Robin is gonna get the Smallville treatment

The CW is developing a series based on Batman sidekick Robin's pre-Caped Crusader days, reports Variety.

"Smallville" executive producers Kelly Souders and Brian Peterson, as well as "Supernatural" executive producer McG, are behind "The Graysons," which has landed a put pilot commitment at the network.

Just as "Smallville" focuses on Clark Kent in the years before he became Superman, "The Graysons" will follow the world of Dick "DJ" Grayson before he takes on the iconic Robin identity and aligns himself with Batman.

"The Graysons" is seen as a potential replacement for "Smallville" should that show end its run this season, which has been speculated. Should "Smallville" return next year, "The Graysons" might also make a strong companion piece.

In the one-hour "Graysons," which will be set in modern times, young DJ will face challenges involving first loves, young rivals and his family as he grows up. Souders and Peterson have come up with an original take on the character.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/batmannews.php?id=7696

UUGH!

Where the friggin hell is there a multiple season story there? Dick Grayson's journey as a hero doesn't really begin UNTIL his parents are killed and he becomes Robin. Whats more he works better as a supporting character of Batman!

So what? 8 seasons of action packed adventure traveling with his folks in the circus? Or like Clark they're gonna try and pad it out by having him meet every character he'll ever know before he even becomes Robin. IF he becomes Robin. Wonder what the producer motto of this will be "No bats, no mask"?

Jeezus, give me a break with these tired bastard love children of X-Files and Dawsons Creek. Have the guts to do the concepts straight up and give us a actual Superman or Batman show. Costumes included.

I agree. Its not really going to be interesting. Now if they did a show about Bruce Wayne from the time his parents were killed to his training to him actually becoming batman, that would be a little more interesting but I don't want a Smallville repeat.

I first boycotted Smallville because it replaced Buffy basically... the continued to boycott it when they never brought Bruce Wayne to the show.

But this... I'm actually okay with.

I only wish they'd use Tim Drake and we follow his adventures while not being Robin. So that in the background you know he's super, but we get to follow his day to day handling life and the super crime the leaks into it knowing that we're following a kid that's trained by Batman himself.

This should have a shelf life about as long as Birds of Prey...

Since Dick's journey ends with him becoming Nightwing more so than Robin, they can afford to eventually bring in the Robin mantle for sweeps in later seasons. Smallville tweeked the mythos enough to function on it's own without dependence on "sacred mythologies" (this is why comic elitism is as idiotic as it is and needs to be stamped out), and for the most part, excluding some of the **** acting and tons of filler, does a good job at when it comes to the arc.

At least here Barbera Gordon's role of the college librarian is a must-have, but maybe to give the pilot some tragedy, she ought to be shot and crippled by someone cloaked in shadows and sounding suspiciously like Mark Hamil...

...Oh wait, Birds of Prey did that already

Skyknight said:

Since Dick's journey ends with him becoming Nightwing more so than Robin, they can afford to eventually bring in the Robin mantle for sweeps in later seasons. Smallville tweeked the mythos enough to function on it's own without dependence on "sacred mythologies" (this is why comic elitism is as idiotic as it is and needs to be stamped out), and for the most part, excluding some of the **** acting and tons of filler, does a good job at when it comes to the arc.

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I'm sorry but overall the Smallville version of Superman's backstory is nothing short of a convoluted cluterfuck that doesn't even allow for any logical creation of the character whose debut it's supposed to be leading up to. Unless the idea is that Clark spends the rest of his life and career as American Eagle Windbreaker Man whose identity everybody knows.

As for Dick Grayson you can't treat the characters time as Robin like some throwaway or sweepsweek event. Robin is who the character was designed to be in the first place. His becoming Nightwing is like a bonus, an enhancement of that.

My guess would be that Batman can't enter the picture with this series for whatever reasons (probably the movies) which means the Robin story, especially done a sweeps week stunt would be just be a joke. You can't divorce Dick Graysons origin and becoming Robin from Batman or have it happen before his parents are killed. It makes no sense. That's not a time in his life where doing any crime fighting would be a factor in his existance nor is it that interesting to make it so. Unless the whole series is either teen angst under the big-top or they just throw everything in there willy nilly (which they probably will) there's nothing there.

It's not comic elitism to want a series to play a bit more along the lines of the mythology on which it is supposed to be based. That's not the same thing as saying that a show has to do Detective Comics no.27 verbatim or recreate every panel of John Byrne's Man of Steel.

Skyknight said:

At least here Barbera Gordon's role of the college librarian is a must-have, but maybe to give the pilot some tragedy, she ought to be shot and crippled by someone cloaked in shadows and sounding suspiciously like Mark Hamil...

...Oh wait, Birds of Prey did that already

Click to expand...

Yeah and it sucked there to. Not to say that there have never been good Oracle stories but the entire concept is dependant on lousy grim n' gritty shenanigans that even Alan Moore himself admits aren't his best work.

