Written by Kyle Higgins
Illustrated by Eddy BarrowsDick Grayson flies high once more as Nightwing in a new series from hot new writer Kyle Higgins (BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM)! And as he embraces his destiny, Haley’s Circus, the big top where Dick once performed, returns to Gotham City — bringing with it murder, mystery and superhuman evil. Nightwing must confront his past, among former friends and enemies from his circus days, while uncovering a much greater evil!
A new DC Universe is upon us and Dick Grayson is back in the only suit and moniker he ever really chose for himself, Nightwing. How does this new beginning for the once Boy Wonder AND once Caped Crusader hold up?
Click on down to find out!
One thing became abundantly clear to me once I was a few pages into Nightwing #1: while Kyle Higgins was co-writing Batman: Gates of Gotham with Scott Snyder, he was very clearly taking notes. The result is a writer that very clearly understands the mindset of Dick Grayson following a year under the cowl, as first the only Batman for a while and then the Batman holding down the Gotham City fort. It’s with this thought in mind that I dove into the rest of the issue, and overall I can honestly say I was pleased.
While it was fairly common knowledge that Dick never really wanted to be Batman and largely kept the cowl on because he either felt he had to during Bruce’s individual cross-time caper or because Bruce asked him to hold down the Gotham fort as he travelled the world building Batmen all willy nilly, his sheer joy at being able to vault through the skies of Gotham as Nightwing again is believably on display and completely convincing both from a scripting and an art perspective. Every bit of Dick’s inner monologue was indicative of a person that had just been freed from an immense burden and was finally living their own life after a very long time, and that is exactly what needed to happen in this book.
Having the book narrated by Dick himself, Higgins quickly and succinctly establishes Dick’s new status quo, and in very short order sets that status quo in stark contrast with Bruce Wayne’s. However, the trick is that he made this contrast seem as natural as possible and kept it far from the “angry son rebelling against daddy” scenario it very easily could have been in less skilled hands. Moreover, by making this contract seem like such an obvious no-brainer, Higgins manages to make the reader (or at least THIS reader) reflect back on Dick’s entire tenure as Batman in a whole new light, adding a crucial element to that story by proving that Dick never really got comfortable in Bruce’s shoes. Good writing makes you appreciate what is on the page in front of you, and great writing makes you appreciate what came before more BECAUSE of what is on the page.
It seems that Higgins was not content to simply have Dick launch back into his life before Batman, though, and decided to go the full court press and bring back elements of his life before Robin as well, with the inclusion of Haley’s Circus as a major plot point in the story. I assume if you’ve read this far into a review of a book starring Nightwing then you know how important Haley’s is to the history of Dick Grayson. Given that, watching him indulge in bit of light trapeze sent a crucial message about the character of Dick at this point. After everything he’s been through, he is absolutely, 100% not the character he was when his parents died. Not only has this issue distanced Dick from the shadow of the Bat, but it’s distanced himself from the tragedy of his parents’ deaths, thus hammering home the overall message of the issue — “Dick Grayson is finally his own man.”
Given that, the introduction of a mystery villain that seems to know more about Dick than Dick does and wants nothing more than to kill him dead is a master stroke. Sure, a lot of DCnU books have introduced new mystery villains into the lives of its reborn heroes, but this is the only one that seems to serve a purpose in completely dismantling the peace of mind Dick struggled for and, in a lot of ways, is his most valuable commodity in creating an entirely believable cliffhanger.
Continued belowOn the art side, Eddy Barrows develops a sleek, polished approach to this book that, while not entirely unique, gets the job done that it needs to get done. His characters all have a unique physiology and are very clearly distinct from one another. While this may seem like a no brainer, there is one very prominent Bat-book also out this week that gave me pause when trying to tell one character from another, so this book establishing a sense of visual distinction is a big plus. Another big plus is the way Barrows placed his characters — be it Dick himself, the Haley’s trapeze artists or even our mystery villain — within the panels themselves, which conveyed the airy and continuous movement one would expect from the likes of someone that has no super powers and yet still launches himself through the sky.
Overall, this book is off to a fantastic start, not only in establishing a foothold for itself but also in justifying each and every one of its decisions to create the maximum storytelling payoff. I am most definitely in.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
