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05/16/2003: mostly random late night thoughts on Nightwing and Superman
While I was supposed to fall asleep, yet didn't (normally not something I have a problem with, I'm definitely not an insomniac person) I thought about Nightwing and how he moves in three dimensions most of the time, even outside of fight scenes and such, and how at least some of the comics (as everything in comic canon it varies a bit) suggest that his mood is reflected in his movements, sort of a three dimensional and very agile sort of pacing. Like in Gotham Knights #26 (a part of Bruce Wayne: Murderer?) we see him walking on the top edges of Barbara's furniture, and later Tim (in the conversation they have while fighting some random bad guys when Dick has asked him to come for a walk) says something like "Don't you ever walk on the ground?" to which Dick replies "Not if I can help it."
Right now I don't remember any other specific examples where Dick's movements reflect his mood so directly, though that he has fun doing acrobatics, and uses every opportunity to move in interesting and non-standard ways is established more or less constantly. It's something I like a lot about the character.
Nightwing's moves (Dick's too, he also does this outside his superhero persona) are cool to look at, compared to example Superman's who, though he can fly (and thus potentially move easier in three dimensions), just mostly either floats or flies in a more or less straight line, precisely because he doesn't have to jump, somersault, or leap to get anywhere, so he doesn't have to move in this interesting, eye-candy way. And of course if you go with the Smallville version Clark was afraid of heights (I have no idea if this appears in the comics), so while he obviously got over this enough to fly around regularly as Superman, it's not surprising that he's not really comfortable above ground and doesn't take advantage of three dimensional movement except in an "elevator" kind of way. And okay, obviously Superman can always just super-speed, also he doesn't even need to dodge enemies, bullets or anything else, so he can afford to remain rather static, where the non-invulnerable superheroes can't.
Anyway, I think their different attitudes could also show up in interesting ways in Nightwing/Superman slash, especially if you go with the remnants of acrophobia for Clark, who in that case might show the same kind of exasperation with Dick as Tim in that regard. I mean, Tim clearly can move above ground quite well too (though not as proficient as Nightwing), he just seems to prefer to do such acrobatics only when necessary, and doesn't have Dick's preference for heights and precarious balance, either.
