The Blame Game: A Look at "Old Wounds" and the Dick-Bruce-Barbara
Conflict
by Alex Weitzman
With close to 13 years now behind Bruce Timm and his relationship with
the immortal character Bruce "Batman" Wayne, it often seems like Timm
may very well have told the entire story of this single man's life, with
perhaps only the remainder of Justice League Unlimited yet to add to the
timeline. We've seen his past in Mask of the Phantasm, For The Man Who
Has Everything, and numerous flashback-laden B:TAS episodes. We've seen
his future with Batman Beyond. However, I suspect that, no matter how
much further Timm goes with the life and times of Wayne, there is one
event he will be too scared to breach, and that is the particulars of a
fling referred to but never flatly described: Bruce Wayne's romance with
Barbara Gordon.
The lovebirds that will never be: Dick and
Barbara, Old Wounds. |
To those unfamiliar with the few moments in the DCAU when the above
relationship was mentioned, the implications of simply reading the
sentence for the first time is probably more than a little sickening.
Bruce and Barbara? Isn't that, like, MASSIVELY wrong? The DCAU fails to
provide solid facts about the characters' ages, but it can be assumed
that, during Old Wounds at least, Barbara is 22-23 and Bruce is probably
pushing 35. Perhaps a little more May-September than May-December, but
it's still extremely awkward. And yet, while the hints, mentions, and
scenes may be ambiguous towards the deed itself, there is no doubt that
it occurred. This is, obviously, an overt contradiction and betrayal to
the way most folks perceive the love life of the Bat family, because
Barbara was supposed to be with Bruce's surrogate son, Dick Grayson. The
shift from one man to the other is more than a little disgusting, even
if blood is not involved.
Old Wounds does not introduce this facet of the triangle. The episode is
not about the building up of Barbara's relationship to Bruce, but rather
the destruction of Dick's relationship to Barbara. That it also includes
the destruction of Dick's relationship with Bruce, the vigilante life,
and basically all that he's ever known....well, it's pertinent, but in
the scheme of the whole DCAU, it's not quite as scintillating as the
previous element. Dick may slug Bruce in the episode, but if he wasn't
quite so hot-headed, he'd probably want to slug Barbara instead. After
all, it's Dick's relationship to her, not to Bruce, that goes through
the most change in the course of the episode. By the time Old Wounds
begins, Dick's already pissed at Bruce. Dick comes to his conclusions
about Bruce at the halfway point, not the climax. The break occurs when
Robin sees Batman roughing up Connor, a lowly thug of the Joker's who
knows nothing, in front of Connor's own five-year-old son. There's a
hell of a lot of story left in the episode to go - the Joker has to make
his move, Batgirl has to get involved, and then the big rooftop
shouting-fight between the heroes.
What's the deal with each participant in the problem here? Let's look at
them individually:
Dick: He's growing up, he's leaving the nest, and he doesn't feel
especially welcome at home anymore. Bruce fails to show up for his
graduation because he's busy doing Batman stuff; worse, Dick seems to
feel that there's too much Batman these days and not enough Bruce Wayne.
Essentially, Bruce was his adoptive father whereas Batman was his drill
sergeant. In the beginning of the episode, though, he's really happy
with Barb. He's talking about things with her that are none-too-subtly
related to marriage, barring getting down on one knee. After the Connor
scene, he knocks on Barb's door at 3 AM and raves about his fury
(without giving away any Bat-secrets), clearly seeing Barbara as a
sympathetic ear. Later, when all is revealed about who's behind the
masks, he punches Batman out. The Old Maid at Toon Zone had this to say:
Quote:
Nevertheless Dick is traditionally blamed for most of the fireworks in
"Old Wounds" simply because he's the loud one. Understand, slugging
Bruce was inexcusable and we cannot excuse it. We can only consider
whether he was provoked. (In law, "inciting to riot" is no excuse for a
riot ; all parties are responsible.) On the one hand, Barbara almost
died. Had Dick not personally saved her, she absolutely would have died.
(Batgirl does more skydiving than any other character except
Bats/Terry.) On the other hand, Dick only held back information from
Barbara to protect Bruce's secret, not his own. Yet Barbara scolds him
for not telling her. This places Dick in a no-win scenario (which we
know from experience he hates). No matter what he told, or didn't tell,
someone would have yelled at him for doing the wrong thing.
