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Dick Grayson’s dramatic potential lies in Robin changing into Nightwing. That makes Burt Ward’s basic flip as the unique Boy Wonder indispensable.
Dick Grayson by no means got here into his personal as a personality till he stepped out of his mentor’s shadow. The unique Robin — the veritable definition of superhero sidekick — could not correctly develop earlier than defining himself on his personal phrases. The dramatic prospects of Grayson rising uninterested in his early position are sometimes an excessive amount of to withstand and stalwart variations from the ever present Batman: The Animated Collection to Titans have delivered robust storylines round his “commencement” to Nightwing. With a bevy of extra Robins ready within the wings, Batman by no means has a scarcity of sidekicks, which helps Grayson additional outline himself by way of his journey.
In mild of all that, one popular culture portrayal of the character has turn out to be extra necessary than ever. Burt Ward got here to outline Dick Grayson for generations with the Batman TV collection, and within the course of cemented the picture of Robin in his early years. That gives very important context for the character’s later incarnations as Nightwing: displaying who and what Grayson was with out rehashing time as a loyal sidekick.
Burt Ward Stays The Definitive Robin
Grayson is actually the first-born of the Bat Household — Bruce Wayne’s eldest surrogate little one and his stalwart companion for many years within the comics. Ward introduced that to life when Batman first started airing in 1966. His earnest demeanor was an ideal match with Adam West’s deadpan tackle the Caped Crusader, and the pair had been inseparable onscreen. Regardless of the present’s overtly camp nature, Ward got here to embody every part nice about Grayson’s Golden Age incarnation, appearing as a sounding board for Bruce Wayne’s concepts and overlaying the hero’s again in the course of the ubiquitous struggle scenes that turned one of many present’s logos.
Grayson first turned Nightwing in 1984’s Tales of the Teen Titans #44 (by Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Mike DeCarlo, Dick Giordano, Adrienne Roy and Todd Klein). He formally left The Caped Crusader’s aspect in 1987’s Batman #408 (by Max Allan Collins, Chris Warner, Mike DeCarlo, Adrienne Roy and Todd Klein) when his substitute Jason Todd made his de facto debut. The timing requires some ret-conning — Crisis on Infinite Earths landed proper in the midst of the 2 points — however the change added a troubling cut up between hero and sidekick. After The Joker wounded Grayson, Wayne forbid him from changing into Robin, resulting in his eventual return as a solo superhero.
All of that occurred nicely after Ward had made his mark on the position, and TV variations quickly picked up on the dramatic potential supplied by the shift. Batman: The Animated Collection was the primary to depict Grayson as Nightwing with a extra bitter break-up between the 2 that introduced quite a lot of depth and nuance to the character. Subsequent reveals like Young Justice and Batman: The Courageous and The Daring adopted go well with, whereas Titans made Dick’s emergence as Nightwing a centerpiece of its second season. All of them discovered robust story components within the thought, and Grayson’s standalone heroics have doubtless reached important mass at this level. It is arduous to conceive of any new initiatives staying away from it.
Nightwing Makes Burt Ward’s Robin Indispensable
All the above makes Ward’s Robin all of the extra indispensable. The basic Batman collection’ endurance offers a powerful baseline for different efforts to play off of: depicting Wayne and Grayson in their very own “Golden Age” combating crime as a workforce. It permits later collection to skip previous that and transfer to their break-up extra shortly, not needing to linger past his origins with the dying of The Flying Graysons. Later reveals like The Animated Collection had been in a position to depict Grayson as an skilled superhero even earlier than he left the Robin mantle behind, with out leaving his preliminary years feeling ignored. And it readily opens a path for extra Robins reminiscent of Todd or standout Tim Drake — one thing Titans has taken prepared benefit of.
None of that will be attainable with out Ward, whose mild adventures with the Caped Crusader convey an instantaneous bundle of nostalgia. Grayson is commonly depicted as essentially the most optimistic and fun-loving of the Bat Household, and nobody can encapsulate that in addition to Ward did. With him, the character can transfer ahead in different variations with out worry, and future initiatives can profit from the ensuing narrative potential. There will not be one other one like him, which makes his flip within the position the ultimate phrase on Grayson’s beginnings.