I've never understood Team Kory. New Teen Titans was one of the first runs I ever read. I'd probably re-read the entire run twice by the time I turned twelve. And my takeway from those stories was that Dick and Kory were a terrible couple, their differences and incompatibilities emphasized on those pages far more than any kind of cohesion between the two. What did they share other than a bed? I still don't know.




Ha! You beat me to it.



It's been hard trying to navigate what aspects of their relationship are relevent to this thread and what aspects are not, but I think I've got it worked out now. Thanks!

Nightwing Annual #2 (June 2007)



"Hero's Journey"

Script: Marc Andreyko
Pencils: Joe Bennett
Inks: Jack Jadson
Colors: Jason Wright
Letters: Phil Balsman

Grade: n/a (only exploring how this affects Batman Family continuity)


Twenty four years after the last time the Batgirl and Robin teamups in Batman Family were directly referenced anywhere (see Detective Comics #526), we have a cover blatantly reminding us of this run, and YES! the story within does specifically reference a moment from Batman Family. This all-important moment from Batman Family #13 (September 1977)



is clearly revisited in this issue published thirty years later:




So it's all in continuity, then. Right?


Well...no. As adorable a story as this is, it takes its own liberties, adding huge amounts of really fun backstory that weren't there before. And while it is amazing to see a young Dick and Babs back in action one last time:



it's not the same young Dick and Babs. This particularly charming moment is arguably the most important page of the entire story in terms of chronology:



This moment clearly predates Batman Family #1, as Dick and Babs are sixteen, are still in Gotham, and Dick still reports to Batman.



The problem is that Dick and Babs did not know each other's identities until Batman Family #3, when Dick was already in college and Babs was a congresswoman in Washington.


from Batman Family #3

They also had a significant age difference in the original Batman Family run (Babs was in her early twenties and Dick was under 18), which made editorial nervous and resulted in their relationship never fully developing into a romance. Here, they are both sixteen.

The idea that they had this adorable a romantic relationship at a significantly younger age is very appealing, but it also means that either Marc Andreyko doesn't know his Batman Family history, or he is intentionally creating a different backstory. After all, two soft company-wide reboots have passed since Crisis on Infinite Earths (Zero Hour in 1994 and Infinite Crisis just recently in 2005-2006), so Andreyko appears to be staking his claim, creating a revised origin in this new continuity that is similar to--but demonstrably different from--the one around which this project is centered.

Thus, we have reached the end of these reviews, as the Dick and Babs relationship that continues today has its roots in a different history (and, don't forget, we've been through another major company-wide reset since even this 2007 story!). Heck, this story even contradicts the Post-Crisis, Post-Zero Hour history we were exploring as recently as Nightwing #39 (January 2000), which clearly indicates that Dick and Babs were never romantically involved between The Killing Joke and that issue. Here's the new version of what happened only weeks after Babs was paralyzed:




To be fair, I actually like all of the changes Andreyko makes. They just make everything that follows irrelevent to this thread.

And how ironic that the story that buries the original Batman Family continuity once and for all ends on this note:

Wow. I did it. Only took me 4.5 years to finish this review thread!


What do I win?

As the duly elected representative of team Kori (by myself) I'd like to reply:

1) Dick and Babs essentially grew up together.. while of course Jim Gordon exists, they're much too akin to siblings for any romance not to be icky.

2) Babs DID have a thing with Bruce for a bit in some versions... how weird is that? Liking the same girl as your dad is the stuff of trashy sitcoms.

3) Opposites attract. As a person that has been happily married almost 25 years to someone that is very opposite to me in many ways, I can attest that old axiom is true. Having someone you trust and care offer you a different perspective and unique experiences is far more healthy than people with too much commonality.. . that can lead to alot of petty bickering.

4) Kori is a much better emotionally adjusted person... she has some family issues, sure but they're sorted out and far away.. sort of the real life equivalent of having crazy in-laws in Texas when you live in New England that you see every years at most. Barbara issues have mainly been retconned away now, but they could come back at any time.

5) Kori is a much stronger person emotionally.. if something happened to Dick, Kori would get revenge.. Barbara would be sad and mourn... I like revenge better.

Fascination, I'd say, as opposites attract. They were attracted to each other like moths to the flame, or like opposite magnetic poles . Dick was a very serious, cerebral, proper and private individual who enjoyed a bad time; Kory was a carefree, sensual, very emotional and extremely open one; while they didn't have much in common, they sure got each other out of their respective comfort zone!

I think Kory and Dick worked great as a romantic couple, even without guarantees that they could stay together for long. In my opinion, their lack of commonality would actually be a better argument against their being "just friends". Workplace friends, sure, but not personal friends.

Dick and Babs as a couple I have no opinion of, since I must have read something like five comics with Barbara Gordon in them over the years (not much of a Batman fan, I'm afraid). I have something of a hard time seeing Dick getting into a romantic relationship that is not almost completely hormonally fuelled, because otherwise I think he'd rather be married to his job. But I may be too hard on the kid, so if he managed to get into a mature relationship with Babs, good for him!


... aaaaand I see that I basically repeated what wildfire2099 said. Sorry for the echo!