So, DC’s launching the first stand-alone event book of the New 52 era after The Trinity War winds down. It’s called Forever Evil, and it’s supposed to be about the villains taking control of everything after the heroes beat the crap out of each other. Sounds a little like Dark Reign post-Civil War over at Marvel, but surely they’ll do things differently.
However, it’s possible that something else will happen in this storyline that mimics Civil War. That is, if Bleeding Cool’s latest rumor is to be believed. There is a great deal of SPOILER POTENTIAL here, but only if they’re actually right about it.
Fans have long been of the opinion that DC honcho Dan DiDio hates Nightwing, ever since he pushed to kill him off back in the Infinite Crisis days. So with the New 52 being DiDio’s baby, it’s reasonable to assume that he was going to try to make that happen again. But it seems that instead of out and out death, Nightwing might be publicly unmasked as Dick Grayson after getting his butt kicked by the Crime Syndicate of America, forced to reveal it thanks to Superwoman’s magic lasso. The details might be off on that, since as far as I know, the Crime Syndicate hasn’t even been introduced yet, while the Secret Society of Super-Villains is still a burgeoning threat that would make more sense. Either way, that would lead to a whole lot of trouble for the Bat-family… although Bruce Wayne’s public involvement with Batman Incorporated might defray that a bit.
This may be a big media stunt to get some mainstream attention, just like it was when Spider-Man did it back in Civil War. However, magic happened in that case to erase that knowledge from the minds of everybody once Marvel was done telling Public Peter Parker stories, so it may happen somewhere down the line for Richard Grayson, too. But BC is saying DC will ride this out for a long while, should it be true.
What do you think about all this? Is it a sad retread, or is it completely fine to share ideas (as DC and Marvel have often done that) and play them out in different ways in your respective universes? How much will credulity be strained if Dick Grayson is outed publicly but no one suspects his adoptive father Bruce Wayne or any of his friends to be accomplices in Battery? How far can they push this ‘domino-mask secret identity’ business before it might start to fall apart and everybody goes “HEY THAT GUY WITH GLASSES IS TOTALLY SUPERMAN.”
Keep in mind that this still might all be malarkey. But rumors are fun, ain’t they? That’s why we’re a hopeless tabloid-junkie culture, but still!
