Jess Miles
WRIT 3030
Pemberton
17 January 2005

Journal #1: Nightwing #100

Nightwing #100 opens in a jail cell, where Dick Grayson is thinking over his life.  He compares his life with his family at the circus and with Batman.  He muses over the changes that Bruce has made in his life; from encouraging him not to fight in school to punishing him for not performing well as Robin.  Dick is now beginning to question the vigilante brand of justice he has been using for years to justify taking out criminals.  He turned himself and Tarantula (Catalina) another vigilante in earlier that night.  Even though his leg is injured and he requires crutches, Nightwing manages to beat the well-armed Tarantula with minimal effort.  He tells her to admit to killing Blockbuster and turns himself in because he failed to stop the murder.  His former superior officer gets him out by telling them that “Detective” Grayson was on undercover work.  When Dick confronts her, he tells her that jail was the only place for atonement.  She simply states that his being in jail will not make the world a better place.  The final scene is Alfred finding the Nightwing suit thrown unceremoniously down around the Robin suit.
            Part of Dick’s situation can be applied to any person that is trying to live up to someone else’s standards.  Dick remembers different stages of his life with the different standards to live up to.  In America we have different standards for each stage of out lives as well; our classmates’ standards, our parents’ standards, our teachers’ standards, America’s standards, etc. After each set standard passes, the new sets become harder, partially because we begin to add to these standards within our own minds.  In trying to please others, we often forget what we are doing and who we are becoming to make others happy.  Like Dick, we hide who we truly want to be behind a mask of standards set by others.  We do not want to upset those who believe in us and those standards become us.  As he fights Tarantula, he is injured and is there to help him win.  He does it on this own.  When Dick was in jail, Bruce did not come to bail him out as he had every time before.  Dick sees jail as his was to seek atonement for his past actions or inactions that resulted in the harm or death of others.  These situations help Dick come to the realization that he has to be his own person and set standards that he wants to live up to.  When he removes the Nightwing costume, he is free of Bruce’s standards and can try to find his own way in the world.