Happy superheroes put my teeth on edge, and quippy superheroes need to have their underpants set on fire immediately.

Yeah, but Dick's hardly happy. Dick, in fact, is so far from happy, he can't even smell the hamburgers.

Two words: Tim Drake.

By all rights, he should be an annoying Mary Sue. Despite this, I ♥ him like crazy. Mmm. Want boy.

I totally get why Dick Grayson appeals, but there was a time when he could've been something like Scott Summers

I never pinged for Scott Summers. I was always into Wolverine. And Gambit. I think it's because Scott's flaws just aren't that interesting to me.

Yeah, but Dick's hardly happy.

Especially now his underpants are on fire.

Dick, in fact, is so far from happy, he can't even smell the hamburgers.

Yes, but if Nutty sets his underpants on fire, then he'll be desperately unhappy and naked.

By all rights, he should be an annoying Mary Sue.

I know! And yet, he's fabulous. There's a crazy, calculating edge to the boy, and it's acknowledged, which is I think why he works.

Especially now his underpants are on fire.

Given how often he's ditching them, I don't think he'd have felt more than a tingle.

He's kind of a needy manho.

Devin Grayson is also an out lesbian, which is even rarer in comics than being a het woman.

Some Buffista who I cannot recall but whom I thank again nonetheless sent me a book of interviews with comics writers, about how they work and how they got into it (which I would be happy to add to our Comicsflix pile, now that I think of it). Devin was the only woman interviewed, and one of the writers I liked the best from the book -- and I wasn't even reading Batfamily comics at the time! I got the rec for Nightwing/Huntress based on liking the interview, and now -- well, now I'm buying the latest issue of Birds of Prey to read on the LIRR and wondering why Huntress is surprised to find out Babs and Dick were an item when she was the one who called it that they were going to get together in the mini!

And, for the record, Tim Drake has yet to do anything for me. I don't get it.

He's kind of a needy manho.

Kind of? Hee. According to Babs, he sleeps with anyone who's nice to him. Or who reminds him of Bruce.

There's a crazy, calculating edge to the boy

Tim is deeply Not Right In The Head. He's a competent little control freak in a cape, with a sense of humor, a slightly evil way about him, and a dysfunctional relationship with everyone in the known universe.

I, um, overidentify with him sometimes.

Or who reminds him of Bruce.

It's like Babs is one of us.

It's like Babs is one of us.

She just understands that Dick puts the Ho back in HoYay.