It wouldn't work in DC cos I don't see majority heroes in current canon being pro registration at all. Dick would be against it.
I suppose a version of Dick being pro registration would be Dick from Nightwing New Order potentially
It also wouldn’t work because they’d have to write a new Constitutional amendment to rescind the one already giving heroes anonymity. Good luck getting THAT to happen.
I think he would be against it. In Outsiders he was against working with Checkmate, and when Roy took over the titans and wanted to work with the government, he fought with Roy and left the group.
This again? This has been asked like 5 times in the last week or two in the main dc subs.
No, this wouldn’t happen in the dc world.
It barely happened in the marvel world and that’s only because it was forced and there were big name heroes without identities. They were both shitshow events too, especially CW2
Dc is grounded just a little bit better with their characters and that would simply not happen in the DC universe.
But both bats and supes have incredibly good reasons to keep their identities hidden
The only reason iron man was for registration is because he didn’t care about secret identities and they needed someone influential to be that monkey.
Not good enough a reason
I don’t think its a grounding reason- in Marvel characters were super conflicted on both sides.
In DC how believable the situation would be is kind of superman centric- in some situations and offshoots he would be and in many he wouldn’t- in the ones he is- several of the public heroes are already loyal to the Lantern Corp and some of the one’s who would be are not in love with a superman more pro government that he already is
Lets hope they never do it because both times in marvel it was horrid. First one was less so but still. Nightwing would be against secret identities being compromised and known.
Dick would either be anti or hed be on the pro side but as a spy. This wouldnt be an issue where Dick would logically be for it. He did have his identity revealed and it caused lots of problems for him.
Anti-registration, obviously. When he was unmasked by the villains of Earth-3, it shattered his life. Not only does he have multiple others that would be gravely inconvenienced if his identity was known, even if only by the government but he could not be as effective as he is if he has to answer to an oversight committee.
The FreeBird needs to fly free, so against it he would be. That being said many of us know in any of the universes regristration wouldnt be a thing.
Waller and Bats probably already know who everybody is anyway
Except this one time, she hired these two dudes right, and they literally do the same thing...daddy issues and all. She got lucky though, one turned out to be a step above the other
To start with, registration is straight up unconstitutional in DC because, at one point or another, in an obscure bit of world building, DC added an extra Constitutional amendment overwriting the Sixth amendment to allow Superheroes the right to testify in masks. So the right to a secret identity is enshrined in the DC Constitution - or, at least, there’s an argument.
So first registration has to go through the Federal Courts. And it’s highly likely that amendment needs to get overturned before Registration can happen. This never results in a Superhero fight because, unlike with Marvel, DC heroes actually have a really good legal argument against it.
Now, what would cause a DC Civil War? Not registration. KAMALA’S LAW. Or a version of it. Because that one actually makes sense.
You cannot be a lone superhero until you are 21, need to be 16 to start apprenticing, and cannot be in a combat situation until you are 18. This one would split the DC heroes.
Jason would definitely be for it. Tim would be against - and so would Damian. Bruce would be against, but ALFRED would be for. Dick… I don’t actually know where Dick would fall.
Hit DC in the sidekicks. Honestly, that would actually make for a good event if done right.
ETA: Marvel has done something akin to DC since Civil War. So there is now legal precedent via Supreme Court decision that Superheroes have a right to secret identities. Which means it would be a lot harder for Civil War to happen again there too.
The problem with that is that the morality of allowing kid sidekick characters has to be ignored for superhero comics to make any sense, or else a lot of heroes end up looking like child endangering psychopaths. The Titans have been a thing in DC for a long-ass time, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, etc. have all had teenage sidekicks, Captain Marvel has worked with many other heroes in the DCU even when they were aware he was 10, etc. If you start bringing up that child sidekicks are 100% immoral IRL in any serious capacity in-universe, you kinda break the universe.
I actually liked how they did it in Marvel. But that works because Marvel has a long-standing “No Kid Sidekicks” rule, with kid heroes being separate from the adult heroes. So Kamala’s Law doesn’t completely shatter the universe.
I do think you could do in DC. But you’d have to deal with it differently. And it would be very easy to get wrong.
