Can Dick Grayson, as Batman, intimidate people the way Bruce Wayne could?

[Buried Alien]

In terms of detective skills, leadership abilities, character, and physical prowess, Dick Grayson is very well qualified to fill Bruce Wayne's place as Batman. Dick has already proven his qualifications in these areas dozens of times over during his careers as Robin and Nightwing.

But Bruce's Batman didn't fight crime using detective skills or fighting skills alone. A large part of what made Batman effective was the intimidation he projected against criminals. "Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot," etc. Sometimes, Bruce's fearsome aura even made his friends and allies uneasy (remember how intimidated Kyle Rayner was by Bruce during Kyle's early days as a Green Lantern?).

Dick Grayson has alway been a much more easy-going character than Bruce Wayne. Although Dick is proficient at all other aspects of being Batman, can he project the same kind of intimidation that Bruce did? If he can't, he's missing one major weapon that Bruce had as Batman.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[DonC]

I would say no. Like you said, Dick is just too easy going. He doesn't have the mental anguish that Bruce does. Despite all that has happened to him, Dick is a normal, maybe even happy, person. I hope DC addresses this at some point. You can't threaten to throw somebody off of a rooftop, then go hang out with your friends having fun at a baseball game the next day.

[px2418]

oh god know compared to Bruce his is a freakin teady bear

[the Hornet]

the way I ser it, Bruce needs to use intimidation to get from point A to B, but Dick does not. He is able to use his charisma, his connection, his own skills, etc to get from point A to B. So draw your own conclusions.

[Chiroptera]

Definitely not. I think that's going to come into play somewhere along the road to Bruce's return, at some point I think we'll see that a big part of the Batman persona is the fear-factor, and without it Batman's not as effective as he needs to be.

[Jorriss]

Occasionally he's been able too, occasionally even Superman intimidates people but as a whole, no.

[Psavell2]

Prior to June I thought that through Bruce's reputation as Batman, the costume would be enough to intimidate criminals for a while, but every time Dick faces one of the regulars, they seem to be convinced that Batman is dead and therefore this is a fake. As such, they are not intimidated. On the other hand, Damien seemed to scare Harley Quinn in Streets, so if Dick could learn to control Damien and play off of that more frightening persona he wouldn't need to be intimidating himself.

[Rawlin67]

no, because they are just arent the same guy. Bruce Wayne was one of the darkest characters ever created in comics. Dick isn't that dark. He's a much more free-spirited, actually communicates with people character in general. but he doesnt have to intimidate people in the way Bruce Wayne could. he just has to save the day.

[Mia]

No, Dick can kick ass, but he is not as mean and as vindictive as Bruce. He just does not have Bruce's gravitas.

[Buried Alien]

Bruce Wayne's ability to project intimidation as Batman is a natural extension of whom he is as a person. Basically, it's Batman acting naturally.

For Dick, such behavior is unnatural to him. However, I'm reminded of Alfred's recent advice to Dick: Dick is a performer. He has been one all his life, beginning with his childhood at Haley's Circus. Although projecting intimidation will never come naturally to Dick as it did to Bruce, does Dick's savvy as a performer enable him to fake it effectively?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Psavell2]

Bruce Wayne's ability to project intimdation of Batman is a natural extension of whom he is as a person. Basically, it's Batman acting naturally.

For Dick, such behavior is unnatural to him. However, I'm reminded about Alfred's recent advice to Dick: Dick is a performer. He has been one all his life, beginning with his childhood at Haley's Circus. Although projecting intimidation will never come naturally to Dick as it did to Bruce, does Dick's savvy as a performer enable him to fake it effectively?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Not based on anything we've seen so far, but we've got most of a year left to see.

[numberONE]

I think Dick will still intimidate the more low-profile gangsters of Gotham, for the time being at least. I don't think he'll intimidate many in the Batman's rouge gallery, though.

[jbwbubba]

No he can't nor should he. Bruce would get heroes to flinch at the sight of him sometimes. Dick can't do that. The costume appearing in the edge of darkness in the middle of the night will freak your average mugger; but Dick can not do scary to guys with experience.

[Animation]

I dont think Dick needs the fear/intimidation tactic. His personality and experiences lead him down a different road to similar goals. There is no reason he cant be as successful but with a different approach.

