IT'S
NIGHTWING MONTH!
Well, I've been informed that
it's Nightwing month at ol' DC Comics.
Maybe you guys would like my
perspective on the ex-Boy Wonder and how I came to be the writer
on his solo monthly.
Just before his own title was
launched Nightwing's creative team was still up in the air. It
was decided that Alan Grant and Denny O'Neil would share the
scripting chores on the book as each had recently completed limited
series featuring Dick Grayson.
Scheduling conflicts and the
weight of writing a monthly and being a Group Editor at DC forced
Denny to bow out. Alan also declined the assignment for reasons
known only to him and probably unfathomable to the rest of us
who are not clued into the Cosmic Big Picture as Alan is.
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Scott Peterson called me to ask
if I'd be interested in writing Nightwing as a monthly. And I
wouldn't have a lot of time to think about it as the first script
was due in three weeks. If I remember right I asked if I could
have a day or so to think about it. Scott told me the artist
would be Scott McDaniel and that got my attention. I'd seen Mr
McDaniel's work on a recent Two-Face movie tie-in book and liked
it. And I was even more impressed by Assassins, an Amalgam book
he worked on. Mr Peterson (too many Scotts in this story!) and
I were in agreement from the get-go that Nightwing should have
his own town. Scott said it should be named Bludhaven and I had
no objections. I'd had an idea for a new DCU city in mind for
a while and thrust Dick Grayson into a cast of already created
characters; Chief Redhorn, Dudley Soames and Cisco Blane. Blockbuster
was to be our ganglord.
Mr Peterson's only further proviso
was that this be an ACTION book and that Nightwing would pull
acrobatic stunts that Jackie Chan would never attempt and that
they take place in WILD settings filled with imminent DANGER.
Scott McDaniel was the perfect artist for this kind of stuff
with his trained engineer's eye for perspective and structure
and his talent for putting characters in the craziest (but still
physically possible) positions.
My
hook for the series was to make the subplots and characters as
dense as we could make them. I wanted James Ellroy type intrigue
with backstabbing and double and triple crosses. There was some
resistance to this as the idee fixe of the time was that readers
wanted arcs of no more than three issues. And here I wanted to
do subplots that would take an entire YEAR to play out. But I
stuck to my guns 'cause, in looking about the industry, I saw
that the longest running titles had dense storylines. And I wanted
Nightwing to have legs. I also knew that we had the potential
for a large female readership as Nightwing and Dick Grayson are
widely admired among the girls out there. And they weren't gonna
come back month after month unless there was a Story with a capital
"S".
The last thing to deal with was
my trepidation about the lead character himself. What did I know
about Dick Grayson? What right did I have to be his chronicler.
As Scott P. had pointed out, Nightwing was the most popular character
at DC who didn't have his own title. So the pressure was on.
Of course I knew Dick from his
Robin days. I grew up with the guy. In both Batman titles and
the TEEN TITANS (the first run by Nick Cardy et al) I'd followed
his adventures. I was less familiar with him when he became Nightwing
and led the Titans. He seemed kinda whiny in those days. But
then every character seemed kinda whiny back then. I wanted to
get past that aspect of his life.
This guy didn't have doubts.
He was a natural. The greatest athlete in the DCU. Nightwing
would take chances that Batman would back away from. And he didn't
have Bruce Wayne's baggage to deal with. Dick had avenged his
parents while still young. He was fightin' crime and bustin baddies
because he wanted to. No obsessed loner here.
Scotty P reminded me that I had
written a big chunk of Dick Grayson when he was filling for Batman
during the PRODIGAL crossover and that I seemed to have a handle
on him.
So it sorta fell out that we had two
big stories for that first year of the run. The most important
was establishing for the readers (and for Dick as well) that
Nightwing was entirely out of Batman's shadow. That he was a
hero in his own right. We dealt with his doubts and fears and
closed out the year with him having made a major dent in the
operations of the 'havens vicelords. He was lined up and ready
for the Batman appearance that started the next year.
The second big story was the
fall of Dudley Soames and the setting up of one of the weirdest
villains I've ever written.
From that first year Scott McDaniel
(along with Karl and John and Roberta) have built a totally cohesive
world for the former Boy Wonder and given him a book with a feel
that I think is unique to comics. It was one of those rare times
in my career where it all came together. After just a few issues
Mr McD and I were completing each others' sentences. We were
totally on the same track, sharing the same wavelength, rocking
to the same rhythm, skipping to…well, you get the idea.
And everyone else worked just as hard as we did to bring the
book to life. Karl Story's inks transformed Scott's nightmare
urban landscapes into textured realities. Roberta Tewes colored
a town that you could smell. And John Costanza provided lettering
that seemed to meld with the artwork and become a part of it.
I know I'm a lucky guy and blessed
by God 'cause I can look back on over three years of solid comics
that set the course for one of comicdom's most popular and enduring
characters. I guess I should thank Denny and Alan for stepping
aside for whatever reason.
Chuck
