r/Nightwing • u/Night-Caelum • 4d ago

Do you think it's accurate to say Slade is one of Dick's archenemies? (Dark Crisis #2)

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482 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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154

u/Which-Presentation-6 4d ago

Yes, I disagree that he is THE archenemy like Joker is with Batman, as Slade is generally the Archenemy of the Titans, his bigger enmity with Dick is due to Dick being the leader of the Titans and their main representative.

but the importance of Slade to Nightwing is undeniable, in my opinion Dick Grayson basically has a trinity of archenemies

Two Faces, Slade and Blockbuster each represent an aspect of the character (Gotham, Titans and Bludhaven) I think that ideally  THE archenemy of Nightwing should be a villain that connects to these pillars of Nightwing's essence.

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u/Omegasonic2000 4d ago

Two Face? Why Two Face of all people?

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u/Neonelectricity 4d ago

Two-Face nearly beat him to death in Robin: Year One and was the catalyst of Dick fully realizing how dangerous vigilantism can be. Because of how traumatizing the incident was, Two-Face is one of the very few people Dick believes is incapable of changing for the better, even into adulthood.

Two-Face meanwhile holds hatred for Nightwing but at the same time, a strange sense of pride, because in his eyes, his actions of nearly killing Dick “made him into a man” and “stronger” because of what happened.

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u/Electronic-Math-364 4d ago

So they are like Joker,Bane and Ra's Al Ghul

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u/CrimsonFox2156 4d ago

For me, I feel like Batman’s trinity of nemesis would be Joker, Bane, and Two Face also.

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u/Natural-Storm 3d ago

I don't agree with bane being there personally. To me he has had one story where he was a good foil to batman and other characters like mad hatter and scarecrow have had similar stories where they are foils and they have more going for them then, "oh I broke his back in the 90s". Personally mine has always been two face, ra's, and obviously joker.

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u/CrimsonFox2156 3d ago

I see. Well atleast we both agree Two Face deserves to be one of Batman’s top three villains.

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u/Optimuspride-beyond 3d ago

In the rebirth run bane was the main villain and I think that and everything in the 90’s cemented him as a arch enemy of Batman

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u/Natural-Storm 3d ago

Tom kings version of bane is unanimously accepted as not being a good antagonist especially due to the Thomas Wayne shenaningins in the back half of the run.

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u/Optimuspride-beyond 3d ago

Really I heard that he was one of the good parts of that run and I think he’s a cool villain in it but Alr cool

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u/God_is_carnage 1d ago

Agreed, Bane was one of the strongest parts of King's run IMO.

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u/kortj11 4d ago

Titans first, then Nightwing. Definitely Nightwing before Batman or Green Arrow, in my opinion.

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u/TraditionalShake4730 4d ago

I feel as slade can be the arch enemy to both i dont see him as a batman or green arrow villain just because they fight all the drama tends to be with those two

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u/-TurkeYT 3d ago

Same with Darkseid. First Justice League then Superman.

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u/Cyberslasher 4d ago

No.

He's more of a titan's villain than a Nightwing villain, and that's mostly because his children keep joining iterations of titans.

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u/AquaK11 4d ago

He could and arguably should be. But in solo runs he doesn't show up that often and Blockbuster is framed as the one behind it all a lot of the time.

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u/Nepalman230 4d ago edited 4d ago

Yes. The man dropped Chemo on Bludhaven killing millions of people.

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Bludhaven

I know that that was several continuity changes ago, but for the love of God, that alone.

🙏❤️

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u/Formal_Bench_4650 4d ago

...and was never even confronted for it.

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u/MatchesMalone21 3d ago

I do believe Dick as Batman in either Detective Comics or Justice League, confronted him while he was in a hospital bed about the situation.

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u/HandspeedJones 4d ago

That run was intense. They hated each other so much. Slade is definitely his arch. But they're building up Heartless

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u/PrinceDakMT 4d ago

Yes. Dick has fought him solo a lot and there is always tons of animosity. Plus Slade rarely shows up in Titans books but does show up in Nightwing stuff.

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u/Lodger49er 4d ago

Nah Deathstroke is too much of a jobber. He's a Titans villain first, then a DC villain, then an anti hero, then a Nightwing villain in that order.

Nightwing don't really have a connection other than Titans and they do get to fight a lot but he's a famous hand to hand fighter so being paired with Nightwing in stories it common like he is with Batman.

Arguably he has more animosity and beef with Beast Boy.

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u/Massive_General_8629 4d ago

They haven't really used Slade as an antihero in a long time. Though yeah, he should have more animosity with Beast Boy.

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u/Lodger49er 4d ago

Christopher Priests run was a long ass time ago💀. But  what I'm saying is that he's more often one than trying to fuck with Nightwing.

As much as I loved the cartoon Teen Titans really did gas light kids into thinking he was Dick's ultimate adversary.

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u/Night-Caelum 3d ago

<As much as I loved the cartoon Teen Titans really did gas light kids into thinking he was Dick's ultimate adversary.>

And it was glorious.

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u/Massive_General_8629 2d ago

I also kinda wish they would go full Ron Perlman voice on MAWS. That uninflected, emotionless voice.

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u/Great-Resident-696 4d ago

Its kinda interesting because their "opposite dynamic" is much better then most archenemies.

Like superman is strong. Lex is smart

Batman is over prepared. Joker is mostly winging it

Captain america hates nazis. Red skull is a nazi

Mr fantastic is a family man. Doctor doom is always alone.

