The Secret Comic Book Origins of the Nerds That Geek - Joel's Story: Part 2

Written by Joel T. Lewis

'Batman' #514 - 'Prodigal' Part 9: 'One Night in the War Zone'

‘Prodigal’ Part 9 was a one-shot story in the middle of a rather lengthy arc wherein Dick Grayson fills in for Bruce Wayne as the Dark Knight for the very first time. I’ve found from my recent Comixology-fueled research that the preceding 8 issues of the arc focused on the insecurity of Dick stepping into the role and going up against perhaps his first and worst foe Two-Face. But in this issue, we see Dick face off against 3 gimmick-less killers in the Battergate Burrow, affectionately known to Gotham’s finest as ‘The Warzone.’ With no costumed baddies, no larger conspiracy plot, and no Robin, this issue is all about Dick testing himself against the underworld proper of Gotham City. We see him pushing himself to see if he is indeed worthy of wearing the symbol of the bat over his chest, to see if he’s capable of the dedication and stamina necessary to sustain the Batman’s crusade. This reinforced in me early on that other people could step into the role of Batman, and introduced me to one of my favorite things in Batman comics: Dick Grayson as Batman.

​Dick is my favorite Robin, he’s my favorite member of the Bat-Family, and he’s also my favorite Batman. Even though this issue was my introduction to the acrobat donning the cape and cowl, I didn’t enjoy reading it the way I would Batman: The Black Mirror years later for a number of reasons. I’ve never really been a fan of the artwork, (which is in no way a dig, just a subjective opinion), I didn’t find the villains particularly interesting (three street level murderers weren’t as flashy to me), and knowing that there were 8+ issues left of the story that I hadn’t read didn’t help either. But what it imparted to me was how competent Grayson’s Batman was, how much Bruce asking him to take over meant to him, and the lengths to which he was willing to go to fill the role entrusted to him by his mentor.

You really feel the weight of the Batman crusade in this issue. After the 8 issue slog of handling the larger Two-Face plot that I’ve only recently read in full, Dick feels, as most of us would, that the closure of that caper should mean a break for the caped crusader. Even after dispatching the 3 escaped murderers in this issue Batman hears 3 new gunshots and a distant scream puncture the false tranquility of the night. There is no closure for Batman. The mission is never-ending, and Grayson even says in this issue that there’s only one man who’s cut out for the endless sequence of screams, vengeance, and justice that Gotham breeds and needs, and he’d better come back soon. 

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This issue offers a really interesting voice for Dick Grayson as his internal monologue turns towards self-examination. I didn’t understand the value of these words from page 18 upon my first reading of this issue, but the weight they carry hits all the harder now, ‘Blew it with the Titans...Lost my way as Nightwing. I’m too old to be Robin...and being the Batman on a grim tour like this certainly isn’t me. But what is? What am I? Other than a reluctant grunt in a foreign war zone.’ The connection between this self-analysis of identity, this confusion of roles in Grayson here and Jean Paul Valley in the first issue I looked at in this series, is a pretty staggering coincidence. Both are members of the Bat-Family who’ve taken the mantle of the bat and feel a strong connection between their success or failure under that cowl with how they perceive their own identities. The through-line of the Batman’s impact on identity and self-reflection between these two issues cemented that commentary in my mind as central to the Batman mythos. The impact of this traumatic construct, how poorly it fits people who didn’t create it, and the ways those outsiders try to adapt it as a result of that poor fit is very much where my fascination with the character lies.
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Though the artwork of this issue didn’t really blow my hair back as a child, looking back at it now there are some iconic panels from artist Ron Wagner that are worthy of praise. Seeing Hsui Cheung in motion as he brains his former associates with TV sets and tosses deadly shurikens is really impressive and compelling and there is a particular panel where Dick pauses a moment before descending into crumbling Battergate Burrow which is striking in its texture and squalor. Also, there is a particularly funny sequence wherein the drug lord Bonaventure Strake finds his fist stuck in the bell of a pawn shop sousaphone that’s always tickled me and the panels from page 18 that I quoted above have very clear simple lines, leaning on the strength of the caped crusader’s silhouette to mirror the deep contemplative tone of Grayson’s internal monologue.

This issue hammered home the idea that there is no end to the Dark Knight’s mission, that though I would close the cover of the comic and go away from Gotham for a while, while the book remained closed a man dressed as a Bat would continue to battle a city whose primary exports, gunshots and screams, would never be in short supply. Also, I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that this would have been my first exposure to author Doug Moench, who I would later fall in love with as the creator of Moon Knight (which might be the reason old Moonie felt so familiar to me). In the next chapter of my comic book origin story I’ll discuss an issue that always threatened to go over my head. Part 2 of 3 of an arc guest starring Boston Brand’s Deadman and sporting a lengthy analysis of the ‘Principle of Non-Locality’, Batman #531 is a really unique counterpoint to the issues I’ve already covered. Until Next Time, Geek On!

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