30 Days of DC – Day 11

Why hello there very fluid definition of ‘day’.  The next topic is an interesting one for me.  Favourite Romance.  I don’t really have a good answer for it.  I read comics for a combination of things, a mix of characters and stories that is sometimes hard to balance.  I love when friendships and relationships are explored within comics, and I’ve said over and over that very thing is what makes something like Secret Six such a good book.  It’s part of what made Power Girl great too, the dynamic between Peej and Terra.   And as much as I love friendships, enmities and all sorts, I don’t ever really look at comics and think ‘oooh, those are two people who need to be together’.  I don’t get invested.

How many times have Black Canary and Green Arrow gotten together and broken up?  Yes, Lois belongs with Superman and will always end up with him. Batman will always pull away and be stoic in the end.  There’s so little real change and growth especially amongst the big names.  Too much depends on that character being identifiable and recognisable for what they are.  Relationships, like anything else, often seem like a tool to drive sales.  Too much of it is by the books.  Even with superheroes and crime fighters, it’s the same old thing and a cycle that gets repeated over and over.

What I’m not saying is that I don’t enjoy reading comic relationships, I can and do.  I love when they surprise me.  I loved reading Simone’s run on Wonder Woman and seeing her dealing with a relationship that put her seriously out of her comfort zone.  I love seeing moments like that. They’re interesting and show insight and depth and a challenge to the character.  There’s a great panel of Selina and Bruce out one night just being them.  It’s sweet and lovely and for a moment you can imagine they stopped being Catwoman and Batman and were simply two people who really liked each other.  I love those moments.  I just don’t really have any stand out relationships.

The closest thing I can get to having a favourite relationship is to say that I have a lot of love for Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson.  Their movement from Batgirl and Robin to Oracle and Nightwing has been well-reflected in their on again and off again relationship.  More than two people who loved each other, they were friends and in many ways partners.  It’s not been easy, and I do look forward to seeing where their relationship goes.  It never has to ever get romantic again and I’d be just as happy as if it did.  Their relationship is deeper and stronger than simply a romantic one, and I’ve grabbed two panels that I think show that well.  The first was written by Devin Grayson and the next by Gail Simone, though they both appeared in Birds of Prey.  When I first read this I felt like writing Simone a letter to tell her I loved her and to never ever leave the Birds.  She did, and came back, but that’s beside the point.  It’s one of a very few comics that has made me cry.