However, whether that works really depends on the writers and/or DC management. If they decide they want to write Dick out and that the mechanism for his downfall is the lack of the fear aspect, they'll do that. If they want it to go some other way, it will.

Whether the Enterprise can defeat the Death Star really comes down to the writing.

[Jared]

Come on now people. It's really not that hard to do a bad Clint Eastwood impression. :biggrin:

Dick doesn't have that inner darkness from which gives him an aura of real danger even though everyone knows Batman doesn't kill. But faking it might get him a pretty long way with most folks. Maybe he can't intimdate the major rogues, but perhaps he can get into their heads other ways, more like Peter Parker than Bruce Wayne.

[Barlion]

I think he can. Dick can be pretty intimidating when he wants to.
http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/519/page5j.jpg

[Rawlin67]

there are probably definitely some tricks he picked up from Bruce, sure. you're bound to gain a few when you're working under someone who is teaching you. but simply from an overall stature, he just can't work it the exact same as Bruce Wayne can. he's also got a different fighting style, which is a little more Grayseful (oh that was witty), where as Bruces was a little more menacing and powerful. but thats the beauty of the new direction, you get a new character under the same costume. Drama!

[Murrocko]

Dick has done so in the past, so I don't see why he couldn't now.

[David Walton]

How scared are the Rogues gallery? I get the impression that most of the rogues aren't the least bit frightened of Batman actually hurting them. Occassionally they seem frightened of him hurting their interests (like Penguin).

But it's common knowledge among the rogues that Batman doesn't kill, so...

[Yawn]

As long as Dick is written as the ass kicker he is and not the "Meh meh meta human" guy he should be able to.

[Captain Jim]

I don't think it's primarily a matter of "he can't" as much as "he doesn't want to."

[stillanerd]

In terms of detective skills, leadership abilities, character, and physical prowess, Dick Grayson is very well qualified to fill Bruce Wayne's place as Batman. Dick has already proven his qualifications in these areas dozens of times over during his careers as Robin and Nightwing.

But Bruce's Batman didn't fight crime using detective skills or fighting skills alone. A large part of what made Batman effective was the intimidation he projected against criminals. "Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot," etc. Sometimes, Bruce's fearsome aura even made his friends and allies uneasy (remember how intimidated Kyle Rayner was by Bruce during Kyle's early days as a Green Lantern?).

Dick Grayson has alway been a much more easy-going character than Bruce Wayne. Although Dick is proficient at all other aspects of being Batman, can he project the same kind of intimidation that Bruce did? If he can't, he's missing one major weapon that Bruce had as Batman.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

I've raised that very point myself in these Batman related threads, and I absolutely agree. Dick Grayson, on the surface, may have the right qualifications to be Batman's successor but not the most essential quality that made Batman what he is. It's just not in Dick Grayson's nature to inspire fear and intimidate others, because he believes it's better if people trust you rather than be afraid of you. The problem will be that now he's taken on the role of Batman, he has to essentially be something he is not, and already, people are seeing through the facade. And I think that's the point DC is ultimately trying to get across with having Dick Grayson be the new Batman--that while he may be a competent and skilled crimefighter, he's NOT going to be successful as Batman because he doesn't adopt Bruce Wayne's "it is better to be feared than to be loved" policy when it comes to crimefighting.

[Vidocq]

Come on now people. It's really not that hard to do a bad Clint Eastwood impression. :biggrin:

Dick doesn't have that inner darkness from which gives him an aura of real danger even though everyone knows Batman doesn't kill. But faking it might get him a pretty long way with most folks. Maybe he can't intimdate the major rogues, but perhaps he can get into their heads other ways, more like Peter Parker than Bruce Wayne.

I agree, but I think it's more in the line of Matt Murdock than Peter Parker. During Bendis' run when he was outed, no hood in town dared to go to his apparment and kill him and just a couple of his costume enemies tryed. They all knew he wasn't going to kill them, but they were still to scared of him to try and kill him.

He has this great power yet he mantains healthy relationships with his best friend and many, many women. A lot like Dick does.

[Jorriss]

How scared are the Rogues gallery? I get the impression that most of the rogues aren't the least bit frightened of Batman actually hurting them. Occassionally they seem frightened of him hurting their interests (like Penguin).

Yeah, no major criminals are really scared of Batman. It's more like '****, this is going to be costly, and inconvenient.'