The announcementof CW’s new show themed around a pre-Trapeze accident Dick Grayson (aptly titled “the Graysons”) has gotten quite a lot of response around the blogosphere.
WingedLion is naturally pessimistic:
Seriously, think about it for a second, how much you can strecth the story until Dick has to meet Batman and lose his parents? For that matter, how they expect to make the show when WB has been so adamant to don’t allow any Batman presence in SV or other shows (like ‘Birds of Pray’, where he was seminal) due the movies? It won’t work.
Don’t get me wrong, Dick Grayson is one of my favorite characters, but his story become interesting once he started training under Batman’s tutelage. Not before. You can get away with a show about Superman before he became Superman because a) Clark had superpowers since childhood, so that is your source of teenage angst, b) there is plenty of stories about Superboy where you can draw upon. Heck, the whole Legion of Superheroes is inspired in those stories. But Robin? Aside his amazing acrobatic skills, he is just a kid before being the Boy Wonder.
Nightwing of the Titans Tower Monitor Room has some ideas about how it could work:
So, what do I hope for as a Dick Grayson (or, “DJ” Grayson) fan? First and foremost, I think they need to nail down the character of DJ himself. He’s honest, loyal, smart, close to his family, intensively protective and dangerously curious. I think it’s also important to figure out ways to propel the stories. If it were up to me, I’d have the pilot episode take place days after the mysterious “Batman” sightings in Gotham City. Intrigued by this urban myth, fourteen year old DJ would intensely follow this larger-than-life hero’s adventures through newspaper and media. Inspired by this bold new hero, DJ would seek out trouble as Haley’s Traveling Circus rode from town to town, often embroiling himself in situations that would call upon his acrobatic abilities and burgeoning detective skills.
The show would track DJ’s progress, as he learns to become a hero. Tweaking the Robin/Batman timeline, the death of DJ’s parents would have to occur on the very last episode, where we would witness the origin of Robin. Whether this happens after 3, 5 or 7 years would depend on the popularity of “The Graysons.”
While Esther Inglis-Arkell laments the name change:
But it’s not just the end of a tradition that makes me weep, it’s the thought of what the dialog on the show could be. I’m not just talking about the ordinary day-to-day stuff like, ‘We want Dick. We need Dick. We love Dick,’ or ‘This won’t really be a party until we see Dick.’ Think of circus scenes!
“We can’t let dick fall!”
“Dick will never fall as long as we’re here.”
“Look at Dick go!”
“I didn’t even know Dick could *do* that.”
Think of the inevitable crawling-through-air-vents scene that comes up in every show that involves solving crimes.
“Dick needs to get deeper in.”
“Oh no! Dick’s stuck!”
“What will we do? I can’t call my parents for this!”
The list goes on. Changing the name is a mistake. Not only does it distance the character from his DC comics counterpart, it makes the show more difficult to write. An hour-long episode about a character named DJ? That’s a tough row to hoe with an implement not suited to hoeing. A show about The Flying Dick And His Many Adventures? That pretty much writes itself.
So what do you think?
October 5th, 2008 at 10:44 am
Dude , all your “Dick” jokes just prove that you need to get laid. Give the show a chance and then judge it not before you see even one episode.
October 5th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
You know that the Dick jokes were a link from another blog, right?
October 5th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
:jonny:
A women posted this. Melissa Kraus. You see ‘Variations’ is a section about other peoples opinions on the latest media/comic news. These are blog posts compiled into one post.
NOW do you get it?
October 5th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Not to mention, the other blog the “Dick” jokes were drawn from was also written by a woman, ostensibly, seeing as the blogger’s name is Esther. Maybe Esther’s suffering from a shortage of Dick, but you still wouldn’t call her “dude.” At least I wouldn’t
As for not judging until you’ve seen the show, fair enough. Still, I don’t see lightning striking twice with a rehash of the Smallville concept. That show has Superman (sort of). But Robin? Robin’s just not that interesting.
A lot of people don’t even like the character (I’m talking Dick Grayson/Robin now, not Nightwing or Tim Drake), and for those that do how much mileage can you get out of his pre-Robin days? A circus family just stumbles into crime and corruption everywhere they go each week? Maybe, but it seems like an awfully thin premise.
Is he just going to happen to stumble into other DC characters, like young Clark has? I never watched Smallville, but having all those not-quite Justice Leaguers show up seems awfully gimmicky. Having a version of the Legion show up might have made more sense. If they don’t let the producers acknowledge the Batman mythos in any way (they never let Smallville or Birds of Prey), that might seriously limit what the show can do.
Eh, who knows? It might work, in the same way that Smallville has somehow managed to last as long as it has. I’m just not certain how young “DJ” will be or who exactly the audience for this show is supposed to be.
October 8th, 2008 at 3:45 am
jonny quest: Thank you for your interest in the Variations column. In fact the other commenters are correct. The point of the Variations post is to showcase a variety of opinions from various places of internet fan commentary (usually from blogs or livejournals).
I am also, as has been asserted, female. And while I do not normally comment on the posts I link/excerpt in this column, personally, I thought the jokes were funny.
October 9th, 2008 at 10:22 am
And I didn’t think they were funny. That’s the reason most people think that comics fans are immature , I think that you can do better than that.
October 9th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
As I said on another site, it’s rather pointless to bash the show before it has even been made, let alone seen. I seem to recall people vehemently opposed to Michael Keaton being cast to play Batman but he seemed to pull it off rather nicely! I’m willing to give the show a try before making a judgement call. As for the whole “Dick” joke thing, which is already wearing thin,unless his full legal name is Dick James Grayson, it just doesn’t make sense & I would be furious if my parents named me that anyway! “RJ” maybe, but not “DJ”. And my best friend in high school was named Richard & my mom was dating a man named Richard at the same time & noone ever called either of them anything but Richard! What’s wrong with just calling him Richard? As for the inclusion or exclusion of Batman himself, it could be a potential problem, but again, we’ll just have to wait & see, won’t we?
October 11th, 2008 at 12:08 am
nuff said !
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