I watched the "Batman: Under the Red Hood" animated DVD (not for the kiddies!) and at the beginning, two defeated thugs helpfully give out expostion by telling us that Nightwing was the first Robin.
Is this true in the comic book DCU? I always thought that it wasn't common knowledge that Robin switched identities and Batman changed partners. From Dick to Jason to Tim to Stephanie to Damien, does the world know there's been five Robins?
Speaking of Nightwing, what is the current rationale behind his change? I know in "New Teen Titans", he gave up the Robin persona to find his own, independent path which lead to Nightwing. Then I read another where he got hurt fighting the Joker and Batman basically fired him as Robin, forcing him to get a new costumed identity. One makes it Dick's decision, the other makes him powerless. Guess which one I prefer?
Speaking of the Joker, after crippling Barbara Gordon, killing (temporarily) Jason Todd and murdering Commissioner Gordon's wife, among many, many others, is there ANY reason, beyond commercial, to keep him around?
As for Jason, I liked his Pre-Crisis backstory better, even if it's a repeat of Dick's. The angry street punk version is what got him killed in the first place, though I voted for him to live!
His first story was also Killer Croc's first, as well. And his finest. He was a brutal, strong, cold and cunning menace out to run the Gotham underground. He was far more effective then than as a Lizard clone!
Last question (for now): when did Dick and Barbara become the same age when she was a librarian while he was still in high school?
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By the magic of cut and paste, here's one answer from a recent SDCC panel:
"It doesn't matter. You must understand these people aren't real," Morrison said to laughter. "Batman is a mythical figure. I'm being funny, but I'm not being funny. They don't live in the real world. It's like this theory I've been developing – you know what they always say about kids? That kids can't distinguish between fantasy and reality. And that's actually bullshit. When a kid's watching 'The Little Mermaid,' the kids knows that those crabs that are singing and talking aren't really like the crabs on the beach that don't talk. A kid really knows the difference.
"Then you've got an adult, and adults can not tell the difference between fantasy and reality. You bring them fantasy, and the first thing they say is 'How did he get that way? Why does he dress like that? How did that happen?' It's not real. And beyond that, when you're dealing with characters, they exist on paper. They're real in that context. I always say they're much more real than we are because they have much longer lives and more people know about them. But we get people reading superhero comics and going, 'How does that power work? And why does Scott Summers shoot those beams? And what's the size of that?' It's not real! There is no science. The science is the science of 'Anything can happen in fiction and paper' and we can do anything.
"We've already got the real world. Why would you want fiction to be like the real world? Fiction can do anything, so why do people always want to say, 'Let's ground this' or 'Let's make this realistic.' You can't make it realistic because it's not. So basically Batman is 75 years old, and Robin is 74 years old. They don't grow old because they're different from us. They're paper people."
There is no reason, after all of the people he has murdered in very sadistic ways, that Jim Gordon or some other cop who is finally fed up shouldn't take a crowbar and beat the Joker's skull in.
But then again, I guess they are just paper people, and I can't get too upset over it unless I truly want to.
As for the Joker, what I dislike is that he can kill so casually and that no one can stop him. He seems to murder at will, with little thought. He can kill with any and all objects, even by making a phone call. Even in captivity, his mere glance is a death warrant despite precautions and restraints. Anyone near him can die, horribly, at any time. It's just not believeable that no one in Gotham City has the nerve to simply kill him. Get Deadshot, Deathstroke, Luthor, anyone!! He may be a homicidal maniac but he's still human. Why is he so unkillable?
Is it time for a new Joker?
Likewise, a feature which features a recurring villain who keeps committing murder on a significant scale with have a different feel to a feature in which the villains never kill, as Flash's rogues usually didn't back in the Silver Age. I don't like too much murder in my comics, but other readers like dark stories.
From what Grant Morrison says in the quote above, there doesn't have to be any such order to it, and whether it makes sense is irrelevant.
There is no reason that Lex Luthor is not serving consecutive life sentences.
There is absolutely, positively no reason for Norman Osborn to be anything other than a faded memory at this point.
Name pretty much any supervillain, and there's no reason for him or her not to be in jail until they're in their 80's at least.
I sincerely hope not. It certainly shouldn't be common knowledge.
Randy is right; Robin getting fired is a post-Crisis development.
The best answer to that question that I know of was provided by John Ostrander in an issue of The Spectre: Simply, The Joker is insane and thus not responsible for his actions, any more than a hurricane or other force of nature is responsible. (I said "best" answer; whether you find it satisfying is up to you.)
I agree. Pre-Crisis Jason Todd was an all-around much more likeable character.
Somewhere along the way, I don't know how, Killer Croc went from being just a thug with a bad skin condition to being some weird kind of half-human, half-lizard.
I think that's another post-Crisis development, the better to match them up as romantic partners. Whether or not that's a good idea is another matter.
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