Warning! Preview pages ahead for Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #39!Time is completely falling apart in the DC Universe and one of the first people to discover it isNightwingandRobin. No, not Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne, but Dick and his younger self. Thanks to a decades-spanning plot by the Legion of Doom, eras are colliding and it’s having huge ramifications on Batman’s first sidekick.
In a bid to destroy the Justice League once and for all,the Gorilla Grodd of the presenttraveled through time to possess his past self and work withthe Legion of Doomto blindside the modern-day League. However, as they gathered the necessary supplies, the League of the past fought the Legion, only for Robin to be hit by a tachyon blast, sending Dick into the future. Now he’s in the present-day DC Universe and even Batman is confused aboutwhich of Nightwing’s historiesis actually the correct one, hinting at larger problems for the heroes.
Nightwing Now Has Two Pasts Thanks to Robin Disappearing
Batman Remembers Two Different Robin Timelines
In a preview forBatman/Superman: World’s Finest #39by Mark Waid and Clayton Henry, Bruce is elated to see the time-displaced Dick. Batman brings his lost partner in and tells him he’s been missing for years. But someone takes issue with that,namely Nightwing, who reminds Batman that Dick has not, in fact, been missing. Robin tells Nightwing and Batman that he doesn’t know what’s going on and the last thing he remembers is being hit with a time ray by the Legion of Doom.
Batman struggles to think things through. He clearly remembers Robin vanishing in time years ago, but at the same time, Bruce also recalls Dick’s growth from the Boy Wonder into Nightwing. Superman arrives and informs the younger Dick that he’s onboard Justice League Unlimited’s Watchtower. The quartet of heroes is suddenly inundated with a panoply of visions from various eras of the DC Universe, from Batman’s “Zero Year”, toCrisis on Infinite Earths, to The Batman Who Laughs’ invasion duringDark Nights: Metal. The team all conclude the same thing:the DC Universe’s timeline is broken.
Suddenly, an alarm rings out through the Watchtower, alerting everyone that the Legion of Doom is attacking. As they get ready to go,the two Graysons shake hands, transporting Nightwing, Batman and Superman several years back into the past. After Superman determines where and when they are, he reveals that his and Batman’s past selves aren’t on Earth. Just as the modern-day heroes have gone to the past, the past versions of Batman and Superman join Robin in the future, where past Superman discovers that Lois is acting as Superwoman.
Robin’s Dual Pasts Presents a Big Problem to the DC Universe
Time is Unwinding Fast, But Where is it All Heading?
As dangerous as Gorilla Grodd and the Legion of Doom are right now, the bigger threat is coming from the timeline destabilizing. It’s not just that Robin traveled through time to the modern-day, it’s that his arrival has caused a split timeline to form (with Batman somehow able to remember both). Worse, events from all over history are starting to stack on top of and bleed into one another.The DC Universe was already in a fragile place after Darkseid died.Now Grodd and his team have exacerbated the problem.
Timelines can change and solidify quickly (just look at what happened with Barry Allen duringFlashpoint). If the League doesn’t set things right soon enough, it’s not just going to be Dick Grayson’s history that’s at risk, but the past, present, and future for the entire DCU. Hopefully, the past and present Justice Leagues are prepared to find a fix fast, because if things aren’t solved quickly, what’s happened withNightwingandRobinis going to look like a minor inconvenience by comparison.
