So Examiner has an interesting interview with Chuck Dixon, discussing his tenure with Robin and Nightwing. He discusses some stuff, such as his distaste with Spoiler’s short-lived death, as well as his struggle to keep Tim Drake’s father alive despite all requests to the contrary… but this quote really stuck out, when discussing what his future goals were for the one-time Boy Wonder and current Red Robin:
My plan was to have Tim quit as Robin and become the new Blue Beetle under Ted Kord’s guidance. Batman would pick Steph to take on Robin’s role. Tim would then be featured in a six-issue mini as Blue Beetle until events in the Batbooks would bring him back to the fold. The idea coming out of this would be a BB ongoing in which Ted gets the idea to create what amounts to a Blue Beetle franchise. He creates what amounts to Blue Beetle Inc and has a representative in every DCU city. I was shot down on this one over and over. As soon as I left the title they did a kind of pale version of the story I had been proposing for more than a year.
Imagine what would have happened then, eh? As cool as that could have been with Dixon behind the wheel, I refuse to imagine a comicsverse without Jaime Reyes. You can read the rest of the interview here.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
“Current Red Robin…” Educated guess or…
I do think Tim would have made a great Blue Beetle – especially a Ted Kord-styled Beetle.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
You said:
“I refuse to imagine a comicsverse with Jaime Reyes.”
Did you mean to write “without” or do you really hate the Jaime Reyes character that much?
March 30th, 2009 at 6:15 pm
I’m hoping you meant to say “I refuse to imagine a comicsverse withOUT Jaime Reyes.”
He is without a doubt the best character that DC has produced lately, much better than the female Question or Batwoman, and certainly more interesting than any of the multitude of Teen heroes that have sprung up in recent years.
March 30th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
I’d have shot that down, too. Really, he wanted to make Tim Drake go from Robin to Blue friggin’ Beetle?
Did he think that would make more money or something?
March 30th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
I happen to like Jaime Reyes, his family, and his friends. His Blue Beetle was one of my favorite monthly comics.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
I understand his logic, I could see Dixon-era Tim becoming Blue Beetle.
But for only six issues and then Ted Kord makes a franchise? No, I don’t think that’s a terribly good idea at all.
What we got was a much better idea and I can’t wait to start getting my monthly dose of Blue Beetle again in Booster Gold.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
The sentence actually only makes sense if ‘with’ is ‘without’ but it’s nice to see people leap to Jaime’s defence since he’s such a great character.
March 31st, 2009 at 2:24 am
What the heck is wrong with DC? They can’t get anything right Bat books-wise, and Dixon, consistently delivering great Batman comics, gets fired in favor of… more stunt story telling. Hey look, Jason Todd is back. And Batman is time traveling or dead (depending on each follow-up title needs to function)!
Time… traveling… What happened to the urban vigilante?
March 31st, 2009 at 4:45 am
Batman is more versatile than just “urban vigilante”, I hope.
And, this was almost a good idea. I mean, I like Jaime Reyes so I still want him around. But I also like the idea of Tim and Bruce having a falling out, and Tim becoming a different hero. I just don’t like the bit about “Blue Beetle Agency” or whatever. Should’ve given it a different ending and let the story go ahead. Editorial definitely dropped the ball on that one.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:24 am
I disagree. I think the idea of a super-hero founding a self-styled “Green Lantern Corps” on Earth by franchising his identity to cities that don’t already have heroes, is pretty darn cool. A Blue Beetle for St. Louis, Atlanta or Seattle… I think that’s a good idea. I don’t know if it’s something that can carry a title by itself, but I think it’s kinda cool.
March 31st, 2009 at 7:37 am
@ Dork… You’re not a dork, BTW. You’re right on with what you had to say. I may not have liked Dixon’s politics, but I he mostly kept that out of his works that I’ve read and he was one helluva Bat-book writer. I agree with you about the “urban vigilante” part.
I mean, no, he’s not JUST that… He’s also a detective, a philanthropist, and many other things too, but it seems like the Didio regime has taken Batman so far away from what’s best about the character (or simply taken him off the table altogether). You’d think the way the public responded to TDK (the movie) last year would give DC some hints as to what works for Batman.
