Summary
Spoilers for World’s Finest: Teen Titans #1!In DC Comics, Dick Grayson aka Nightwing, and his overbearing mentor, Batman, have a somewhat strained relationship that forced Dick to strike out on his own and dig deeper into his super group of friends professionally known as the Teen Titans. And now, in a throwback tale that fills in their early days, Nightwing, then holding the mantle of Robin, is shown to be missing essential skills that, thanks to Batman, stop him from being the effective leader he needs to be in the moment.
A character that doesn’t show emotion as much as he probably should, Batman, despite his penchant for brooding alone in darkly lit places, craves the liveliness and love of the ever-growing network of Gotham-based heroes known as the Bat-Family.
And although he has gained some much-needed emotional intelligence from the likes of Tim Drake’s Robin, Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl, and even from his similarly emotionally stunted son, Damian Wayne, Bruce was in no way prepared nor capable of passing on these same impassioned skills when training Dick, leaving him without the imperative knowledge of how to act as a supportive, empathetic, and compassionate friend and leader.
Batman Didn’t Teach Dick Grayson How To Be Empathetic
A set of skills Nightwing is shown not to have in World’s Finest: Teen Titans #1, by Mark Wait and Emanuela Lupacchino, this issue sees Green Arrow protégé Roy Harper aka Speedy, as he argues with Dick’s Robin, and offhandedly mentions, “My home life is awesome. All is great.” Of course, fans already know from Speedy’s DC Comics history that his home life is anything but “awesome,” considering it isn’t long after these events that Speedy turns to drugs to ease the pain of not only the physical toll of being a superhero at such a young age but to address the friction and abandonment Roy felt in his and Green Arrow’s relationship, struggles that drag him into a downward spiral that not even Dick can help him out of.
Maybe if Nightwing could have more accurately read the situation here or the dozens of times Roy secretly cried out for help before his fall, he might have been able to give Roy the extra support he needed, instead ultimately becoming one of the few situations Batman didn’t prepare Dick for. Not surprising that Dick learned compassion and empathy later in his career, what is surprising is that while Batman is all about discipline, he’s terrible at interpersonal relationships. Constantly refusing to trust or give slack to his allies and never properly communicating with or accurately assessing the emotional states of anyone other than the people he’s trying to put in jail, this mindset ended up trickled down to a young Dick in a way that ensured he could never be the well-rounded character he eventually became as Nightwing.
Nightwing Could Have Been A Better Leader With More Compassion
Later on, when he needed to shed the role of Robin and become his own hero, Dick had to fill in the holes in Batman’s training on his own, fortunately able to do so with great success. And while Batman still has a relatively long way to go before he’s the personable guy some people want him to be, Nightwing has embraced the empathy and compassion he lacked in his youth, making him a true leader the heroes of DC can count on.
World’s Finest: Teen Titans #1 is now available from DC Comics.
