Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics | Tagged: chuck dixon, Dean Cain, nightwing, Tom Taylor

Chuck Dixon And Dean Cain, Making Up Outrage For Clicks And Giggles

Chuck Dixon used to write Batman, Birds Of Prey, Nightwing, Robin and Punisher comic books for Marvel and DC Comics.

Published Mon, 29 Jan 2024 11:58:09 -0600

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Chuck Dixon stirs online outrage by sharing altered Nightwing panel.
Dean Cain amplifies the controversy, but both remove original tweets.
Tom Taylor corrects misinformation with the real comic dialogue.
Dixon's response to fake outrage points to deeper issues in comics.

Chuck Dixon used to write Batman, Birds Of Prey, Nightwing, Robin and Punisher comic books for Marvel and DC Comics. The co-creator of Bane, he is also known for everything from Crossgen to Airboy to The Expendables. Of late, his published work has cleaved to right-wing politics and polemics. These have included the graphic novel adaptation of Clinton Cash, Trump's Space Force and the Vox Day comic Alt-Hero. His most recent prominent work was for Alphacore from Eric July's Rippaverse. But this weekend, Chuck Dixon returned to Nightwing to post the following image on TwitterX from the most recent issue, stating "Who wants this?"

Well it seemed that the answer was Chuck Dixon, because nobody else did. Most people presumed the dialogue was fake, though former Superman actor Dean Cain gave the original post a boost, quite tweeting it with the response "no thanks". The writer of the comic, Tom Taylor, responded with the actual panel from the comic in question,

Taylor posted "Hey, Chuck. That's not the dialogue. Someone's photoshopped it for the usual outrage nonsense. But I want to say thank you so much for all you and Scott McDaniel did for Nightwing. Bruno Redondo and I were offered several books, some that would be seen as 'higher profile', but he and I wanted to put Nightwing back on the pedestal we believed he belonged on, largely because of a love of the character that came from your stories. We've fortunately found a lot of success with Nightwing, critically and in sales (largely because of Bruno Redondo's incredible art), but none of this would have been possible without everything you and Scott McDaniel built. Thanks."

Chuck Dixon replied to many people saying that this was fake, saying "The fact that we even have to question whether this is fake or not speaks volumes." But it seemed that anyone reading the comic knew it was fake. Fellow comics writer Tony Lee replied "No, WE didn't need to question if it was fake. That YOU did speaks volumes about you." Chuck Dixon and Dean Cain eventually deleted their original posts. But Chuck Dicon kept his follow ups… up.