On Rape 2: A Specific Look at Nightwing 93:

Yesterday I blogged about a particular issue in which I believe there is a particular subtext regarding sexual assault. I gave quite a few reasons why, as opposed to most instances of actual or implied rape in comics, that one actually worked for me.

The ambiguity of the scene was part of what worked for me, however, there are other occasions in which ambiguity is a mistake that weakens the plotline.

One such case is the rather infamous scene between Nightwing and Tarantula in his solo comic.

Now, I admit, as a comic reader, I have a mixed-sort of percieved relationship with Ms. Grayson's work. She is very skilled at evoking emotional intensity in her work. It is very easy, when one reads Ms. Grayson's stories, to feel involved in her heroes' plights. I thought she was particularly suited to Gotham Knights. Her take on the Bat-family dynamics allowed for very good reading. She particularly had a knack with Tim and Dick, and expressing what it must really feel like for these young men, to be so entrenched in Bruce's crusade. And the emotional intensity of Gotham Knights, was balanced by the elements of action in the other Batman books, as well as Nightwing and Robin.

On the other hand, I found Ms. Grayson's run on Nightwing much less satisfying. The emotional intensity that made Gotham Knights work so well became too overwhelming, I think, in a solo book setting. Bad thing after bad thing happened to poor Dick Grayson, shattering his entire support structure in the independent life he'd made for himself. Now I don't necessarily have a problem with the *idea* so much, it was the pacing. There was no downtime, no chance for the characters (or the audience) to breathe.

When things keep going from bad to worse without stinting, it becomes numbing, and making your audience numb is not really, I think, an ideal result. Whereas a few issues in which it actually feels like things are getting better...well, that makes the next bad thing hit harder. But doesn't make the audience feel like the series is drowning in angst. Gotham Knights didn't have this problem I think because a) there were more primary characters to focus on so that it didn't seem like all of the angst was targetting one person. And b) as I said above, it was balanced by the action in other books. As there really isn't an "action book" correlation of Nightwing, like Batman/Nightwing/Robin was to Gotham Knights, I didn't think the style worked as well.

Anyway, personally, I think that the scene I'm talking about, a scene I'd classify as a rape/sexual assault scene (with certain caveats), particularly highlights the flaws to Ms. Grayson's approach.

Now I have to say that tedium of a sexual assault storyline aside, I have nothing against the *idea* of a female-as-rapist storyline. I had no problem with Starman for example. And I don't really have any problems with Ms. Grayson's characterization of Dick or any other characters involved with the storyline.

My problem with it is two-fold and it involves pacing and execution. Now, I'm going to disclaim right now that I do not know what kind of editorial mandates might have interfered with the development of the storyline, so I can't judge whether any outside influences might have kept this story from being as potent as it should have been. I can only judge by what I see.

The pacing is a minor problem. Coming on the heels of the Blockbuster killing and everything else that happened thus far to Dick, it feels like overkill. Moreover, it's overkill that's not really necessary, the death of Blockbuster has pretty much sent Dick careening to rock bottom. This last bit is unnecessary...especially because it's not really addressed again. (More on this later). That makes it simply gratuitous.

Alright, the most obvious problem is the execution. Specifically the possible ambiguity of the sex scene. Now, in a real life scenario, I know I would probably classify the sequence as a sexual assault. Dick Grayson was, to me, not in his right mind, in shock, and not particularly capable of consent after the sudden killing of Blockbuster. His last words were something to the effect of "Don't touch me!" hence implying that he's not particularly enamored with the idea. Tarantula did not listen or wait for implicit consent.

However, in another sense, I have to acknowledge the ambiguity of the scene as well, in terms of an audience member. How many times, I ask myself, have I seen a movie, soap opera, or read a book in which a distraught female protagonist yells to her male love interest "Don't touch me!" after a specifically horrifying event, only to have said interest soothe her hysteria and calm her down with activities of a sexual nature. This sort of scene is rarely portrayed as an assault. And it is possible that Tarantula herself saw it similarly. Which doesn't negate the sexual assault aspects, but it does muddy the issue.

See the problem here though is that comic audiences are primarily young men. Nightwing's audience is probably closer to fifty/fifty, but that's still half the target audience. Young men aren't really taught to identify with the rape victim to begin with. Young men are raised with very peculiar ideas of sexuality. Look for example at the most recent scandal with the 23-24 year old teacher and the 13 year old student. There are actually male comedians mocking the boy for turning her in, because she's physically attractive and because it's sex. They mock a statuatory rape victim for turning in the aggressor, and they say obscene things about how they would have enjoyed that as a kid.

