I might have misunderstood something in the episode Summit, but I think Nightwing wanted Kaldur to take BACK leadership of the team. The way I understood it, Kaldur had remained team leader until he went into deep cover. Nightwing has only been interim leader.
When Season 2 opened, I assumed, because Nightwing was immediately shown as team leader, that he had transitioned into that position during the five-year gap. After all, it was made pretty obvious in Season 1 that Dick would become leader at some point. This might have been my bad, but I figured that meant he had been leader for some time and that he was in charge of the deep-cover plan. But, if Kaldur was still leader before he went into cover was the plan not really Nightwing's? Is this Kaldur's plan?
If so, this raises a few questions for me and offers some disappointments.
-Why did the other team members not suspect something like this was happening? It seems to me that it would be much more suspicious if your team leader suddenly went bad than if a subordinate did. I know Kaldur was supposed to be hurting over Aquagirl's death, but his defection would make even more sense if he went over to his father's side in order to regain a position of power. If your leader suddenly disappears, it seems like that should set off a few alarm bells.
-So is this deep-cover plan not really Nightwing's? I hope not, but the immediate passing off of leadership to Kaldur makes me wonder. If the plan was Kaldur's, then Dick might not be such a badass. Boo.
-This harms Dick's growth if the plan was not his. I have really enjoyed how the kid who didn't want to be Batman has become Batman. It was tearing Dick up inside and providing great growth. What kind of hero did he want to be? Was he coming to a deeper understanding of how and why Bruce operates like he does?
Maybe the plan was still Dick's. I don't know. The ending just left me with some questions. I thought this was Nightwing's crowning achievement as leader, but Dick trying to pass back leadership left me disappointed. I know the show is not the same as the comics, but I wanted Dick to have been leader for a while - and to continue as such. I felt like that was what Season 1 promised me. If Dick is so eager to give back leadership, it strikes me as being rather un-Nightwing-like.
But hey, maybe he's handing off leadership of YJ so that he can join the Justice League like Zatanna and Rocket.
Thoughts? Am I making something out of nothing?
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