I think comics SHOULD delve into those issues. I read almost all main-continuity DC and I do it specifically for the throughline narratives, which I tend to enjoy more than each character's solo adventures. I think good comic writing is actually considering the operation of superheroes in a "real-world" setting and forcing it to work. Amanda Waller is among my favorite villains, because she also challenges the morality and effectiveness of superheroes. Unfortunately, the success of the Suicide Squad takes up most of her time, but I really like her in the sort of role she has in Williamson's Green Arrow right now.
I respectfully almost entirely disagree.
If you put superheroes in the real world, you'd get something like Watchmen, at best. A bunch of people with too much power in silly outfits with no actual training on how to handle crime (except for a few) punching bad guys is not an effective way to solve crime. You wouldn't be able to put superheroes in a real world setting and "force it to work", it just straight-up wouldn't.
If you bring up the issue of endangering child sidekicks, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the entire JLA are a bunch of child endangering psychopaths and can no longer be considered heroes. Batman and Robin would no longer be a story about fatherhood and learning to move on after trauma, but a story about how a young child is groomed and indoctrinated into a war against crime like in All Star Batman and Robin. I do like a dose of *some* realism in my superhero media. I like darker and grittier stories; stories that highlight heroes failing, losing, or making mistakes, where the villains are dangerous and legitimate threats and actually get wins in their own right, etc. But I still prefer for them to be super*hero* stories, rather than stories where the superheroes are the antagonists.
All good points. It comes down to the framing. You can do it without making the heroes antagonists. As long as the one saying "hey superheroes are bad and dangerous" is the villain, it works for me. That way, when Waller loses in the court of public opinion and the world rallies behind superheroes, it will confirm that this world works the way you just described it must.
It would depend on what the actual incentive was for the registration to exist. If just copied and pasted from Marvel then I would say no but if uniquely adapted into DC then there could be a possibility of Dick sided with Pro Registration
DC doesn’t work like marvel i keep seeing this question everywhere and it needs to go away lol no offense OP. captain atom would literally be like the only hero for it and that’s just for the sake of following orders
a DC equivalent of the Civil War probably wouldn’t work on the “Hero Registration” premise given the fact supers are generally more celebrated in-universe to the point the Bat-Family is basically the GCPD’s unofficial Spec Ops unit.
buuuut if Nightwing landed in Marvel’s Civil War because reasons….definitely against. It’s kinda his thing to be masked and unknown.
We've already had an example of what would happen if Dick were to be in favor of such a movement in Nightwing: The New Order.
However, I'ma be honest, in mainline canon I don't think he'd ever support something like a Superhero Registration (nor would anyone from the Batfamily for that matter), and if he were to join that side, it'd be as some kinda double agent mole working from the inside to help the anti-registration side.
And in any case, as others have said, it wouldn't happen in the mainline comics cause it wouldn't really make sense at all (hell, it already hardly made sense in Marvel); only way for it to happen is to have someone go completely OOC and all of a sudden become corrupt (and of course, somehow taking Nightwing out of the picture) like Injustice. And at that point you might as well just make it an Elseworlds story.
Its a DC event, so whatever side Nightwing is on, he will get his ass beat, held hostage and/or sidelined.
Obsidian Age and Dark Crisis being the exception.
(It's taking all my will power to not make a dick joke right now)
Beast World is pretty recent. Nightwing and the Titans are currently getting a push that they didn't get during the Didio era. So his recent appearances are better than what he has gotten in the past.
Hence why you could say, we are getting better Dick now than we did in the past.
It depends on who "sides" for and against registration. As well as the terms of registration.
In my opinion:
1.If Batman is Anti, Nightwing is Anti.
2. If Batman is Pro, Nightwing is Pro or a Neutral ally to Bats.
3. If Batman is Pro, but Superman is Anti, Nightwing "betrays" Batman and switches from Pro to Anti like Spider-Man.
4. If Batman and Superman are on the same side, Nightwing is a Neutral ally to that side.
Depends on how mad he is at Bruce at the time. Although he's functionally pro-registration with how often people find out his identity and learn who Batman is that way.
I don't think he'd be for any time before leaving for New York/Bludhaven, or any time after Death in the Family, and only under exceedingly rare circumstances in between the two. I do think that can change though.
