Tim Seeley's GRAYSON

[HighFivingMF]

Dick Grayson is trading his superhero suit for secret-agent cool.

Batman's former sidekick embarks on a new life as an undercover superspy in the comic book Grayson, an action-adventure series premiering July 2 from DC Comics. It's written by Tim Seeley (Revival) and Tom King, a former CIA counterterrorism operations officer.

After a career of being overshadowed by his cape-and-cowled father figure, this is a chance for Grayson "to take off the mask and step out on his own in a world where he's not simply being another hero like the hero he grew up with," King says.

A character who first appeared in 1940, Grayson was the original Robin to Bruce Wayne's Dark Knight. He went solo as Nightwing in the 1980s and also served as Batman for a time, when Wayne was thought dead.

The current Nightwing series ends with Issue 30, due May 28. In the current Forever Evil event series, Dick Grayson has been outed in a villain-infested landscape as Nightwing and captured by the Crime Syndicate of Earth 3. (He's also seemingly murdered, but it doesn't take.)

Batman, though, wants him to transition to a different heroic life for the greater good — it's "a hard sell," Seeley says — and tells him why he needs his former partner to stay dead, not only to the world at large but to Batgirl, Alfred Pennyworth and the rest of the "Bat-family."

"Obviously, he's a part of a legacy," Seeley says. "He's been Robin, he's been Batman, and now he's out in the cold by himself."

Adds King: "He's doing something that's going to cause pain to his friends and family, but he believes in the cause. That tension between having to do something good but having the cost of it being pain to his family, it drives him a little crazy."

Grayson's new employer is the international spy agency Spyral, an organization created by writer Grant Morrison for his Batman, Incorporated series. King sees it as representative of today's intelligence community: They're the people who stop bad guys from doing bad things, yet to do that, they employ questionable tactics such as mind erosion.

"He has to save the world, but he's dealing with an organization that may go beyond his comfort zone," King says.

Seeley likes putting Grayson in this strange position, working for a group "that purports to be on the side of the angels, but clearly, there's some weird stuff going in. Their penchant for manipulation instantly makes them nefarious."

King, who started working for the CIA after 9/11, intends to bring to Grayson the emotional feel for what it's like to work undercover, have bullets shot at you and cope with the the inherent pressure of being an intelligence agent.

"It's bliss to serve a higher cause and save people," he says, but "the hard part of it is it's tough to go home and lie to your family and pretend to be a different person."

For the supporting cast, Seeley is planning to reintroduce some familiar DC characters but also to create a new mythos for Grayson, including his own archenemy.

"He's always been a character who hasn't had a villain associated with him," King says. "We want to give him his Lex Luthor, his Joker."

Also, Grayson is one of the few superheroes "who is considered a sex symbol by ladies," Seeley says. "We're leaning into that."

At the very least, he is getting a wardrobe makeover, courtesy of Grayson artist Mikel Janin: Gone is Grayson's mask, and his new outfit reflects the blue-and-black color scheme of his Nightwing togs and features a "G" on his chest, reminiscent of the old "R" from his Robin days.

In terms of tone, Seeley describes Grayson as a "world-hopping" action comic, and King wants every issue to feel like a TV episode of Mad Men or Breaking Bad in that it causes a conversation.

"It's DC's The Americans," King says. "This is something where, at the end of it, you have to go and talk about it."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2014/04/14/grayson-comic-book-series/7480853/

 

[Gee]

Looking forward to it.

 

[Harry Dresden]

I like this.

I love when writers and creators send characters into unexpected directions.

 

[BlackMagicWolf]

Um, Deathstroke has always been associated with Nightwing. You need no more proof than Teen Titans for that.

Not sure I like the thought of him being dipped towards that kind of "symbol" we have enough of those already.

 

[Hush]

Deathstroke is an enemy of the Titans not Dick specifically.

 

[Charlie Boy]

I don't know. I'll pretty much read anything involving Dick Grayson, but this could wind up being like when they had Diana ditch her tiara and star spangled trunks in place of a white pant suit and karate moves.

