What happened to Red Robin? Nightwing is back.

So we all know by now that DC Comics plans to completely reboot all 52 of their titles come September.  I'll have a write up on this further down the line as we get closer to that date.  I will say that for the most part, this news didn't bother me too much.  Until I saw that A) Red Robin seems to not have a title of his own like he does currently and B) his costume is completely different.  I was completely ok with the re-design up until I saw he no longer had a cowl.

Hey, you want to give a guy feathers for a cape?  Whatever.  He's named after a bird that signifies spring.  You're within your rights.  But where's the cowl?  He's back to wearing a domino mask?  Domino masks are awesome, but he's Red Robin now, as in "I'm no longer Robin the Boy Wonder because I'm all grown up.

This is somewhat of a sore spot for me because Tim Drake (Red Robin's secret identity) is my favorite comic book character of all time.  He was the Robin of my generation.  I remember like it was yesterday being 11 years old and Tim finally convincing Batman he was worthy of being Robin, despite Batman's hesitancy to give anyone that mantle after the Joker murdered the second Robin Jason Todd (don't even get me started on what they've done with him).  I grew up with Tim, and when he gave up being Robin to take on the mantle of Red Robin (and then wear one of the coolest costumes ever designed by Alex Ross from the classic series Kingdom Come) well I was too excited.  Then to top it off, the stories in Red Robin were fantastic.

I don't like the new costume.  Scratch that.  It's cool, but I hate that he lost the cowl.  It made him more grown up.  With the domino mask I feel like they're making him a kid again, which I guess makes sense since in the reboot he'll be appearing in the Teen Titans title.  Something I think his character outgrew as it's obvious he's worthy of his own title.  Who knows, maybe he'll get his own title down the line, or maybe he'll appear in the new Bat books, but either way, I'm not feeling the new look.

It's not all bad news though as the DC reboot will bring Nightwing back into the action in Gotham City. Nightwing of course is the original Robin the Boy Wonder, Dick Grayson, who's been grown up for a while.  He'd taken the reigns as the new Batman after Bruce Wayne's apparent "death", but we all know how death goes in the DC universe.  I still can't believe the rumors that DC was considering killing him off.  Nightwing is DC Comics royalty.  The original Boy Wonder.  Someone who can go toe to toe with Batman because he grew up with him.

 He's a great character and I'm glad he's back and in the proper costume.  But because I guess DC Comics is determined to piss me off with all things "former Boy Wonder" they've changed his color scheme from black and blue, to black and red.  Which looks good I'll admit, so I guess it's change I can believe in.  The red lenses in his mask are clearly taken from the cool mask that X-Force wears over at Marvel.  Which reminds me, I need to catch up on X-Force, because that title rocked.