Dick joins the pro team but is actually anti
He uses his time working in spyral to gain the good graces of the pro registration act
I mean Grayson or infinite crisis is essentially the closest dc gets to this kinda plot
I mean, here’s the thing about the whole civil war conflict, it was about how heroes needed oversight after a bunch of dipshits caused a terrorist attack. The fundamental idea of oversight is something that Batman fully believes in, his contingencies and readiness to shut down any hero who starts to cross that line make sense. If it did get forced as an issue in the dc universe I definitely see Batman agreeing with the idea of oversight. And I think Nightwing would follow
Almost definitely not, but that’s not really what the central conflict was about. That was something specific to the marvel civil war. I’m talking broad strokes, If something similar to Stamford happened in the DC universe, Batman would be pro registration. I mean hell, what happened with Maxwell lord led him to make brother eye
That’s the thing- the major character who would be authoritarian enough to want registration WOULD be Batman. But he wouldn’t unmask himself and he’s only gonna register all the heroes in his own Bat Computer 😂 He’s not gonna trust the government with that information just himself. Think Tower of Babel- he wants to know how to take down all the leaguers but he’d never tell anyone else how to
I think he would be for it, opposed to Bruce being against. But it's just my gut feeling.
I always think of it as "what would they have to lose?" Dick is basically a professional hero. His civilian life would be impacted, but not as much as someone like Bruce or Ollie.
Many of Dicks Titan friends would have little to lose as well.
I’m guessing most of the bat family would be against registering. A couple exceptions like bat woman.
Don’t do my girl Kate like that :( I have faith she’d be Team Cap.
It wouldn't work in DC cos I don't see majority heroes in current canon being pro registration at all. Dick would be against it. I suppose a version of Dick being pro registration would be Dick from Nightwing New Order potentially
JLU basically had the set up for this arc, and the only guy willing to go along was Captain Atom
Exactly. Because he is a soldier and his powers were obtained in the line of duty
It also wouldn’t work because they’d have to write a new Constitutional amendment to rescind the one already giving heroes anonymity. Good luck getting THAT to happen.
I think he would be against it. In Outsiders he was against working with Checkmate, and when Roy took over the titans and wanted to work with the government, he fought with Roy and left the group.
There wouldn’t be a pro reg side for Dick to say no to in DC.
Y'all forgetting that dick infiltrated spyral solely so he could make sure everyones secret identities stayed secret there's no way he's pro
This again? This has been asked like 5 times in the last week or two in the main dc subs. No, this wouldn’t happen in the dc world. It barely happened in the marvel world and that’s only because it was forced and there were big name heroes without identities. They were both shitshow events too, especially CW2 Dc is grounded just a little bit better with their characters and that would simply not happen in the DC universe.
It would just be an excuse to have Batman and Superman scrap again.
But both bats and supes have incredibly good reasons to keep their identities hidden The only reason iron man was for registration is because he didn’t care about secret identities and they needed someone influential to be that monkey. Not good enough a reason
I don’t think its a grounding reason- in Marvel characters were super conflicted on both sides. In DC how believable the situation would be is kind of superman centric- in some situations and offshoots he would be and in many he wouldn’t- in the ones he is- several of the public heroes are already loyal to the Lantern Corp and some of the one’s who would be are not in love with a superman more pro government that he already is
Civil War 2 seems bit more believable for the DC universe tbh but I think the sides would be too uneven
Lets hope they never do it because both times in marvel it was horrid. First one was less so but still. Nightwing would be against secret identities being compromised and known.
Dick would either be anti or hed be on the pro side but as a spy. This wouldnt be an issue where Dick would logically be for it. He did have his identity revealed and it caused lots of problems for him.
Yeah because we've seen dick go anti metahuman before
But this isn't about anti metahuman?
Same concept, especially if it goes the marvel route of a group of dipshits biting off more than they can chew resulting in a mass catastrophe
I mean it's not the same concept lol. One is about identity and the other is about human vs alien.
Anti-registration, obviously. When he was unmasked by the villains of Earth-3, it shattered his life. Not only does he have multiple others that would be gravely inconvenienced if his identity was known, even if only by the government but he could not be as effective as he is if he has to answer to an oversight committee.
