BruDick fan-comic -Cover wip

My internet is kinda shitty today. I'm sharing the cover that I'll probably release way sooner than the finished project as a teaser. DC comics do that a lot with their official releases so why shouldn't I do it as well? This is a serious project after all!

Also, there's a statement from my partner he wanted me to share in advance. A little insight from his perspective about the objectives we hope to achieve with this cooperative project of ours. He coudn't find time this last week to continue the script but we're progressing a lot so far. It's going well!

The difficulties of making a choreography for Muffinmonstah's project.

Objectives of this project (Recreation of the Bruce vs Dick fight from 2011's Nightwing #30):

• To show that Batman and Nightwing's sparring is something common in their relationship that happened multiple times. (This one is easier than the rest)
• To show through the ebb and flow of battle which character is making their point in the argument/discussion hit the mark. Fights are stories. The story of this fight in Nightwing 2011 issue 30 is about Batman and Nightwing arguing about a future mission that will cause a lot of pain to a lot of people. Both parties are making their point through words, the fight should complement that. (Not that hard)
• To make Batman and Nightwing seem as masters of multiple martial arts. (Not an easy task #1)
• To make the reader feel the skill that both fighters have, even if they don't know anything about martial arts (Not an easy task #2)
• To balance realism with entertainment (Not an easy task #3)
• To make the fight seem even. Anyone could win.

The latter three tasks are at odds with each other.

A person that knows how to fight knows that the best defense against a hit is to not be there. Just dodge and make your opponent waste energy. Constant dodging is boring to watch and we run the risk to make the characters seem incompetent or as if they are holding back. They are not holding back in arguments, so they shouldn't hold back in the fighting either.

For that reason, we needed to prioritize blocking and counter-attacking over the realistic and smart decision that any martial artist that knows what they are doing would do... just back away and dodge.

Now, about realism vs entertainment and clarity. Unarmed combat can be divided into three pillars.

• Striking (punches, kicks, elbows, knees, headbutts)
• Wrestling (catching and throwing)
• Grappling (choking, joint locking, breaking of limbs),

Grappling in entertainment, specially in comics, specially in this comic has two issues. When a character does it well enough to fully execute a technique, the fight is over and the damage may be massive. When two characters are at the same level and are counter-acting each other's moves, no one that is not well versed in martial arts will understand anything that is happening.

If you don't believe it, see any MMA fight that goes to the ground for long periods of time without knowing anything about grappling style martial arts and see how you will either be lost or just be bored out of your mind, because you don't see anything that is happening (and there is a lot happening).

So grappling is out of the question.

Wrestling has the same issues.

That leaves us with Striking as a viable style to use in the comic.

Back to realism vs entertainment. About striking.

Any well connected technique applied to any normal human should end the fight. So realism has to take a hit. Both Batman and Nightwing in this project will give and take hits that under any realistic circumstances would end a human.

Just for entertainment's sake and to respect the fact that they are literally fight gods, we are giving them superhuman resistance to hits. Instead of turning off from a well placed hit, they are going to fly against something and break that thing while taking superficial damage that looks cool and painful, but is waaay less worrying that the lethal concussion they should be suffering from.

Now... those decisions being already taken, there it comes the actual challenge... to make them look as the master martial artists that they are supposed to be.

Martial stances. Attacks, blocks, counter attacks from blocks, counter attacks from dodges. Fighting styles.

I need to make both of them show their skills in multiple martial arts. No punch, block or kick can seem generic or out of context.

Different martial arts punch/kick and block in a different way. Different martial arts have different stances with different vulnerabilities and a propper martial artist should be able to adapt.

Blocking a punch by moving it to the outside, that would be a variant of a guard seen in tae kwon do pumsae/tul leaves you open to a strike from the same hand you are blocking. A propper martial artist should exploit that. So that happens in the comic.

After seeing how that block fail the same character, being a martial artist can't repeat the mistake. So the next time they need to block with a different strategy, so we decided to use wing chun elbow hit to the fist as a way to turn a defense into a quite nasty counter attack.

Given that straight punches are now being countered then they need to be changed by using another martia art... and the research begins again.

The same goes by stances. A character that is being hit on the body and head should change their stance for one that protects those areas, a skilled oponent should change tactic and start hiting the legs. Muay Thai provides examples on how to exploit that stance.

So the stance must change again... and the research starts again.

Every single panel requires research to find the right martial art, the right stance, the right attack and defense to make both characters seem like competent fighters with a wide range of tools to use and exploit.

And that requires a lot of time and research.

Muffinmonstah has little to no idea about this. I am practiced in a few martial arts. I am far away from being a master in any of them. But I spent enough years studying and practicing enough martial arts and different styles of fighting to have enough of a grasp in the concepts that apply to unarmed combat.

This is quite a task, and my time is limited. I promised Muffinmonstah that I will provide her with a script, references and guidance to make her project as good as it can be. It will take time, but you will get the fruits of our efforts.

I hope this was interesting enough or at least can help you understand the difficulties of this project and how seriously we are taking it.