The question of the success of Old Wounds as a stand-alone episode rests
on how well it resolves the situation of Dick. The episode is framed as
a flashback with Dick, now christened Nightwing, relating the story of
his departure to the current Robin, the young Tim Drake. In the end, Tim
takes Dick to see that Connor has been granted a new and better life by
Bruce Wayne as a employee of Wayne Enterprises. Dick is pleased and goes
with Tim to answer the recent Batsignal, on the implications of him
being sure to reunite with Bruce upon his arrival. We are never granted
a Beyond viewpoint of the Nightwing story, excepting a throwaway line in
Return of the Joker: "Look up Nightwing some day. Has HE got stories!"
Thus, to effect, this is the end of the Bruce/Dick conflict, at least
until we get further expansion. (Said "stories" may very well be the
ones taking place in Old Wounds' flashbacks.) As closure, it's fine
enough for the Bruce/Dick conflict itself, but it has absolutely nothing
to do with the Bruce/Dick/Barbara conflict. The Connor issue only
resolves the inherent disagreement between the do-gooders in regards to
how to do the job. The big climax, which includes Barb, is about
betrayal of secrets and loyalty, and possibly love. From Dick's side, it
remains wholly unresolved, giving plenty of reason for his cold
treatment of Barbara throughout most of the TNBA episodes.
Barbara: I've been working my ass off to try and find a reason to
sympathize with Barbara. It's very hard, in my opinion. To me, she's
clearly at fault for a great deal of the problem. Looking at Barbara in
individual episodes usually doesn't hurt one's opinion of her, but
looking at the span of her actions is very unbecoming for her. She
starts as the daughter of Commissioner Gordon, and even in this role,
she shows a dangerous lust for an unrealistic lifestyle. (Her closing
comment after helping Batman in Heart of Steel before even inventing
Batgirl: "I sort of liked it!") She sports a good reason for dressing up
in Bat-insignia during Shadow of the Bat - she's actually impersonating
the Bat for benefit of her father making bail - but in Batgirl Returns,
she betrays an itch for the Batlife that also expresses itself in a
daydreamy crush on Batman himself. (Interestingly enough, throughout
Batgirl Returns, it is Dick who provides the realist's POV, constantly
questioning Barb's involvement and reason for putting on the cape and
cowl.) Later on, in Batman Beyond - particularly, A Touch of Curare -
Elder Barbara relates this little story:
Quote:
"[Dick Grayson and I dated] In college. Puppy love. Later on we just
never talked about it .... Dick finally got fed up living in Batman's
shadow. He decided to leave. He was hurt when I chose to stay behind,
with Bruce .... On the street, it was like ballet. We were the perfect
duo. But for Bruce (harder) Batman, there was nothing but the street.
(briskly) Time comes when you gotta hang up the cape. But Bruce
wouldn't. Or couldn't. (confidently) So I left, and never looked back."
That's where everyone went, "WHOA." And it's also where I start eyeing
Barbara a lot more suspiciously. After all, her account above isn't
really all that accurate. Certainly not when it comes to Dick, which is
the one we can verify with full authority. Hearing Elder Barbara
denounce her relationship with Dick as "puppy love" betrays Barbara as
someone who has a dangerous ability to reinterpret events for her own
benefit. Dick was obviously serious; worse, there's little in Old
Wounds' early scenes to justify Elder Barbara's dismissive claim on her
own part. Barbara also acts just as interested in Dick, if not more.
It's been developed elsewhere that they're a mutually-attracted couple
(in SubZero, they planned to spend a weekend vacation in the country
alone). In Old Wounds, they seem to be functioning on exactly the same
level until Barbara gets an "in" into the world of Batman. This makes
her a shameless opportunist: I may love you, Dick, but I'll throw it
aside the second I've got a shot at something better, and perhaps
someone. Her romantic interest in Batman is still concealed during Old
Wounds, but it's clear in later stories like Mystery of the Batwoman
that Bruce is not the one driving their relationship.
Is Barbara sympathetic on any of this? Well, I can't entirely hold it
against her that she wanted to jump into action when Bruce got a call
about the Joker right in front of her. It's possible to chalk that up to
the superhero's justice instinct. But it doesn't change the fact that
she immediately and callously forgot about what she had previously said
was important to her, like Dick. In the rooftop fight in Old Wounds,
Dick's anger at Barbara comes from protectiveness. Hers comes from "How
dare you get in my way!" At least one of these people forgot about love,
and I leave it to you to decide who.
Bruce: Somewhere in this story is Batman himself. As much of a victim as
Dick is, it's my opinion that Bruce is the most shafted by the events of
Old Wounds. He's to blame during the Connor section of the story, a fact
that is not lost on Bruce himself, as he then clearly goes out of his
way to rectify the problem and give Connor a real future. For the
Dick/Barbara thing, however, Bruce was sadly out of his league. The main
trespass that Dick accuses Bruce of doing is his introduction of Barbara
into the official Batworld. He insists that Bruce willfully put Barbara
in danger, and that Bruce is therefore a manipulative and harmful
figure.
