A First Time For Everything: Dick Grayson

The first time I really met Dick Grayson? Well that wasn’t a Batman comic. Look, I had read Batman comics. And there was Robin, and I guess he was Dick Grayson but it didn’t really stick. It was Batman, it was Robin, and that was that. But then I caught, in the back of another book – I think it was DC Comics Presents – around 1980 (I read it a bit later), a preview for another book.

The New Teen Titans.
There was Robin, but without Batman. Suddenly he became his own character to me. This was a guy who was supposed to be awesome and in charge and wearing those booties. Well, all right. This was Dick Grayson. And it was that preview that introduced me to Dick Grayson.

He was commanding, undaunted and yet all too human. He didn’t feel like Batman-lite, though I sort of expected him to. He felt like… Batman rethought, if that makes sense. he could tell the cops what to do, lead a group where he had some established relationships but never be as dark as Batman.

Don’t get me wrong, Batman was amazing, but this concept of New Batman struck a deeper chord. This was, in the space of a 16 page preview bursting with story, a character I would grow to love. I truly feel that more than Batman or Superman Dick Grayson and Wally West were the core of the old DC Continuity.

And for me, personally, that started with the Titans.

This is a post in “A First Time For Everything” wherein I look at my first reactions to comic book characters that have been suggested by YOU. You can go here to suggest characters for me to discuss, and to see the master list of who I’ve talked about so far.