Fannish rage.
I'm on a TVtropes Batman-related crusade and having a lot of fun (and yes, avoiding my scarier plot bunnies. I want to write the fic, but it scares me. I'm not being hyperbolic.) and I came across the trope "Rape Is Ok When It Is Female On Men". And what do you know, of course one of the examples was Nightwing's rape by Tarantula.
No. It's not depicted as okay at any moment in the story. He's a wreck during and after the fact and well after the fact. Look, I know Devin Grayson's name is hated by a good portion of the fans while as far as I'm concerned she's a goddess among DC writers, but don't change the text and its implications.
My computer keeps trying to commit suicide when I upload pictures tonight, so I'll keep this short, but here are all the same three scans to prove that No, It Was Not Okay.
Two very relevant pages from Nightwing 93. Takes place just after Dick let Tarantula shoot Blockbuster and he's stumbled to the roof, mumbling that he can't breathe and that he "failed you" and "failed [Tarantula]".
Now, one page from Nightwing 94, which depicts rather accurately how well Dick was coping. (the black-and-white is a flashback to how they got from the rooftop in Bludhaven to a motel out of the city.)
And he's not much better in the following issues. He can just about stand, he can barely fight, and when he speaks it doesn't always makes sense. He lets Tarantula convince him to get married, for fuck's sake.
How is any of that even remotely portraying what happened to him as fucking okay?
No. It's not depicted as okay at any moment in the story. He's a wreck during and after the fact and well after the fact. Look, I know Devin Grayson's name is hated by a good portion of the fans while as far as I'm concerned she's a goddess among DC writers, but don't change the text and its implications.
My computer keeps trying to commit suicide when I upload pictures tonight, so I'll keep this short, but here are all the same three scans to prove that No, It Was Not Okay.
Two very relevant pages from Nightwing 93. Takes place just after Dick let Tarantula shoot Blockbuster and he's stumbled to the roof, mumbling that he can't breathe and that he "failed you" and "failed [Tarantula]".
Now, one page from Nightwing 94, which depicts rather accurately how well Dick was coping. (the black-and-white is a flashback to how they got from the rooftop in Bludhaven to a motel out of the city.)
And he's not much better in the following issues. He can just about stand, he can barely fight, and when he speaks it doesn't always makes sense. He lets Tarantula convince him to get married, for fuck's sake.
How is any of that even remotely portraying what happened to him as fucking okay?