It saddens me that Batman Begins brought me back to comics, but now my pull list has shrunk to only a handful of books and none of them are Bat-books. Aside from the occasional arc in the out-of-continuity Batman Confidential that is, and even that book is incredibly hit and miss.
March 31st, 2009 at 8:01 am
DC Should’ve taken advantage of having Chuck Dixon as a “creative director” for a line of books. A true professional that is always ahead of schedule with his scripts, cares about tradition and the characters, plus he knows the business end as well. He has never failed to entertain and produce compelling stories where the characters come first.
Beau Smith
The Flying Fist Ranch
March 31st, 2009 at 10:44 am
Jamie Reyes is a great character and if he was not around and Ted was alive this would have been a great idea Heck, they could have worked around it by using another character or creating a new one to create the super hero franchise.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Dixon sounds like he knows what’s what when it comes to maintaining corporate-owned characters. It’s too bad he supports torture, though.
March 31st, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Oh lord, are we back to judging people’s art by their beliefs again? I suggest if you want to do some real good in this arena, you vow to NEVER support any creator that drinks socially or seriously, as they support the alcohol industry and their money is used in part to advertise to young people, not to mention alcohol is responsible for far more violence and deaths than torture ever has been. I just think if you’re going to take a stand against a creator, do it for something they do, and something their money helps support, rather than something esoteric like “supporting torture.” Come on, man up – you can do it. Yes, it will severely limit your funnybook purchases, but you seem to be a internet handle that has principles and stands by them.
March 31st, 2009 at 3:55 pm
This Blue Beetle idea was, like, a decade before Jaime Reyes was a glimmer in his creator’s eye. So this isn’t a diss on that character in any way. This was an idea for a character that was instead left in limbo and then shot dead.
Thanks, Shaun. I agree with what you said too. It’s like DC isn’t even looking to what has gone right with Batman in the past and currently.
Beau Smith, you’re on the money. Dixon’s a pro, knows serialization, and knows working with other creators without constraining them.
People talk about classic eras of Spider-Man, and now Marvel is trying to recapture that magic (but sadly, not doing everything they can to capture the market), but Dixon had that same magic running, with modern sophistication in comics storytelling, for longer than Spider-Man did, in Robin and Nightwing for… pushing 200 issues combined.
March 31st, 2009 at 5:16 pm
@ Brad: I don’t think “John” (if that is his name…) said anything about boycotting the guy. Even if he had, that’s his choice. I can put Dixon’s politics aside when reading his stuff because he does good work, and, as others here have said, he’s on time, reliable, and he puts the characters first. Sadly, those are all qualities that apparently get you shown the door if you’re working for the Didiot.
But if John wanted to boycott his work due to Dixon’s politics, that his choice. Just like I’d never buy a Ted Nugent record (OK, bad example since his music sucks anyhow) or Bill O’Reilly’s boycotting of Sean Penn movies now. In each case, who cares?
At any rate, I think your suggestion of not supporting anyone who drinks alcohol is silly, since how would you know? Oh, and if you decide not to associate with anyone who drinks, in any amount, you might end up a really lonely person with few or no friends and family members left to talk to.
But I can understand, and respect, John if he were to boycott (not that he’s said that he was doing any such thing)… I mean we, as a country, did enter into the Geneva Conventions in good faith and then decided to ignore all of that when it inconvenienced us. Not one of this nation’s proudest accomplishments.
Holy sh*t… How did we get so far off topic? Back to your regularly scheduled blog, folks!
March 31st, 2009 at 5:19 pm
@ Dork: Great point, once again, about the kind of sustained runs Dixon put together working on Robin and Nightwing… You probably won’t see the likes of that at DC again so long as Didio’s running the show (into the ground).
I’d really looked forward to the relaunching of Batman & The Outsiders too, but of course that quickly fell apart with Dixon’s departure. Sad.
April 1st, 2009 at 6:56 pm
I notice that the author of the post changed the “with” to “without” without acknowledging the mistake (here or as an amendment to the original post) or correction.
School on Saturday, man. School on Saturday. Also, teacher out of work.