Putting aside the issue of overdone cheesecake in All Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder #1 for a second, there remains the question of Miller’s reasons for:[ul]- depict such a dark, even ugly version of Gotham City,
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Bruce Wayne implied ongoing (and opportunistic) search for proteges, and
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the changes Miller made in the usual depiction of the death of the Flying Grayson’s.
[/ul]Looking over the first issue this morning, it occurred to me that Miller is revising Robin’s origins not so much in attempt to rework (and update, for the sensibilities of the day) the established myths, as he did with Daredevil and Batman in the late seventies, but to bring it in line with the continuity that other Batman writers established in his wake.
Lots of readers, here and elsewhere, have commented on the influence Miller had, not only on Daredevil (see the Millarworld poll comparing Bendis and Miller’s run on DD- http://www.millarworld.net/index.php?showtopic=51469 ) and Batman (see Jason’s Aiken’s article on that influence on his blog http://afinerworld2.blogspot.com/2005/07/i…c-universe.html ). There’s no question that Miller’s work on those two titles set the standard for the wave of revisionist takes in the DCU and the Marvel 616 Universe: Johns, Palmiotti and Gray’s reworking of Hawkman, the remade rogues gallery in the Flash, Brubaker’s take on Catwoman, Hudlin’s remaking of the Black Panther over at Marvel. [The complaints about Hudlin’s revision of the Panther origin still surprises me. In my opinion, he hasn’t taken any fewer liberties with established continuity than Miller had with Daredevil all those years ago, and sometimes makes me wonder about what they’re really complaining about.] Now, 20+ years later, the examples are too numerous to mention. Moreover those changes have accounted for some of the most interesting things to happen in the mainstream superhero genre since.
[The only other development that rivaling Miller’s accomplishment of the late seventies, has to be the concurrent “British Invasion” when Alan Moore sought to depict the implications of superheroes in a more ‘realistic’ environment with Miracleman and the Watchman graphic novel, which likewise opened the door to the work of other writers from the UK: Morrison, Ellis, Milligan, Ennis and Millar.]
It’s obvious that Miller is focusing on Dick Grayson’s journey, from talented daredevil acrobat and happy, secure child, to traumatized victim, to Robin, the Boy Wonder, Batman’s protégé and assistant in his turn on All Star Batman & Robin and, I would argue, every changes we’ve seen in the origin myth has been about speeding Dick Grayson’s transition along. In fact, Miller’s moving things along so fast, that I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s shown beating on criminals and flashing the the yellow cape, red jacket, green short shorts and pixie boots, by page 20 of All Star Batman & Robin #2.
When we first meet Robin, he’s about as happy as a child can be. He loves what he does, he’s secure in his parents embrace, and he has the almost daily approval of the crowds for his skills and talents. All that’s taken from him in seconds as his parents, are cut down in front of him. And although his parents have told him to trust authority, in the form of the police, everything he experiences in the next hour, tells him that his parents misplaced their faith. Gotham’s police are portrayed as a uniformly faceless occupying army that routinely intimidates citizens and sexually abuse women. Through Vicky Vale’s suspicions, the shots where a cop slaps her down, and other cops try to get Grayson to get him to deny that he saw that night, the reader is given to understand that corruption is so widespread in Gotham that cops routinely cover up crimes, even murder, and that the idea that they might beat, and otherwise abuse a child who just saw his parents die, isn’t hard for a local reporter to believe.
Dick sees all of this, and his recollection of his parents exhorting him to have faith in authority, suggests the death of his idealism and his growing anger. There is none of the confusion or bewilderment one would expect from the original version of Robin’s origin. (Did the Grayson’s fall?) The fact Dick’s parents were killed, and the idea the expected sources of protection and justice, in the form of the GCPD, would conspire to cover it up and force him to “forget” he saw the killer, is firmly established in the child’s mind (and along with his physical skills), making him the perfect new recruit for the obsessed Bruce Wayne’s mad crusade. This version of Dick Grayson will be more than willing to hop on board and get with the program, much as Cassandra Cain was virtually a ready made crimefighter when she showed up in Gotham City during Batman: No Man’s Land (except where she needed to learn acrobatics, Dick Grayson had to learn how to fight. Where she was motivated by guilt. Dick will be motivated, like Batman, at first by a need for revenge. She didn’t need to learn how to temper her skills. Dick will likely need to find reasons not to go overboard.)
As for this Bruce Wayne’s suspicious “talent scouting”, his being on the lookout for protege’s or assistants, may well be Miller’s attempt to retcon Batman’s willingness to bring in, not only Dick, but later on Jason Todd, Cassandra Cain, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown (despite his doubts) and eventually Carrie King and even (in the far flung future) Terry McGuinness. It may also be part and parcel of DC’s current renewed attempt at reinforcing continuity. Williams, Johnson and Fisher have an “early days” retelling of the origins of Victor Fries transision from Victor Fries to Mr. Freeze (in *Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #192, 193-on), which shows a young pre-Robin Batman recruiting a network of operatives, along the lines of the Shadows Network or Doc Savage’s assistants in the pulps. That this effort is obviously doomed to failure from the start, may well lead to a retelling of his decision to recruit closer assistants, like the not-yet orphaned (in that story) Dick Grayson.