 

[Naked Shia]

This is great news. It's indeed a bold and new direction, it follows up Inc, and it's the promise of a real sense of adventure. I'm sure I will dig it!

 

[Hush]

I don't know. I'll pretty much read anything involving Dick Grayson, but this could wind up being like when they had Diana ditch her tiara and star spangled trunks in place of a white pant suit and karate moves.

I feel like this will be better due to the fact that Dick is just a normal guy who doesn't have Godlike powers unlike diana.

 

[Charlie Boy]

Yeah, I know... I was just using that as an example of a huge misstep for a character who's so hard to screw up... But I'm in for 'GRAYSON'. He's one of my favorite DC characters, I love spy stories, I'm interested to see where this goes.

 

[Drz]

Winter Soldier becomes Captain America, from spy to hero.

Nightwing becomes an international agent of Spyral, from hero to spy.

Fun comparison. :b

 

[LEVITIKUZ]

What the?

[YT]BJfE-W6FqmM[/YT]

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

So those rumour from months ago were right.

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

I'm hesitant to support this. But Dick is in my top 5 comic characters so I will definitely be picking it up. Just hope it's still Dick and he's not killing people. Dick Grayson has never approved of killing for justice.
Even when Blockbuster was murdered by Tarantula way back when, he basically became suicidally depressed over not intervening. So he holds these morals very closely.

 

[Naked Shia]

killing as a vigilante is not the same as killing in this line of work, or as a cop though. I guess he will always do his best to avoid killing anyway.

 

[Charlie Boy]

Did he ever kill anyone in the line of duty when he was a cop?

 

[Naked Shia]

I didn't read enough of his pre new 52 nightwing series to answer that. But I could imagine him doing that off panel, or at least using his gun to stop someone.

 

[Cain]

I'm interested. Anything has to be better than the last volume of Nightwing.

 

[guitarsingerguy]

I wonder if any of the family will pick up the Nightwing mantle and turn it into a legacy type situation.

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

I don't believe he ever shot anyone as a cop. I think he rarely ever took out his gun. That series was so good. It's all available on Comixology if you wanna read it. His cop days were usually just a way for him to stay informed about crime and add a little secret identity drama to the mix, which it did expertly.

I could easily see him in this new series as the guy you send in to retrieve information without anyone knowing about it. No bloodshed at all, but that wouldn't last long because a silent and boring comic that would be if that's all it was.

This is why I am not writing comics...not creative enough.

 

[Tao43]

I will give this a chance, but I am not optimistic. I almost would have preferred if Dick became Talon instead. Hopefully it leads to him reclaiming the Nightwing mantle at some point.

I am a little fed up with Grayson seemingly getting shafted though. He has been around since 1940 and nobody at DC knows how to handle the character anymore. In my own opinion, he hasn't been the same since Chuck Dixon left the original ongoing. The only growth since then was when he was Batman under Morrison and Snyder. Once the flashpoint nonsense, he has been floundering. The basically made him a total rookie again, took away two of his best friends(Wally West and Donna Troy), limited his time as Robin, and erased his time with the Teen Titans.

Wonder if this idea had anything to do with Higgins leaving his solo title?

 

[Charlie Boy]

Just about every character who isn't Batman, Superman, GL, or Flash has been shafted in some way since the New 52 relaunch.

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

i disagree. Captain Cold and Luther have become so badass since New52. What about Aquaman? He's become a epic again.

 

[Naked Shia]

I disagree about the popular stance "the new 52 is evil". And I'm looking forward about Grayson. at least, he won't have half his issues be tie-ins to Snyder's crossovers.

 

[Charlie Boy]

i disagree. Captain Cold and Luther have become so badass since New52. What about Aquaman? He's become a epic again.

I'm not trying to start a whole thing here, I'm just saying that by and large, a lot of people weren't happy with the New 52 portrayals of the characters. Fans have since simmered, but still.

 

[HELL N' SPIDERS]

So I haven't been able to read anything after issue 1 of this. Is it any good? I miss nightwing but am hopeful that they have kept true to Dick's character.