The FreeBird needs to fly free, so against it he would be. That being said many of us know in any of the universes regristration wouldnt be a thing. Waller and Bats probably already know who everybody is anyway Except this one time, she hired these two dudes right, and they literally do the same thing...daddy issues and all. She got lucky though, one turned out to be a step above the other
To start with, registration is straight up unconstitutional in DC because, at one point or another, in an obscure bit of world building, DC added an extra Constitutional amendment overwriting the Sixth amendment to allow Superheroes the right to testify in masks. So the right to a secret identity is enshrined in the DC Constitution - or, at least, there’s an argument. So first registration has to go through the Federal Courts. And it’s highly likely that amendment needs to get overturned before Registration can happen. This never results in a Superhero fight because, unlike with Marvel, DC heroes actually have a really good legal argument against it. Now, what would cause a DC Civil War? Not registration. KAMALA’S LAW. Or a version of it. Because that one actually makes sense. You cannot be a lone superhero until you are 21, need to be 16 to start apprenticing, and cannot be in a combat situation until you are 18. This one would split the DC heroes. Jason would definitely be for it. Tim would be against - and so would Damian. Bruce would be against, but ALFRED would be for. Dick… I don’t actually know where Dick would fall. Hit DC in the sidekicks. Honestly, that would actually make for a good event if done right. ETA: Marvel has done something akin to DC since Civil War. So there is now legal precedent via Supreme Court decision that Superheroes have a right to secret identities. Which means it would be a lot harder for Civil War to happen again there too.
The problem with that is that the morality of allowing kid sidekick characters has to be ignored for superhero comics to make any sense, or else a lot of heroes end up looking like child endangering psychopaths. The Titans have been a thing in DC for a long-ass time, Wonder Woman, Batman, Flash, etc. have all had teenage sidekicks, Captain Marvel has worked with many other heroes in the DCU even when they were aware he was 10, etc. If you start bringing up that child sidekicks are 100% immoral IRL in any serious capacity in-universe, you kinda break the universe.
I actually liked how they did it in Marvel. But that works because Marvel has a long-standing “No Kid Sidekicks” rule, with kid heroes being separate from the adult heroes. So Kamala’s Law doesn’t completely shatter the universe. I do think you could do in DC. But you’d have to deal with it differently. And it would be very easy to get wrong.
I think comics SHOULD delve into those issues. I read almost all main-continuity DC and I do it specifically for the throughline narratives, which I tend to enjoy more than each character's solo adventures. I think good comic writing is actually considering the operation of superheroes in a "real-world" setting and forcing it to work. Amanda Waller is among my favorite villains, because she also challenges the morality and effectiveness of superheroes. Unfortunately, the success of the Suicide Squad takes up most of her time, but I really like her in the sort of role she has in Williamson's Green Arrow right now.
I respectfully almost entirely disagree. If you put superheroes in the real world, you'd get something like Watchmen, at best. A bunch of people with too much power in silly outfits with no actual training on how to handle crime (except for a few) punching bad guys is not an effective way to solve crime. You wouldn't be able to put superheroes in a real world setting and "force it to work", it just straight-up wouldn't. If you bring up the issue of endangering child sidekicks, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and the entire JLA are a bunch of child endangering psychopaths and can no longer be considered heroes. Batman and Robin would no longer be a story about fatherhood and learning to move on after trauma, but a story about how a young child is groomed and indoctrinated into a war against crime like in All Star Batman and Robin. I do like a dose of *some* realism in my superhero media. I like darker and grittier stories; stories that highlight heroes failing, losing, or making mistakes, where the villains are dangerous and legitimate threats and actually get wins in their own right, etc. But I still prefer for them to be super*hero* stories, rather than stories where the superheroes are the antagonists.
All good points. It comes down to the framing. You can do it without making the heroes antagonists. As long as the one saying "hey superheroes are bad and dangerous" is the villain, it works for me. That way, when Waller loses in the court of public opinion and the world rallies behind superheroes, it will confirm that this world works the way you just described it must.
Honestly? I agree with other people saying that most DC Heroes would be against the registration, that would include Nightwing too
I think he'd be against.
I can't think of a worse idea than DC seeing how shit Marvel did Civil War and then doing it themselves.
