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Warning : spoiler for Nightwing # 109
Summary
The field of family has become a major recurring topic duringNightwing’squest to help his sometime flame , Beatrice Blüd . Reassuring her during a minute of dubiousness , Nightwing delivers a poignant words that not only summarise up his own grapheme but can also be seen as describing the full thesis of the modern DC Universe , even after 85 years of history .
InNightwing#109 by Tom Taylor and Stephen Byrne , Nightwing and Bea plan their assault on Dirk Blüd , who has declared Bea ’s claim to the captaincy as illegitimate and so has slip her ship and work party . When Bea begins to doubt herself as Captain Ruben Blüd ’s rightful heir , Nightwing provides a blister retort in her defense .
As Nightwing says,“Dirk ’s not Ruben ’s boy . He ’s just some vehement @#$% who happens to be related to him,”following with“You’re the one Ruben chose … the one he loved . “Citing his own experience , Nightwing is quick to reassure Beatrice that it take more than portion out a parentage to make someone family .
Between a slew of newfangled titles and major position quo changes , 2023 was a banner class for DC ’s iconic women , let in Wonder Woman , Lois Lane , and more .
Nightwing Is the Perfect Conduit for DC’s Found Family Themes
If there is anyone in the DC Universe qualified to speak about found home , it ’s Nightwing . From being enhance by Batman , to finding his own peer in the Titans , to returning as the " boastful brother " of the Bat - Family , every stage ofNightwing ’s life affirms that phratry are the masses who confirm you and rear you up , regardless of blood relation . AlthoughNightwing may be its most emblematic member , the entire Bat - Family speaks to this lesson , being composed of like - minded orphans ( Dick Grayson and Jason Todd ) , vigilantes ( Bluebird and Batwoman ) , former protégés of super - scoundrel ( Stephanie Brown , Cassandra Cain , and Damian Wayne ) , and the like who have all found coarse ground with one another .
The family dynamics are so clear and present that they prompt the webcomicWayne Family Adventures , whose wholesome take onthe Bat - Family ’s family dynamicscatapulted the series to immediate achiever . But it ’s not just the Bat - Family , either : in modern-day DC comics , just about every extremity of the Justice League now boasts an extensive family treeof crony , misfit , and outcasts . From Superman to Aquaman , the DC Universe has long prioritized family dynamics , and that ’s more lawful now than ever — but the story behind this trend is just as important .
Superman and the Flash Subvert the Classic “Nuclear Family”
While Superman ’s menage more closely resemble the traditional westerly nuclear family — at least when compare to Batman ’s Gotham crowd — it ’s still a found kin at its core . While Clark , Lois , and their son Jon may be the folk ’s heart , Kara Zor - El ( Supergirl ) and Paige Stetler ( Power Girl ) are still refugee from different Kryptons ; meanwhile , Conner Kent and Kenan Kong , both the progeny of scientific experiment , have found a welcome home in the House of El as Superboy and the Super - Man of China , respectively . The newest member of the sept – tiptop Gemini the Twins Osul - Ra and Otho - Ra – are another brace of refugee , rescued from Mongul ’s Warworld .
To see the Superman category dynamics at play , suss out out Phillip Kennedy Johnson , Rafa Sandoval , Matt Herms , and Dave Sharpe’sAction Comics#1051 and onward .
The Flash ’s family is simultaneously the most domesticated and one of the most divers in all of DC . unite by their partake link to the Speed Force , there is once again a nuclear kin core – Wally West , Linda Park , and their twins Jai and Irey – but now with a unique web of friend , which include Kid Flash Wallace West , legacy bomber like Barry Allen , Jay Garrick , Max Mercury , and Johnny and Jesse Quick , as well time - displaced friends Impulse and Gold Beetle . In this casing , they form a family of students and mentors , with the older genesis of Speedsters doing their good to aid and point the younger;if you ’re a Flash , then you are family .
This house connection is central toThe Flash : One - Minute Wararc ( The Flash#790 - # 796 ) , in which four propagation of speedsters act as one to protect Earth from invading forces from out-of-door time itself .
