Gotham City: Three Years Ago
Barbara Gordon calls Dick from her apartment balcony but gets no answer. Dick drops down on the balcony and admits that he’s late because batman has been hunting for dinner. They go in for dinner and Dick realizes that it’s cold. He apologizes again and Barbara offers to suit up to help him. As they start to kiss, Bruce calls to tell Dick that the Joker has been sighted near the courthouse. Dick has no choice but to go, but they share one more kiss for luck before he suits up as Robin and leaves.
As Barbara tosses the meal in the garbage, someone rings the doorbell. She assumes that it’s Dick and opens the door, and finds the Joker on her doorstep. He shoots her in the stomach and she falls back.
Later, Dick visits Barbara’s grave and his friend Jason Todd comes by to see how he’s holding up. Jason offers him a batarang, saying he was carving it and screwed it up and now it looks like a bird. Dick holds it up to the sun and thanks his friend. And Jason admits that Dick has been like a brother to him since Bruce took him in. Dick glances over at Bruce, who is talking with Barbara’s father.
Bruce comes over and asks if Dick is ready to go back out in the field. Dick reminds him that Barbara is dead, and Bruce wants to get the man who killed her. Furious, Dick says that he’s sick of everyone around Bruce getting killed by his vendetta. He says that he’s had enough and declares Batman and Robin over. When Bruce says that Dick sounds like a child and Barbara would say the same, Dick throws a punch at him and Bruce easily deflects it. He asks if Dick is going to turn his back on his training, and Dick says that he’s abandoning Bruce, not crime fighting. Dick hopes that he treats Jason better than he treats him and walks away. Jason comes over and asks if he told Dick, and Bruce says that he’ll figure it out.
Bludhaven City – Present Day
Back at his lair, a woman in a wheelchair comes in as Dick forges one of his razorwings and then throws it into the wall. Barbara admits that it’s hard to pull that trick off in a wheelchair.
Written by Gadfly on Dec 27, 2015