Bruce Wayne is Batman, and although some others have temporarily filled his cowl over the decades, fans always knew that they were just keeping it warm until Bruce came back. And other people have worn the cape, from the unstable Jean-Paul Valley to the ever-reliable Jim Gordon, and while they have their own place in the mythos, no one has ever embodied what Batman stands for anywhere near as well as Bruce. With the exception of one person, that is. After Bruce’s supposed death in Infinite Crisis, Dick Grayson took over the mantle. He didn’t just stand in as Batman, he made the identity his own and evolved the character in a way that desperately needed it. I love Bruce as Batman so, so much, but I think that if Dick never gave up the role he’d be an even better Batman than Bruce ever was.
Dick Was Made to Be Batman
Ever since the start of his career as Robin, Dick Grayson was meant to be Batman. Until the day Dick broke off from Bruce and stopped being Robin, it was just assumed that when the day came for Bruce to retire his young ward would take up the cowl to continue fighting crime in his place. Of course, the introduction of Jason Todd, other subsequent Robins, and Dick’s own superhero identity as Nightwing threw a wrench into those plans. By the 1990s, Bruce and Dick’s relationship had completely deteriorated, to the point that when Bane broke Bruce’s back and needed someone to become the new Batman, he felt like he couldn’t ask Dick to step back into his shadow. However, after the two finally reconciled after they worked together to stop the crazed Jean-Paul. The following “Prodigal” storyline showed Dick becoming Batman while Bruce rethought his life, and all but promised the future where Dick would eventually become the Dark Knight himself. It felt like a homecoming, not just to see Dick return to Bruce’s good graces, but as an assurance of his inheritance.
However, as much as Dick was willing to fill in for Bruce, he didn’t want to give up his identity as Nightwing. He loved being Nightwing, and had worked hard to establish himself as his own man, not just Batman’s former sidekick. Nowadays, Nightwing is one of DC’s premier superheroes, so it’s safe to say that he did what he set out to do. But still, even if Dick didn’t want to be Batman, and the fact that in Bruce’s will he begged Dick not to take up the mantle, when the time came for someone to step and fill Bruce’s shoes, Dick did it. He became Batman, and he didn’t just excel at being Batman, he completely reinvented what the hero was all about.
Dick Evolved Batman
Under Bruce, the Batman identity was always a symbol of fear. He set out to save Gotham City by instilling terror into the superstitious hearts of its criminals, and he more than succeeded in that, but he never truly felt comfortable in his attempted role as a symbol of hope. For Bruce, he inspired hope by showing how you could use your pain to step up and be better, and is truly a hero who runs on hope, but Bruce can’t hold a candle to Dick in that regard. Not only did Dick manage to maintain the aura of fear Batman cultivates in cowardly criminals, but he did so without letting the public become afraid of him. Dick balanced inspiring fear and awe in the hearts of everyone in Gotham and beyond in a way that Bruce never could have imagined, elevating Batman from his legendary status to something even greater. Dick is just as skilled as Bruce and you can clearly see Bruce’s influence in everything he does, but his outlook and way of tackling problems brought a freshness to Batman stories that simply can’t be had with Bruce. Reading stories with Dick Grayson as Batman was both breathtakingly refreshing and incredibly familiar, managing to ride a line between old and new without alienating audiences who wanted either.
Beyond what he brought as an individual, Dick inheriting the title of Batman lifted the Caped Crusader into something much more than just another superhero. Batman became a legacy, an immortal name that would persist until his mission was complete, the eternal protector of the innocent. It gave Batman a grandiose aura, like we were entering an age where we watched the next chapter of Batman’s story, like we were at the start of a grand epic. Even when Bruce came back and became Batman again himself, Dick didn’t step away from the role. He was encouraged to continue being Batman as he had made the identity his own, which let Bruce bring the idea of Batman to the rest of the world with Batman Incorporated. Under Dick, Batman evolved to be more than he ever was before.
Unfortunately, we only got a few criminally short years of Dick as Batman before the New 52 reset him back to being Nightwing. I love Dick as Nightwing and I love Bruce as Batman, they’re two of my favorite heroes of all time, but it’s impossible to deny that Dick brought something to the cowl that Bruce never could. Dick made Batman feel new again, and they had hardly begun to scratch the surface of that storytelling potential before they took it away. I would love to see Dick take up the role again in a more permanent fashion, because Dick Grayson proved that he is Batman, just as much as Bruce.
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