Fool's Wisdom

Anonymous asked: Just read an article that said Dick Grayson is DCs Peter Parker. Do you think Grayson is Parker like?

jimintomystery:

brevoortformspring:

Only in that they’re both relatively young acrobatic guys. Apart from that, there’s not much of a similarity.

The only other thing they have in common is that both characters confound fandom’s attempts to map the Marvel and DC characters to one another in a perfect 1:1 analogy.  It’s relatively easy to claim that Thor is Marvel’s Superman or that the Doom Patrol is DC’s X-Men.  But when you get to characters like Spider-Man or Wonder Woman, the game suddenly gets a lot harder. So instead of realizing that the original premise was invalid all along, fans start reaching for some really strained comparisons.

I do think Dick symbolizes everything about DC’s approach to teenage superheroes that Stan Lee rejected when he created Peter, so it’s interesting to see how both characters have grown up and evolved with those competing strategies.  But beyond that interesting connection they’re light-years apart.  Dick is a rich man’s son, who apprenticed under a vigilante to dedicate 100% of his life to fighting crime.  Peter is an orphan raised by his middle-class aunt, who only plays superhero insofar as he has to in order to assuage his guilt, and conducts his crimefighting as unprofessionally as he can get away with.