So a rape scenario between a man and a woman, with the woman as aggressor is not going to be a scenario that guys immediately comprehend. And it could have been so very good, especially given Ms. Grayson's knack for emotion. However, it wasn't. And a big part of that was the ambiguity. If it's hard enough for men to contemplate the idea that a man can be raped, and by a woman no less, it's even harder with more ambiguous circumstances. So this is not really a scenario that should be handled delicately this time.

I remember on a message board reading how a male fan was very upset that Nightwing was turned into a "sniveling submissive rape victim." While I actually disagree with that assessment, I can understand how it came about. There's a lot more stigma attached to guys getting raped than women. They should have been able to fight it, they had an erection/orgasm and thus secretly wanted it to happen..."blame the victim" mentality is strong whether the victim is male or female. And as I said, most guys are not raised to think about the possibility of it happening to them. So for guys to go along with the storyline, I think it has to be *shocking*. It has to drive home that this isn't kinky sex, this isn't something enviable. This is a violation.

(Starman, I think handled it better in terms of a male audience. Jack Knight was unconscious. Had no memory of it. No lingering trauma because of it. However, as he was unconscious, there was no question of it being without his consent. Thus the guys were able to accept that storyline more, I think)

I think the major problem was that Ms. Grayson wanted to keep using Tarantula as a hero. Which isn't really possible if she was a more obvious rapist. Right now, she has plausible deniability. She didn't realize he wasn't consenting. If the rape were more blatant, less ambiguous, she wouldn't have that safety net. However, by making the rape dubious enough to allow Tarantula to remain even marginally a "good-guy",it made Dick Grayson look weak enough that many male readers were lost. (Disclaimer: I don't think actual men who suffer from any form of rape are weak, of course, but it is, sadly, not an uncommon notion).

Now what lost me was the lack of a resolution to the whole mess. See, I understand catharsis, I do. I'll read a lot of intensely dramatic, so deeply emotional that it gives me a headache, sort of stuff and enjoy it. However, I don't see the point in wallowing like that if there's not going to be some satisfying resolution. Nightwing confronting Tarantula with her actions and making her leave Bludhaven, for example, would have worked for me. He loses it and she realizes the error of her ways. That might have worked for me. He loses it, Bruce realizes how much of a jerk and absentee dad-figure he is, Tarantula is punished by an irate Barbara Gordon, and all the bat family gets to have a cute early Gotham Knight-esque moment before things go to hell. (I did get the Bruce-Dick scenes I wanted, a year or so later, under Geoff Johns's pen.)

Now this resolution part I don't really think is Ms. Grayson's fault. Between War Games and Nightwing Year One, she probably didn't have time to show a good resolution. But it was frustrating nonetheless. (And another reason I didn't like it tacked onto Blockbuster's murder is that the Blockbuster incident seemed much more important, overshadowing what should have been a personal horrifying event...and stole away the resolution.)

JSA didn't need a resolution because of the particular sort of subtext it was, because it was a mid-confrontation flashback...and even then, it *did* get resolved somewhat, when the JSA broke in to save the kid, and the Spectre temporarily ate Johnny Sorrow. In Nightwing, the storyline is the now, which means that there is a lot more need for a truly satisfying resolution. I feel gypped.

Basically, I think before a writer should be allowed to write this sort of "ambiguous story", they should ask themselves a few questions:

1. Is this intended to be rape?
2. Does this happen past or present. If it's the past, why does the memory come back now? If now, what's happening now to facilitate it?
3. What character is the victim, what character is the rapist? Do the choices suit their IC actions/circumstances?
4. How in depth should I make the incident? Specifically how graphic should it be, how much detail? Do I have to be overt, or does the storyline stand without it?
5. What kinds of immediate ramifications will this have on the characters?
6. What is the "payoff"?*

*payoff* meaning the part of all this that'll make the reader glad they stuck through all the angst and turmoil. What scene will make it worth it to have been reading these past months. And that's what's missing for me. The payoff should be triumphant in a sense...either the villain's been brought to justice or the victim has made some very strong, unmistakable progress toward healthy recovery. Something like that, I'm pretty easy...

Anyway, I think every writer should be thinking of those questions, and once they've made the decision to go with it, they shouldn't stint what they're trying to show. It'll just weaken the entire thing.

Okay, I'm done now, thanks for making it through all this.