But where is Bruce doing any manipulating? He knows that Barbara is
Batgirl, yes, and never told Dick. Perhaps that was a mistake, but then,
as far as Bruce knew, the two kids were getting along fine and there was
no reason to spoil the deal by introducing their alter-egos into the
courtship. If anything, Bruce was trying his damnedest to keep the
romance between the two healthy and normal by never revealing the secret
he knew. (It is fairly obvious he figured out Batgirl's identity back in
Shadow of the Bat.) However, to grant poor credit to where poor credit
is due, Batman wasn't helping matters in Old Wounds by aggravating Dick
with his interruption of Dick's date with Barb to demand backup. Again,
though, this relates to the non-Barbara Dick/Bruce conflict that Bruce
did show remorse for.
When he finally reveals the truth to Barbara in Old Wounds, after Dick's
3 AM appearance at Barb's apartment, is it in manipulation? Of course
not. What he saw was a young woman confused and disturbed by this
strange unexplained anger she was seeing in her loved one. He had not
foreseen Dick's conflict with him, but now it was there, and he knew
that the relationship between Dick and Barbara could not continue if
Barbara didn't know what the heck was going on with Dick. What Bruce
didn't know - couldn't know - was that Barbara harbored these ridiculous
feelings for his alter-ego and that her metaphoric introduction into the
Batcave would result in her finding a reason to drop Dick like a rock.
Barbara certainly didn't help Bruce by essentially pointing at him when
Dick started angrily interrogating her on the rooftop about her own
actions. After all, Bruce didn't propose taking Barbara along against
the Joker. Barbara did. Which leads me to...
The writers: Ah, let us not forget these folks in the equation. The
invisible fourth party in the struggle. Old Wounds is written by Rich
Fogel, adapting a comic story by Hilary J. Bader ("Batman Adventures:
The Lost Years"). Having read the comic as well as watching the episode,
both writers make a couple of key blunders. I hesitate to accuse the
writers of poor work when a character acts in a way not necessarily
enjoyable, because there's a difference between flawed writing and
flawed characters. As tough as it may be for some to accept, the story
of Barbara Gordon may very well be the story of how a Bat-vigilante can
screw herself up due to her own misplaced ambitions. However, Old Wounds
suffers under the big angry conflict being greater than it perhaps
needed to be by virtue of characters not acting quite in character all
the time.
First off, Old Wounds can't quite sell the Dick/Bruce conflict all the
way due to Dick being such a seething volcano about Bruce from the very
beginning. They've got their Robin's Reckoning behind them, but the
episode just asks us to accept their major friction carte blanche
without any setup or recap. Dick comes off looking like a jerk in the
rooftop argument because he's all sound and fury without that much
reason. (Again, the Connor thing barely involves itself in the
Dick/Bruce/Barbara conflict. Perhaps if the Connor event involved itself
more thoroughly, the whole episode would feel more connected.) Worse,
there's no truly presented reason for Bruce to take Barbara with him
against the Joker. She offers, sure, but Bruce easily should have turned
her down flat; he hasn't trained her at all and this is the frickin'
Joker we're talking about. On the reason that there's no episode without
her going, then at least Bruce should've dealt with the matter. The
writers' mistake in leaving that facet out is what makes Bruce look like
the villain to Dick. Bruce (and the writers) can defend every move he
makes up until bringing her into battle, and it's not because Bruce says
something wrong, but because the writers didn't say anything at all.
In conclusion, though, the few mistakes of the writers are not enough to
turn the Dick/Bruce/Barbara conflict into simple folly. It's a lurid
turn of events for the characters, and one that tests them to their
limits. Dick is so disgusted he leaves, Barbara maintains that she never
did anything wrong, and we never quite hear from Bruce on the topic,
although his demeanor in Beyond implies a deep regret. (After all, he
viewed Gordon as a contemporary, which makes sex with his daughter a
major betrayal in various ways.) Timm will probably never tell the story
of Bruce's physical relationship with Barbara, but we can still get a
sense of what it did to all these great characters, and how the
perversity of it stained everything to come in Beyond. Elder Barbara is
often a plain-faced bitch, commonly butting heads with Terry and Bruce,
almost as if she's proving something. She's mostly proved that you
really need a motivating tragedy to be a Bat-person, because doing it
for the thrill like she did is a perfect path to tragedy. Old Wounds
shows this well when considered amongst the rest of DCAU continuity,
even if viewing the episode on its own doesn't serve it as well.
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