I can't quite bring myself to call him Batman, you know*? Maybe I could use "Batman", because if it was good enough for Bane to use when Jean Paul took on the mantle, it's good enough for me to use towards Nightwing, right?
Seangreyson suggested that "Batman" might have come on so aggressive towards Booster because he was sure Batman would have something in place to stop a time traveler from breaking into the Batcave, yet he clearly did not, and that puts some pressure on Grayson to make certain Booster doesn't abscond with his file**. That makes a lot of sense. Dick Grayson's only been Batman for about five minutes (discounting previous stints), it really wouldn't look good for him to let the Cave be robbed already. And if the thief was Booster Gold, well, that's just embarrassing. Damien would never let him live it down***.
There's also a jokey reason for Dick Grayson to be acting that way, and it still involves living up to Bruce's example. Remember, Batman has a tradition of appearing in other characters' books and being rude to them, telling them to get out of the costumed hero business, making decisions that affect their lives without consulting them first, and generally acting as though they should be damned fortunate he didn't knock them out on the spot for being so incompetent. So Dick has quite a past record to measure up to. He was even practicing before he took over as Batman. He showed up in Secret Six #9 and chewed Bane, Catman, and Ragdoll out for how they stopped the "kidnapping of important capitalist children" plot. Now that he has taken over, he's stepping up his game since he progressed from making ominous threats (that he probably couldn't back up) to actual physical violence. Which is a bit much, perhaps, but hey, he's still settling into the role. I'm sure he'll find the proper balance soon.
* Might be similar to how I never really think of Ben Reilly as Spider-Man. I don't know whether it's because I don't expect Dick Grayson to stick as Batman, anymore than Ben ultimately did as Spider-Man, or if it's because both of them had their own identities previously, and those are the ones I think of them by.
** Something I liked from the issue was how casual Booster seemed about realizing who was wearing the cowl. He figured out it wasn't the Batman he talked to about his time travel work, but when he deduced who it really was, he seemed almost disappointed, like he expected someone cooler to have taken over. It was almost a diss, with the 'Oh. Nightwing. Grayson.' I half expected a follow up dismissive "pfft".
*** I wish Damien had been there. It would have been great to see Skeets tase the little snot, or ram him.
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3 comments:
It's true. Dick has huge levels of ass-hattery to aspire to. Plus, I just don't believe that he thinks very highly of Booster anyway...like a lot of the heroes. As I recall, he wasn't a hell of a lot of help waaaaaay back when Ted was looking for help in the original Countdown either.
At least Booster's old buddies from the JLI still like him.
sallyp: I imagine you're right about most of the heroes not thinking much of Booster, his JLI teammates being the exceptions, because they're intelligent folks.
Still, I would think that time he saved Metropolis from the exploding nuclear sub during 52 would have earned him a few points. Maybe the fact he didn't actually die like he appeared cost him, though.
Actually, I think that a fair number of people still think that Booster IS dead. He's been fairly low-key about telling everyone that he's actually alive, although certainly, the JLA knows about it. So probably Dick does too.
But let's face it, Dick is probably feeling just a tad insecure himself.
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