Look, I can hang with different versions of characters. Hell I've spent several posts defending Brave and Bold. But it is a reckless assumption to treat them like they're SO bendable they can't possibly break. You reach a point where it's not really those characters at all, just the names slapped onto something else entirely and the mythologies just used as a random grab-bag to dress up a generic teen soap and wrecking the character in the process. These icons and their stories are indeed very flexible but you CAN go too far.

mattcomics said:

It's not comic elitism to want a series to play a bit more along the lines of the mythology on which it is supposed to be based

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You DO realize the term "Mythology" isnt grounded in consistency right? MYTH can be reinterpreted. The instant something needs to be tweeked so it can be fresh and not just be even a LOOSE retread is when you start getting intrigued in where this can go and what more they can do

With the way some "fans" want everything to follow the same thing to a CERTAIN degre, they stifile creativity, and the result is the industry is what it is now...boring, dull retreads with no new charactersiations or ideas because nobody is taking any risks with what they have now.

You can't be precious over a mythology, it's subject to change, and that's how it ought to be.

I was fine with "No tights, no flights", it didnt detract, it fit the show, and it's actually more truer to Superman since he didnt initally fly AT ALL in the comics, he leaped tall bounds (which they exploited to great affect in the series). He started to fly in the Fliescher cartoons and that was adapted for the comics. Supes has never enjoyed more consistent success than prior to this besides Timm's series, and it proves the cape and the trappings arent needed at all. Does it stumble? Hell yeah, but it's it's own thing and has done some great things by TWEEKING something that is open to new ideas.

Look, I can hang with different versions of characters. Hell I've spent several posts defending Brave and Bold. But it is a reckless assumption to treat them like they're SO bendable they can't possibly break. You reach a point where it's not really those characters at all, just the names slapped onto something else entirely and the mythologies just used as a random grab-bag to dress up a generic teen soap and wrecking the character in the process.

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Wrong. The mythology would stay the same, it'd just be interpreted SLOWLY and very differently, with the same results coming out of it. Same story, different timeline, happening at different places than they were. Characters DO act the same, but they start off as something else and BECOME them later. It's all a matter of being paitent and not being biased towards the SUCCESFUL forumula of high-school shannegans/monster of the week.

I don't like Birds of Prey for other reasons than it simply being a different Batman-style series, I didnt think it took too many chances, but it COULD have had legs and I wanted it to aqquire a second season so it could establish some direction other than the visual eye-candy, maybe iron out it's flaws, which the first season of Smallville likewise had in abundence but slowly fixed because it got that second season and then more.

mattcomics said:

UUGH!

Where the friggin hell is there a multiple season story there? Dick Grayson's journey as a hero doesn't really begin UNTIL his parents are killed and he becomes Robin. Whats more he works better as a supporting character of Batman!

So what? 8 seasons of action packed adventure traveling with his folks in the circus? Or like Clark they're gonna try and pad it out by having him meet every character he'll ever know before he even becomes Robin. IF he becomes Robin. Wonder what the producer motto of this will be "No bats, no mask"?

Jeezus, give me a break with these tired bastard love children of X-Files and Dawsons Creek. Have the guts to do the concepts straight up and give us a actual Superman or Batman show. Costumes included.

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I agree wholeheartedly.

But you'll never see prime-time costumed superhero shows, because the American public still associates traditional superheroes with "camp." (Nightman and Black Scorpion don't count; they're supposed to be "grim," "dark," and "realistic," relatively speaking.) I'll take camp, thanks.

And with that, I think the Smallville version of Dick Grayson is just pointless. If you want to see prime-time versions of superheroes, the producers won't have them in costume, and just want to tease you with "references," because they're ashamed of it. I hated Lois & Clark, but Smallville was even worse.

mattcomics said:

Yeah and it sucked there to. Not to say that there have never been good Oracle stories but the entire concept is dependant on lousy grim n' gritty shenanigans that even Alan Moore himself admits aren't his best work.

Look, I can hang with different versions of characters. Hell I've spent several posts defending Brave and Bold. But it is a reckless assumption to treat them like they're SO bendable they can't possibly break. You reach a point where it's not really those characters at all, just the names slapped onto something else entirely and the mythologies just used as a random grab-bag to dress up a generic teen soap and wrecking the character in the process. These icons and their stories are indeed very flexible but you CAN go too far.

Click to expand...

I can't blame Alan Moore for the crippled Barbara Gordon/Oracle (which I never cared for). Just the editors, who want all DC characters to keep up with Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns in the most cynical way possible.

I think prime-time is the wrong time slot for superheroes. Why not just go all-out and do a new live-action Justice League Unlimited series for kids' TV, to compete with Power Rangers (that's Super Sentai, dammit!) and its ilk! Hell, it'll attract EVERYONE, and have some kids' appeal for once. We've been losing the younger generation as it is, anyway.

I'm all for another comic book series, but this is the best they could come up with? I don't understand. Aquaman gets turned down. Green Arrow gets turned down. But they expect a series about probably the least interesting comic book hero ever to do well?

I mean right off the bat (no pun intended), he's got no superpowers. Not to mention, he's also a sidekick to a superhero they can't use. So plot development will be severely limited.