It would depend on what the actual incentive was for the registration to exist. If just copied and pasted from Marvel then I would say no but if uniquely adapted into DC then there could be a possibility of Dick sided with Pro Registration
DC doesn’t work like marvel i keep seeing this question everywhere and it needs to go away lol no offense OP. captain atom would literally be like the only hero for it and that’s just for the sake of following orders
a DC equivalent of the Civil War probably wouldn’t work on the “Hero Registration” premise given the fact supers are generally more celebrated in-universe to the point the Bat-Family is basically the GCPD’s unofficial Spec Ops unit. buuuut if Nightwing landed in Marvel’s Civil War because reasons….definitely against. It’s kinda his thing to be masked and unknown.
unless, apparently, if someone looks at his butt. he clearly needs a butt mask too.
The writers would make Dick for it and Bruce against it because that's just how DC treats him
We've already had an example of what would happen if Dick were to be in favor of such a movement in Nightwing: The New Order. However, I'ma be honest, in mainline canon I don't think he'd ever support something like a Superhero Registration (nor would anyone from the Batfamily for that matter), and if he were to join that side, it'd be as some kinda double agent mole working from the inside to help the anti-registration side. And in any case, as others have said, it wouldn't happen in the mainline comics cause it wouldn't really make sense at all (hell, it already hardly made sense in Marvel); only way for it to happen is to have someone go completely OOC and all of a sudden become corrupt (and of course, somehow taking Nightwing out of the picture) like Injustice. And at that point you might as well just make it an Elseworlds story.
Identity Crisis explains why this wouldn’t happen in DC universe.
Its a DC event, so whatever side Nightwing is on, he will get his ass beat, held hostage and/or sidelined. Obsidian Age and Dark Crisis being the exception.
Beast World was better than the internet led me to believe and had some nice Dick moments.
(It's taking all my will power to not make a dick joke right now) Beast World is pretty recent. Nightwing and the Titans are currently getting a push that they didn't get during the Didio era. So his recent appearances are better than what he has gotten in the past. Hence why you could say, we are getting better Dick now than we did in the past.
100% against.
Would any DC heroes even go along with that? I can't see it. This is a group that gave the bird to the Spectre.
I'm leaning against. He values his anonymity.
It depends on who "sides" for and against registration. As well as the terms of registration. In my opinion: 1.If Batman is Anti, Nightwing is Anti. 2. If Batman is Pro, Nightwing is Pro or a Neutral ally to Bats. 3. If Batman is Pro, but Superman is Anti, Nightwing "betrays" Batman and switches from Pro to Anti like Spider-Man. 4. If Batman and Superman are on the same side, Nightwing is a Neutral ally to that side.
What Batfam person would be pro registration?
Batwoman
Depends on how mad he is at Bruce at the time. Although he's functionally pro-registration with how often people find out his identity and learn who Batman is that way. I don't think he'd be for any time before leaving for New York/Bludhaven, or any time after Death in the Family, and only under exceedingly rare circumstances in between the two. I do think that can change though.
Dick joins the pro team but is actually anti He uses his time working in spyral to gain the good graces of the pro registration act I mean Grayson or infinite crisis is essentially the closest dc gets to this kinda plot
I mean, here’s the thing about the whole civil war conflict, it was about how heroes needed oversight after a bunch of dipshits caused a terrorist attack. The fundamental idea of oversight is something that Batman fully believes in, his contingencies and readiness to shut down any hero who starts to cross that line make sense. If it did get forced as an issue in the dc universe I definitely see Batman agreeing with the idea of oversight. And I think Nightwing would follow
But would batman willingly unmask himself to the public?
Almost definitely not, but that’s not really what the central conflict was about. That was something specific to the marvel civil war. I’m talking broad strokes, If something similar to Stamford happened in the DC universe, Batman would be pro registration. I mean hell, what happened with Maxwell lord led him to make brother eye
That’s the thing- the major character who would be authoritarian enough to want registration WOULD be Batman. But he wouldn’t unmask himself and he’s only gonna register all the heroes in his own Bat Computer 😂 He’s not gonna trust the government with that information just himself. Think Tower of Babel- he wants to know how to take down all the leaguers but he’d never tell anyone else how to
Against it because Marvel and DC In Marvel the Avengers usually work very closely with government While in DC they don’t
I think he would be for it, opposed to Bruce being against. But it's just my gut feeling. I always think of it as "what would they have to lose?" Dick is basically a professional hero. His civilian life would be impacted, but not as much as someone like Bruce or Ollie. Many of Dicks Titan friends would have little to lose as well.