All eyes have been on Dick Grayson during the recent ‘Forever Evil’ storyline, thanks to him being captured by the Crime Syndicate, unmasked to the world, and then presumably killed. Even in the recent “Batgirl” #26, Babs spoke of Nightwing like he’d bitten the dust, as had been implied in the vague explosion from “Forever Evil” #6. Rest assured, Nightwing fans. Nightwing’s alive, he’s just cutting off the “Dick” to make room for his new “Grayson” ongoing series from writers Tim Seeley & Tom King as well as artist Mikel Janin.
Well this is certainly happening.
On USA Today Tom King, a former CIA operative who’ll use his experience to help inform the direction of the series, says this is an opportunity for Grayson “to take off the mask and step out on his own in a world where he’s not simply being another hero like the hero he grew up with,” adding “He’s doing something that’s going to cause pain to his friends and family, but he believes in the cause. That tension between having to do something good but having the cost of it being pain to his family, it drives him a little crazy.” So I guess that explains Babs’s believing he’s died, as Grayson will apparently be dead to the world and working for Spyral, the spy organization introduced during the tail-end of Grant Morrison’s “Batman” run. This’ll lead into some moral quandaries for the character, as well as a new archenemy and what Seely describes as a “world-hopping action comic” further adding that “King wants every issue to feel like a TV issue of Mad Men or Breaking Bad.”
Also new for the comic will be Grayson’s costume, designed by Janin, meant to elicit the classic Nightwing costume in some way I genuinely can’t notice. I think that silver button in the middle is a “G”? I have no idea, but it’s a good spy costume I’ll give you that.
I’m honestly not too certain how to feel about this move. On one hand, it’s hard not to feel like this is a reaction to the recent popularity of The Winter Soldier (whose own 2012 series was about him going undercover after faking his death at the hands of a C-list villain.) Still, Mikel Janin’s a great artist whose presence on Justice League Dark has been missed and it’ll be exciting to see what Seeley and King bring to the table, given the latter’s experience with espionage and the former’s work on “Revival.” “Grayson” hits comic book stores this July.
