Grayson's Inheritance, Part 3

My last post on this laughable book. At least, I think this is the last. I can't believe I've written this many posts on a book that was barely literate. I finished my skim read of it last night. Since Dick's traumatic childhood didn't have as many focal points as Roy's, Devin had to create a lot of other stuff for him to keep the flashbacks somewhat balanced. There was a lot of happy circus scenes that bored me. And most of the Dick and Batman scenes in flashback weren't as interesting as Roy's past simply because they went over much more familiar territory.

Dick calling Ollie "sir" made me nearly choke at times. I don't think I've ever heard anyone, let alone Dick, call Ollie "sir." And since it's made clear that this story takes place after Roy was shot in The Outsiders, an issue where Dick is giving guest star Ollie orders, it's clearly wrong. Dick doesn't defer to Ollie as his elder.

p. 180, bottom. A reference to Dick's old Robin costume in Ollie's thoughts as "cute" made me nearly want to barf. Nevermind the homosexual subtext, and not that sub, either; this bordered on pedophilia. Ollie always struck me as someone who was tolerant of people who were different, including gays, as long as he didn't have to deal with it in his family. Ollie has always been Mr. Macho, and the sexual byplay, innuendo, etc of these scenes were bizarre. Sure, he takes some perverse pleasure out of Roy following his lead in being a healthy, sexually active with women sort of guy, and he might question someone's manhood (and likely not in a nice way), but I seriously doubt Ollie would ever engage in thoughts or teasing when it comes to boys of any age below the age of consent. I can't imagine him thinking any costume on a man or boy as being "cute."

p. 331. Roy has stubble on his unshaven jaw. Well, duh. I wouldn't expect him to have it on his shaven jaw. That's just sloppy writing and sloppy editing.

The best part of the book, if any part of this could take on the descriptor "best," is the end when Dick, Roy, and Garth get together. The friendship of the original 5 Teen Titans is something special and one thing Devin rarely screws up. I especially liked Dick telling Roy that Ollie told him how Ollie and Roy had met and Roy asks which story, telling Dick they were all fabricated. It was a neat bit of retconning because while the original origin tale(s) might've been fine for the 7 Soldiers era, or even the Silver Age, it doesn't make much sense in modern times. And that Ollie would exagerate things, including his own origin (which I wasn't as happy about), makes sense.

So, there you have it. A bizarre book featuring my favorite DCU characters that had me wishing someone would write a good book about them.