Green Arrow, Aquaman, and Green Lantern Unite Houses of Misfits
By contrast , if there were evera family of misfits to rival Batman ’s , it would be Green Arrow’s . Roy Harper is arguably DC ’s prodigal son , having returned from both addiction and death , while Connor Hawke has similarly struggled to earn his Father of the Church ’s approving . 2023’sGreen Arrowseries by Joshua Williamson , Sean Izaakse , and Romulo Fajardo , Jr. , perfectly codifies the interpersonal conflict between family members as Black Canary , Roy , Connor , and Roy ’s once - missing daughter Lian search for the missing Oliver Queen . By staying together , they are capable to find redemption in one another despite the trauma of the past . no matter of how they let out aside , the Green Arrow familywill always notice their way back to one another .
Even the much - malignedAquaman has his own found family . Not only is his union to Mera a union of two war planetary house , both of his mentees and former Aqualads — Garth and Jackson Hyde — are functionally adopted , with Jackson ’s relationship with Aquaman providing an uneasy bridge circuit between the mogul of the sea and his nemesis ( and Jackson ’s birth forefather ) , Black Manta . Despite tortuousness from Atlantean political sympathies that are downright Shakespearian in scope , Aquaman ’s family transcends both descent and fatherhood , especially as they all run to take forethought of Arthur and Mera ’s child daughter , Andy .
For more about the Aquaman Family legacy , see Chuck Brown , Brandon Thomas , and Sami Basri ’s miniseriesAquamen .
Then there is Earth ’s many Green Lanterns , who , despite lacking even traditional syndicate , have arguably the greatest find family of all : the entirety of the Green Lantern Corps . While the rest of the Lanterns are n’t as close-fitting as the Flash Family , they are a family united by a share role – often despite the orders of their superordinate . Hal Jordan , John Stewart , Guy Gardner , Kyle Rayner , Simon Baz , Jessica Cruz , Jo Mullein , and unnumerable others are comrades - in - arm from across the galaxy who have all found solace and use alongside one another .
The Beloved “Found Family” Trope Is Integral to DC’s Storytelling
Fans might wonder why DC stories centre so powerfully on kinfolk — and found family in finical . partially , it is the natural effect of decades of storytelling . In a medium like comics where new character reference are incessantly introduced , the ones who outlast and are liked by reader will proceed to show up and be part of the lives of their respective franchise . One of the greatest criticism of 2011’sNew 52reboot was the number of pop character who were pruned from canon for the rice beer of slimming down DC ’s profile .
Given how unpopular that era was among fans , trim down characters is a mistake that DC is unlikely to repeat , and the publishing house has since begun returning those character to persistence . But it bears keep in mind thatDC has had the found family narration as a core part of its indistinguishability from the very source . Superman ’s story is arguably the great story of found family in all of comic - book history : an orphan who is not only take in and raised as the Kents ' own youngster , but who later grows to see the intact planet and population of Earth as his own kin .
For her part , Wonder Woman leaves an island nirvana to make bonds of friendly relationship and family among the deadly world . Even Batman ’s story has long been " about " found family , with Alfred ’s raising of young Bruce sow in the seeds for Bruce ’s willingness to take in the large number of Robins and Batgirls that have become the Wayne category legacy — including Dick Grayson , the original Robin and Batman ’s first sidekick . As DC ’s " first son,“Dick Grayson in all his heroic iterations will always represent the estimate of legacymore than any other character .
Nightwing Embodies the Entire DC Family
In fact , no character is more emblematic of the entire modernistic DC Universe than Nightwing , and Nightwing is inseparable from the conception of found kinfolk . It ’s no surprise , then , that DC has form itself around his image , especially in recent class : from the Titans to the Justice League , the DCU has become a seat where uncounted family line of Hero of Alexandria open their arm to those in need . kin is about both love and choice ; that is the thesis of the intact 85 - class history of the DC Universe , and no one bed it well thanNightwing .
NIGHTWING # 109 ( 2016 )
Nightwing#109is available now from DC Comics .
