I Do Not Want Nightwing to Appear on Arrow
Of all the possible DC Comics characters who could appear on their hit TV show Arrow, I think Nightwing is the one I want to see the least. I would rather there be an episode with Crazy Quilt than one guest-starring Nightwing. That may sound kind of odd from someone who loves Nightwing and Robin as much as I do, but I really, really hope the rumors that actor Steven R. McQueen is in talks to appear as Nightwing turn out to be a complete fabrication.
Begone, cursed one!
Arrow is great. If you haven’t been watching the second season, you’ve definitely been missing out. The show is absolutely brilliant in terms of action, tension, villainy, heroism and well-acted, well-crafted drama. Arrow is just that damn good.
And they’ve been great with the superhero guest stars. Black Canary is a reoccurring character now, Red Arrow is slowly being built up, and there are guest stars like the Flash, Bronze Tiger, Deadshot, Clock King, Solomon Grundy, Brother Blood and more. Even the Huntress is scheduled to make a come back and team up with Canary to form the Birds of Prey. How cool is that?
She’s as surprised as we are
But I absolutely do not want Nightwing to appear. And like the good blogger I am, I’ll tell you why.
Nightwing, for those who don’t know, is the grown up Robin. In the comics, Batman’s first sidekick, circus acrobat Dick Grayson, eventually grew up, ditched the green pixie boots and became his own superhero, Nightwing. He’s charming, funny, skilled and very popular. I’m a big fan.
But a Nightwing who exists without Batman or his history as Robin isn’t worth having.
Nightwing sometimes let him win their races
I have no idea how Arrow would incorporate Nightwing, but I have to assume they can’t use Batman and Robin at all. That’s just how superheroes on the small screen work. There are all sorts of licenses and permissions that these shows need to use these characters, and I have no doubt that Batman and his buddies are tied up in the Batman vs. Superman movie or that Gotham TV show being developed by FOX. And there’s no way FOX is going to let their cash-cow Batman characters appear on The CW. It’s why Spider-Man will never show up in any of the Avengers movies, or why Batman and Wonder Woman never got to appear on Smallville, even though that series ran for 10 seasons and featured everybody from Hawkman to the Wonder Twins.
These licenses and permissions are killing all the best crossover possibilities, but they are the law of the land. So if Nightwing were to appear on Arrow, I can only assume he wouldn’t have any connection to Batman. Maybe there’s some clause where Arrow can use the name and costume, but they probably wouldn’t be able to mention Batman, Robin or Dick Grayson.
And for me, that’s just not worth the effort. I would rather not have Nightwing show up at all than use a cheap facsimile.
But honestly, even if Arrow could reference Batman and Robin, I still wouldn’t want Nightwing to show up. Because, again, Nightwing is really only interesting in the context that he’s Robin all grown up. And if Arrow isn’t prepared to tell that story (which it probably isn’t), then why bring in a character who has already gone through his emotional story arc?
There are still plenty of other superheroes who could appear on Arrow who don’t have the baggage of Nightwing. Besides, I’m still hoping for a Nightwing/Dick Grayson cameo in the Batman vs. Superman movie. And I’m still pushing my idea for a young, goofy, version of Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle to show up on Arrow.
Call me, writers of Arrow
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Posted on March 11, 2014, in Batman, DC, Robin, Television and tagged Arrow, Dick Grayson, Green Arrow, Nightwing. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.
Henchman-4-Hire 
I don’t know. I think Nightwing could serve an amazing purpose on the show. And that is to have a costumed crime fighter who is doing a better job than Arrow. So far every other comic character is evil or just came after Arrow. It is like in this world, Arrow invented the idea of costumed crime fighting. And maybe he did. Maybe that’s the way it has to be. Before him, no one ever thought to put on a costume and fight for the little guy. Maybe this is a world without Batman, period.
But what if it isn’t? What if Gotham has a masked vigilante named Nightwing and they’ve had him for years? What if he started as a vigilante, then became a hero who the people of Gotham love. Then there would be a character on the show who Ollie would actually look up to and admire. Seriously, Ollie right now is at the top of the awesome tower. There is no one better than him on the show. I think it’d be interesting to have a character who has done what Ollie wants to do, who proves that sometimes a city just needs a super hero. And if you’re skilled enough and dedicated enough, you can be that hero.
I think it is a dynamic that the show should explore. Sure, i understand not doing that. Maybe the show wants him to be the first. But since we already established that Australian Black Ops wear colorful masks on secret missions, Old Chinese special forces have Green Hooded costumes, there’s been a formula for super powers since WW2, etc. Maybe the idea of costumed crime fighting is a little older than a year on the show.
The idea that there’s a better, stronger, more admirable hero out there in some other city sounds great! But there are so many other characters to use better than Nightwing.
This gets to the core of DC’s discipline problem. In fairness, Marvel used to have the same problem, until they reinvented the wheel with the Avengers. Now Marvel thinks big and they lay the proper groundwork.
Now DC wants to unfold their universe across various media platforms, but they don’t seem to have a solid five or ten-year plan. The best thing they’ve got going at the moment is a series on the CW, which is fine, but Marvel’s got Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on AB-frickin’-C! and AofS is like a total afterthought for Marvel, it’s a place where they can showcase their C- and D-list properties. They’re also about to unfold a whole sub-universe on Netflix.
Why wouldn’t you start a new series of Bat films that prominently features the Batman/Robin relationship. Over three or four movies you could feature several of the Robins and then spin that off into a Nightwing movie, or TV series?
So much is riding on Superman / Batman. If they get that wrong, man, heads will roll somewhere in the WB.
This turned into a very long comment.
Long comments are always welcome!
I didn’t like Man of Steel, so I thought that got wrong. But clearly most people disagree with me. I’m confident the same thing will happen (probably ) with Superman/Batman.
But you’re absolutely right. There’s some fear that they think audiences won’t be able to separate movie versions of characters from TV versions. Whereas how cool would it be if they did a Justice League movie and the actor from Arrow brought his character into the movie? They could have a huge multimedia world!
Though personally, I’m against trying to fit the whole ‘multiple Robins’ saga into a movie series. One Batman & one Robin is a better story for a movie.
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