#amnesia arc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

starwalker03 · 5 months

Note

Im curious about your Ric arc rewrite. Would you share of ideas you had for it?

man. it's all loose soup in my brain rn hang on lemme get a ladle.

So let me preface this with the fact that I actually haven't read the Ric arc. And I also haven't read a lot of comics over all (cause there wasn't a comic book store in my hometown and comics are not exactly easy to get in to).

So first, a quick recap of the RIc Grayson storyline:

Dick Grayson is shot in the head by KGBeast, which does not kill him but does send him into a coma. during his time in the hospital, a member of the court of owls becomes his doctor and uses a fancy magic crystal to alter his memories. this is what causes the amnesia.

The intention was for the memory alterations to become a means of changing his memories so that his grandfather, William Cob, could manipulate him into becoming a Talon.

He leaves behind the family and the title of Nightwing and becomes a taxi driver in Bludhaven who, according to wikipedia, "frequents bars" which is just another way of saying "became a borderline alcoholic with no real social life".

Eventually, Cob gets a hold of him and does, in fact, make him a Talon, and he breaks out of it after a group of people take on the Nightwing mantle and he comes across them in battle. He spares one of them cause they have a family/kids or smth.

After this, Joker gets a hold of the crystal and uses it to make Dick think he's Joker's adopted son "Dickie Boy" so he can use him to fight the bats.

Alright, we're all caught up? splendid. Along the line here he gets a girlfriend named Bea, as well, but nothing of particular note is coming up about her in the summaries I've found.

So my main points to change/alter/extrapolate on here would be:

make Bea a real character with agency

Not use every comic book means necessary to turn Dick into a stereotypical cliche of a toxic man

change the Dickie Boy storyline

make Dick stay stuck with the family a bit longer so the impact to the dynamics of the fam can actually be explored

So let's begin.

Dick Grayson is a character that constantly has to act as a middle ground or source of morality or otherwise emotional support to those around him, especially the batfamily. We're seeing currently the way the gotham war of Batman/Catwoman is being affected because Dick has finally decided that he is done trying to fix Batman's stupid angry controlling traumatized brain because frankly Bruce won't let him and better yet Bruce doesn't want him to. And if that's how it's gonna be than Dick has now realised it'd be better off if he just took care of his family, sans Bruce, and did his best to keep Bruce in line (not killing people out of uncontrolled anger).

I think the Ric Grayson storyline could be a really good part of him coming to this decision.

Dick wakes up in the hospital with amnesia, that would stay the same. I think it can also stay the same that the Court of Owls could be at fault for that (maybe this time not with a bogus magic crystal though). Dick is shown throughout comics to have trouble sometimes struggling with anger, but nowadays he can usually control it. with amnesia he cannot.

I think it would be important to settle on an actual point in his life that he remembers up to, namely his parent's death. After his parents died he was filled with the need for vengeance, and when Bruce took him in he was able to learn to redirect that into trying to make sure that no other kid had to feel the way he did. Vengeance versus Justice/honouring your parents memory. regress his memory to having just watched his parents die, then he's raw enough that the court would, in fact, be able to do something with him.

In fact, get rid of the ex machina of memory loss altogether. some vague handwaving about head trauma and surgery and court sciences to say that they ruined his memory, and that's it. There's no fancy tool that you wave around and excuse everything.

This would be a great way to welcome new readers too! because you could start the stroyline with a recap/redo (allowing for any retcons to his origin necessary) of how Dick became Robin. Then it opens on him waking up with the amnesia. He has to remeet everyone important in his life, which means new readers would be able to very quickly get the gist of who all these people are (and comics have little boxes for references to things, so they could include references like *see [insert comic title and number here] for [insert character name here]).

He's struggling, because the last thing he remembers is his parents dying. He's able to relearn a lot of things quickly, like motor skills, langauge, other such general things (which they do briefly show in the comics I think, so props to that) but the actual memories still allude him.

Bruce says he's going to spend time with the family in the manor, then, which he figures is fair enough. It's not like he has a lot of other options.

Over the course if his time in the manor he is constantly bombarded with information, and people keep looking to him for emotional support/regulation and expecting him to fill a role he no longer can. this all boils over in an argument between Dick and Bruce, because Bruce needs Nightwing back, he's far too important of a piece in the overall machine that is this family, but Dick can't give him that.

Eventually he goes it alone, and he meets Bea along the way.

So now, he is revisting his first trauma without the emotional development that allowed him to move past the idea of vengeance, he doesn't remember any of the people he loves, and he also has a sour taste in his mouth about them all because they keep expecting him to just be better. all his bridges are burned.

This becomes a new origin of Nightwing, for the new readers, and a means for old readers to see something new in something old.

I'd give Bea a real backstory, and she and Dick both bond over their wish to get closure over something that happened in their youth. they lean on each other, so the eventual romance has a good grounds to build on.

In Dick's newly fueled urge to get revenge on Tony Zucco, the court would have plenty to work with. When he's eventually taken by William Cob, I'd have Bea follow clues about him and his belongings to find his family so she can save Dick from whoever it was that kidnapped him.

Additionally: Bea could be one of the civilians who, in the wake of crime in Bludhaven skyrocketing from Nightwing's absence, decided to try their hand at being Nightwing. Which would be an interesting foil for Dick, who has left it behind. And would also make for a funny moment when she inevitably reveals this to Dick and he has to explain everything.

The person Dick spares could then be Bea, which adds more tension to the romantic subplot, and would be how she figures out who/what kidnapped him. Which is when she'd go and track down Bruce and the fam and make them come save Dick.

Things could reach a climax by the court bringing in Tony Zucco. Have William dramatically explain to another guy 'years ago, Batman convinced Dick not to kill Tony Zucco, and he became a hero with such deeply set morals that we couldn't hope to manipulate him. But now we have stripped him of that, and he will have another chance to make this decision. And this time he will choose the right one'

Dick will, of course, not kill Zucco. It is at this time that the fam comes crashing in to save him. he frees Zucco, realising that it was never Bruce who made him a good person, never Bruce that he owed his morals and his good heart and his emotional strength, but himself, he had it in him all along, and he knows that killing isn't the right thing to do.

wham bam thank you ma'am story over. Some loose threads to tie up about Dick becoming Nightwing again and everything, but that's okay, that's what the next issue is for. It sets up a perfect sequel that is still beginner friendly but also has enough to it that long-time readers could enjoy it. Dick has managed to start getting his memorie sback now but he's still coming across flashbacks here and there, he's moving back into Bludhaven, he's redetermining what it means to be Nightwing, and he's cleaning up Bludhaven from the crimes that have skyrocketed in his absence.

He also then has the civillians who took up the Nightwing role, including Bea, who can act as a cast of new friendly faces as opposed to trying to drag up old Nightwing side-characters and reintroduce them to everyone.

The Dickie Boy storyline can be changed. Dick doesn't need two different comic lines of him being manipulated and mind controlled into becoming a glorified servant for the bad guys one after the other. one is enough. this also means the Court is cemented as Dick's bad ending/angsty backstory/villain persona stuff, y'know?

You know which robin already has a story as being Joker's adopted son? Tim! Tim already has that! Joker Junior is a thing! and people loved it! Let him do that.

Joker has stated in comics before, I believe, that the reason he hates the first robin is he could never get his paws on him and hurt him the way he did the other robins, which is such a fun way of having a different relationship between Dick's robin and joker as compared to the other robins! keep that! you don't need to change that!

And also, it means Dick gets a moment, fresh out of his amnesia arc, where there's a really bad awful thing happening to his family, which could be the catalyst for him remembering more things.