Obviously, DC isn’t giving the details as to what will send Superman into space for a year, or what Lois is going to do waiting for him while dodging “where’s Clark at, Mrs. Kent?” questions for a year, but they have shown us who will be taking his place in the pages of Action Comics.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Nightwing and Flamebird are back in the DC Universe!
Who’s Flamebird, you ask? Why is Mr. Grayson taking to the skies? Yeah, I was confused to, until I read this week’s Comic Shop News, a weekly newsletter produced by Matt Brady and Newsarama, given freely to comic store customers (if you store participates). Here’s the story as I gather it.
Back in the pre-Crisis “Silver Age” of DC, in the bottled city of Kandor Superman keeps on his mantle at the Fortress of Solitude, there were two heroes called Nightwing and Flamebird. I’m not sure what kind of crime took place there, but these two were costumed heroes fighting against it. Later, when Dick Grayson decided to drop the Robin identity and forge his own path, he took on the “Nightwing” name. From other sources, I believe that when Kandor was taken out of continuity post-Crisis, the origin was altered so that Nightwing and Flamebird (apparently nobody took her name) were actually heroes back on Krypton, and Dick liked the story enough to adopt the name when he went solo.
And now that the true Braniac is back, along with the true bottle city of Kandor, it’s only natural that the true Nightwing and Flamebird should return as well…but in this case it turns out that there’s a bit of a mystery. According to DC, the people behind those masks are familiar to long-time readers. But just who are this mysterious costumed mand and woman? No one is telling, but everyone has ideas–thanks in large part to one of them using tactile telekinesis.
So I’m trying to follow this. DC, or rather Didio and what I should just start calling the fanfic brigade, worked to bring back Hal Jordan and Barry Allen as the Green Lantern and the Flash respectively, because they love those characters (Kyle Rayner and Wally West/Bart Allen be dammed). Fine, whatever. Turing Hal evil was stupid to begin with, but Barry’s death meant something! And now we’re going to bring back a character I’ve never heard of, and a hero that I and many of my generation have heard the name of, but in connection to the Batman family rather than the Superman family. In a recent DC Nation (thank you scans_daily and the Four Color Media Monitor), Dan had this to say about bringing back the old characters.
From the time I started working at DC, I had a plan –no, scratch that, a desire to bring back Hal Jordan and Barry Allen. To me, they were the definitive Green Lantern and Flash, and they helped bring forth a generation of heroes. More important, they were the base from which all the other ring-bearers and speedsters would come. Nothing against Kyle or Wally, but you can’t know who they are without knowing who Hal and Barry are first.
Now here’s where I get confused. Do we need to know this Nightwing to know who Dick Grayson’s Nightwing is? And what about Flamebird? If any DC character since the Crisis has become her namesake, it’s news to me. However, what becomes of the current Nightwing? Does he go back to being Robin, and we kick Tim to the curb? If we need to turn the clock back, what does that say for the “Battle for the Cowl” event, that seems to be replacing Bruce Wayne as the Dark Knight, despite him being the alter-ego since day one.
I just don’t know what they’re doing at DC. I have to admit, however, Kandor Nightwing and Flamebird have awesome costumes. The party starts in Action Comics #875 with a March 11 release date, so you can decide for yourself. What does this say about Dick’s future? And are they really going to bring Connor back, or is this more red herrings? Because lately, DC’s twists do smell like bad fish.
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