen Hellblazer in the form of Ed Westwick, Gossip Girl’s own Chuck Bass (and that may be the most inspired casting choice I’ve made in a blue moon).

BIG BARDA
While I think it would be nigh impossible to fully feature Jack Kirby’s Fourth World with Smallville’s budgets and other constraints, they’ve certainly proven me wrong on scores like that before. Nonetheless, the alternative is to just have a New God or two guest star and make allusions to Darkseid, etc. that you can either pay off later or leave as fun Easter eggs. The prospect of Orion on Earth just doesn’t grab me here, so I’d go with Mister Miracle’s arc of escaping Apokolips and seeking salvation in Smallville, but give it to Barda, not just because she and Superman have done porn together before, but because, again, this is The CW and if they can cast some pretty young thing as an Amazonian alien, they’re gonna.

DICK GRAYSON
If you can’t get Batman, let’s get the next best thing. Since there rumors that The CW was actually going to make a series about Dick Grayson and his carnival family their Smallville follow-up at some point, I say grab those prelim designs and go to town. The Haley Circus comes to town, some nefarious fellow runs an extortion scam or whatnot perhaps with a little extra muscle, and Clark needs the help of a 15-or-so acrobat with a fondness for red, green and yellow to save the day. I’d make this one light-hearted and upbeat, just like the Robin/Nightwing-Superman team-up dynamic in comics I’ve always enjoyed always is. And of course you can have some additional fun tossing in allusions to the Dark Knight and perhaps even why they can’t get him on the show.

GREEN LANTERN
This one seems like a no-brainer, as you can pretty easily bring in a GL similarly to how Flash, Aquaman or any of the other major DC players came and cover his origin in about five minutes (“A dying alien gave me a ring, now I’m a space cop”), then get to the slam-bang action with Clark and whomever teaming against Sinestro or perhaps a less-known interstellar Green Lantern opponent like Evil Star or somebody. Commercially, this would be a pretty guaranteed hit with the movie coming down the pike as well as the franchise’s current high standing in comics, while from a character standpoint Clark meeting an Earth native who patrols the stars is a neat bit of role reversal. As for who should be filling the role, I’d take Hal off the table since Ryan Reynolds has that sewn up, and probably John Stewart and even Kyle Rayner as well, since they could logically make the big screen jump as buddy and successor respectively; that leaves Guy Gardner, who if they stick with his traditional persona could be an even more interesting guest.

SUPERBOY
There’s no easier Smallville episode to write than some crazy scientist getting a hold of Clark’s DNA via a strand of hair or whatever he leaves behind at a crime scene then cloning him and then something going wrong with the process, leaving us with a high school-age Conner ready to kick ass and take names. Me being me, I’d of course play Superboy exactly how they did when he was first introduced, with cockiness and girl-craziness in full effect. This is actually a character who could have some real legs if they have him find Clark by the end of the first episode, and then the cast has to spend part of a season basically raising this kid and keeping him out of trouble; yeah, it’s kind of like the Supergirl story, but I think the idea that the character actually is Clark in some sense but nothing like him when it comes to personality would make for a lot more entertaining situations, plus the bulk of the supporting cast consists of attractive ladies who are already into soon-to-be-Superman anyways, so there you go. It would also be a neat bit of symmetry for the final season (which has to be coming up), as you’ve got Clark passing the torch to a kid who is the age he was when the show started while he “graduates” into true adulthood.