They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but I bet this wonāt S.H.I.E.L.D. DC Comics from follow-the-leader criticisms.
DC Comics has for the last three years been taking a trip down the open road with someone half its age in the convertible it bought on its 45th birthday, or as we know it, The New 52. Now it seems the publisher plans to get hair implants and add spinning rims to that convertible, at least judging by the news that Dick Grayson, the original Robin-turned-Nightwing, will soon be reinvented as a covert spy in the upcoming spy/thriller themed comic series Grayson, written by Tim Seeley and Tom King.
Grayson will pick up where the characterās current comic series, Nightwing, will leave off when it concludes this May: Dick Grayson, his identity as Nightwing exposed and his enemies onto him, is seemingly murdered, but he actually faked his death. He is then convinced by Batman to let everyone, including other members of the Bat-Family of characters, continue think heās dead so that he can operate in the shadows as part of the covert intelligence agency SPYRAL (first introduced in Batman Incorporated).
The series is apparently going to be played for 24-like drama, at least they way itās described by the seriesā cocreators. Dick Grayson will not only have to deal with the pain of letting his loved ones think heās dead, heāll also have to deal with working for an organization āout of his comfort zone.ā SPYRAL, you see, is yet another intelligence agency with a swank acronym and a commitment to stopping bad guys by employing methods and tactics that are questionable at best.
This could work of course, as the DC Universe could use some shaking up (even if it has to happen under the New 52 banner.) Given how relatively underdeveloped Dick Grayson is ā Nightwing has never been much more than NotBatman in Bludhaven, or NotBatman in New York, or NotBatman in Gotham City ā the character might be a perfect fit to inject some James Bond style action into DC. Theyāll at least finally be giving him his own arch enemy with the new series. And letās be honest: whatever your politics, 24 was a fantastic hour of television for most of its run. Further, at least the creators seem like theyāre thinking big. Their plan is for every issue to be an event people want to discuss, and cowriter Tom King specifically compared it to FXās The Americans.
The wild card King who, at least according to his official bio*, left the comics industry after 9/11 to work as a ācounterterrorism operations officerā for the CIA, and that purported experience will apparently inform Grayson. Whether that means Grayson will examine hard-won lessons from a decade of bad practices, or just offer up uncritical support for Jack Bauerās ethics, remains to be seen. Hereās hoping Dick Grayson doesnāt stop whatever heās doing to at least once an issue to explain to the reader why warrantless wiretapping of anyone is a good and noble thing, amirite?
But Iām less bothered by the potential for the series becoming a throwback to the early 00s, and more by the obvious fact that anyone whoās been to a movie in the last few years will immediately find all of this very, very familiar. DC, it seems, is chasing after Marvel, first via the introduction of its very own version of SHIELD, complete with moral ambiguity, and second with a longstanding hero forced to go underground in order to do the right thing, however itās defined in this series anyway. Theyāve even gone so far as to make Dick look suspiciously similar to Grant Ward from Marvelās Agents of SHIELD. Grayson is going to have say more than āME TOO, ME TOO GUYS!ā or itās going to land with a thud.
Of course Iām going to check this series out as soon as itās released, if only to find out how much of my cynicism is justified. But what about you, readers? Does this look like a classic in the making, a throwback to 2003, or a follow-the-leader race to the bottom middle? Sound off in comments.
Graysonās first issue will be released July 2.
Via USA Today.
* Naturally, the only publicly available information that confirms Kingās CIA employment is his official author bio. Forgive me if I remain skeptical of the length of nature of said employment until more information is available.
Published: Apr 17, 2014 4:58 AM UTC