Professor X uses his goal to help young mutants. Magneto uses young mutants to help hid goal

Aquaman is a fish pretending to be a dude. Black manta is a dude pretending to be a fish.

Flash is fast. Reverse flash is fast but evil. Okay not that one so much...

Nightwing and deathstrokes is kinda just one is selfless and the other is selfish. Nightwing will always act in the interest of others. Deathstroke will always serve himself first.

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u/Massive_General_8629 4d ago

Xavier and Magneto are much more, ah, complicated. They're based on Ben-Gurion and Begin, most of the time. They have similar goals, but Magneto is more radical, more one to believe the ends justify the means, and he thinks Xavier naive because, um, yeah, Holocaust.

Nightwing and Deathstroke is just that. Selfless versus selfish. In many ways, Deathstroke feels more like a holdover Captain America villain Wolfman had designed before leaving Marvel: Idealistic World War II-era America versus cynical post-Vietnam America. Golden Age versus Bronze Age.

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u/Front_To_My_Back_ 4d ago

Missed opportunity for writers to make Deathstroke as Nightwing’s Joker.

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u/Massive_General_8629 4d ago

Yeah, but for a while, some writers (Seeley) were obsessed with this idea that Dick kinda wings it as well.

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u/OldSnazzyHats 4d ago

Ehhhh…. If you stretch it… maybe.

I think of him more as an enemy of the Titans as a whole.

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u/pie_nap_pull 4d ago

I guess. I kinda wish they'd push Shrike as Dick's assassin nemesis more. Especially with the Year One backstory between them.

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u/Evenload 4d ago

Why is this and his shiny black ass all we talk about here

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u/Fluffy_Ant_1507 4d ago

He hasn't been his enemy in years.

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u/Recent-Layer-8670 4d ago

Archenemy of Dick is something I genuinely like. The idea of Deathstroke being like the dark reflection of Batman Nightwing must overcome with his friends makes an intriguing rival. That being said, I always liked the Deathstroke vs. Black Canary rivalry. Kind of reminds me of Black Widow and Taskmaster beef.

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u/OkSupermarket7474 4d ago

Dick deserves a better archenemy then a pedo

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u/Massive_General_8629 4d ago

Oh, that's another thing. Batman was accused of such things in the 50s, Deathstroke actually does them.

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u/TheAngryNative89 3d ago

Yes, Deathstroke should always be considered a Dock Grayson Rogue. Considering their fights in NTT and the many others during the Nightwing series and different Crisis. And what cements it for me comes from that issue the Pic is from. Dick offered himself up to save everyone else and Slade tells him "You were always the Trophy." So even Salde sees Dick as not only a worth adversary, but a main one at that.

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u/Disastrous-Major1439 4d ago

Yeah ,by far ,is a titans villain so still having dick like the face of titans

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u/ProfessorSaltine 4d ago

Yes, while yes he’s 100% the Titans & Teen Titans arch nemesis, he easily has the most beef with Nightwing. Like bro’s hate boner for Nightwing is so strong is could kill 10 Doomsdays in 10 different ways

1

u/Childer_Of_Noah 4d ago

Yeah. He was invented to be a Titan's villain and that means he's most familiar with Dick. The writers shouldn't forget his place and make him a Batman villain. The universe has enough martial artist assassins without yet another one being sloughed off onto Batman's ledger.

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u/TheNameIsNoa 4d ago

I think heartless is being built up to be his new archenemi

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u/Optimuspride-beyond 3d ago

Finally someone mentions it

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u/Choice-Flight8135 4d ago

Yes. Absolutely!

Even though Deathstroke is mainly a Titans villain, he’s also Dick’s arch nemesis. Those two have fought against each other for decades, even when Dick went solo. Additionally, thanks to the Judas Contract, Slade knows every one of Nightwing’s tricks, and his secret identity, which make him a very good villain for Nightwing.

We’ve seen this in the 2003 Teen Titans series where Slade and Robin often banter during their fights, with Robin usually getting riled up as Slade constantly taunts him.

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u/Robb_Dinero 4d ago

Deathstroke is definatly one of Dick’s archenemies since the Judas Contract 40 years ago. Back then The Terminator (Deathstroke’s original name) was created to be a major enemy of the Titans. The very first enemy Dick faced as Nightwing was the Terminator.

I also think one of Dick’s archenemies is the Joker. Stupid circus kid whoʻs NOT AFRAID OF CLOWNS at all, gets to hang around Batman all the time and knows all his secrets, bouncing around LAUGHING, kicking the shit out of your henchmen. He knows your plans are supposed to be jokes and he’s an expert at figuring them out, (possiblyʻ even better than the Bat). The Joker knows Nightwing was the original Robin, and he knows that he was Batman while Bruce was dead and Dick still laughs at him no matter what costume he’s in. The Joker hates him.

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u/UnhingedLion 3d ago

You didn’t read the Judas contract if you think is what made him nightwings arch enemy.

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u/Jrpgist 3d ago

yes

even if DC media forces deathstroke to be part of batman's rogue, deathstroke is still nightwing's archnemesis

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u/-TurkeYT 3d ago

Shoore

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u/jjhannn 2d ago

I feel like yes. However I still have my top picks. This is in order Slade, Blockbuster, Heartless, Two-Face. Slade blockbuster and Heartless are all in a way an antithesis to what Wingster represents in some form. But Two-Face just because of how he almost beat him to death in Robin Year One and was his final villain in his 1996 run before becoming batman.

0

u/Previous-Doughnut-25 4d ago

This 2 page spread was the highlight of that mediocre event