Did Gotham Knights nerf Nightwing’s ass?: An Investigation
Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing, is one of the DC comics/extended universe’s most iconic characters. A former acrobat and trapeze artist who became the first ever protégé to Batman, and boyfriend to Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl, Nightwing has come into his own as a character and the face of the upcoming Gotham Knights game from WB Montreal. But what many know Nightwing for is not his iconic history or role as Batman’s righthand man, but his juicy, spandex covered ass.
DC comics artists have a long history of giving the former boy wonder a big wagon, and though maybe not as faithfully, the more recent video games Dick has appeared in have tried to do the same. But what about Gotham Knights? The trailers for this game haven’t been shy about putting Nightwing front and center, but have they done his legendary derrière justice? I scrolled through trailer footage from both Gotham Knights and Arkham City to find out.
The short answer to this extremely pressing question is that, yes, it would appear that Gotham Knights has nerfed Nightwing’s ass. In a gameplay demo WB put out in May, we get to see both Nightwing and Jason Todd, the Red Hood, in action. Nightwing, who’s doing his usual squatting on gargoyles and jumping around, has a noticeably flat backside in this demo. Even Red Hood – who has never had the acclaim of his fellow-former Robin in the booty department – looks thicker than Nightwing.
But, just because Red Hood is outdoing Nightwing here, does that mean Gotham Knights actually did less with his iconic butt? Well, when we take a look at the GameSpot trailer for Nightwing’s DLC pack in Batman: Arkham City, it becomes apparent that the new Nightwing is definitely working with less.
Though maybe not the roundest cheeks in town, Arkham City’s Nightwing definitely has a distinctive butt, accentuated by his skin-tight costume. When you compare the two, it becomes exceedingly obvious that the Arkham City version has a more defined ass than his counterpart in Gotham Knights.
The Gotham Knights version is blatantly flatter and has no real definition to it. Nightwing might as well be carrying a pizza box in the back of his pants in this new game, which is a disappointing design choice in the wake of previous games that gave it a shot.
Now, of course, it’s never acceptable to only value a character for their body or sexuality, but Nightwing’s ass is such a phenomenon because it allows for cis men to be sexy and appreciated in a way they often aren’t. The male gaze tends to gravitate towards heavily muscular men with over-the-top machismo, but Nightwing being all about that booty shows off a different form of desire towards men (though it’s obviously still geared towards traditionally attractive and “fit” men). Additionally Dick is often drawn in poses that mimic the spine-bending glamor shots women and women superheroes usually take on, giving a sort of subversive take on who gets drawn that way in comics and allowing for some diversity in our objectification. So while the thickness of Nightwing’s ass likely won’t impact any of Gotham Knight’s gameplay, it does leave a hole in his character and the…cheeky…presentation he’s often given in the comics fans have come to love him from.
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