Nightwing #113 by Tom Taylor, Marv Wolfman, Bruno Redondo, Daniele Di Nicuolo, and Adriano Lucas is a celebratory issue, wishing Dick Grayson a happy birthday as he is awarded a key to the city of Bludhaven and stumbles upon remnants of a weapons deal that’s all leading to a war with Heartless. This issue is bad.
I had initially taken a break from reading Nightwing with #100 because I just couldn’t deal with this book. Tom Taylor writes Nightwing like a white liberal who uses their privilege and money to do great things around the city, except they’re not necessarily THAT in tune with politics in America and the corruptive nature of the city and how it all works. Nightwing apparently does all these good things for the city, but it’s never the actual solutions that get any time given to them. We spend more time with other characters patting him on the back for it, and it feels more like Tom Taylor is patting himself on the back for doing the bare minimum with politics in comics. It’s frustrating to say the least, and I can’t for the life of me see why this book has been so successful.
Nightwing is almost 30 issues deep, and we’re only now having him confront Heartless, in a war no-less, which racks my brain. How did we get here? What has Heartless REALLY done to earn a city-wide war? I feel that if Tom Taylor wanted this villain to be a big deal, he should’ve just started the run off with a war. Start it off with a bang and show Nightwing and Bludhaven reeling and recovering from this. I don’t understand what Taylor thinks he’s doing with this book or the characters involved, but it’s a fat load of nothing. Nightwing is the same character he was back when this run started, and that’s not a good thing. He doesn’t need drastic changes, but nothing in this book challenges him as a character. This series feels like it wants so badly to be a big deal or to push Nightwing as a character up into those upper echelons where Batman or Superman are, but it does none of the work to actually do that.
The best part of this issue was the Michael Conrad and Howard Porter back-up story at the end. It’s a race against the clock as Nightwing has to stop a group of bad guys before a bomb goes off in the subway. I was so damn intrigued by this story because there isn’t an ounce of dialogue in here, and it says so much and holds so much weight, all while being thrilling to read. Porter’s art feels so fast and electrifying, you can really feel how dire the situation is, and it all culminates in a final moment where Nightwing clutches the bomb to his chest in the last few seconds and tries to disarm it. I freaking loved this and it’s such an incredible showcase of Nightwing’s heroism that I haven’t seen in a very long time. Huge bravo to Conrad and Porter on this, I would love to see them tackle the character full-time, frankly.
I want to shift gears and discuss my overall thoughts and experience with this Nightwing series. I try my hardest not to bring too much negative attention to comics as I feel there is already a ton surrounding it as is. Between the constant uninformed “comics are dying” takes or the terribly bigoted folks, comics get a lot of crap, and I came to a point where I’d rather shine a bright light on them because comics are amazing. They changed my life, even as a reader, I would not be writing anything if not for comics. However, this has been heavy on my chest for the last two and a half years, and since I’ve become a writer, this has been an amazing outlet to let some of those thoughts fly.
Since Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, and Adriano Lucas took over Nightwing back in 2021, the character and title have become a monumental success, with many new fans coming to the title. This was great, Nightwing had been a dwindling series with too many writers rotating off the book since Kyle Higgins’s fantastic run ended, but with Bruno Redondo’s phenomenal art and their ability to use the De Luca effect to supreme efficiency, along with Adriano Lucas on colors, this book is absolutely gorgeous to look at. It seemed like Nightwing as a title and brand would be back to being a proper mainstay as an ongoing. Largely, he is still, but I hate the book.
Now most people, even some I am friends with, may not even know I am actually a huge fan of Dick Grayson. I have been ever since I was a kid. He’s my favorite comic character. Some of my first comic books were Nightwing comics. My favorite TV show growing up was the 2003 Teen Titans show, and I adored his adaptation in Young Justice. Now, why would many people not know I’m a fan of Nightwing? Well, I haven’t had much to be excited about for the character in almost three years.
See, Nightwing by Tom Taylor is an absolute joke of a book, and it really disturbs me as a fan of the character and even as a former fan of the writer. I loved All-New Wolverine and what it did for Laura Kinney, so when Tom Taylor was announced to be writing Nightwing, I thought this would be a fantastic opportunity because he did such a great job with another one of my favorite characters.
I was dead wrong.
Tom Taylor started his run on Nightwing in a very typical fashion. He re-reestablished Nightwing in Bludhaven, made Barbara Gordon an “important” supporting character, and gave them a dog. Off the bat, I, and everyone, saw this and thought “Tom Taylor is going to do Hawkeye by Fraction and Aja, but with Nightwing” and that would’ve been amazing even if it was unoriginal. And while Fraction and Aja’s Hawkeye nails everything that makes Clint Barton who he is, modernizes him, and gives us one of the first real behind-the-scenes looks into a B or C-list member of the Avengers. This run, instead, misses everything that makes Nightwing who he is. And before fans of the run go “This is just Taylor’s take” or “Not everything has to resemble the old runs.” Very true, however, there are definitely personality traits and even simple story-telling fundamentals that Tom Taylor seems to wholly ignore. But enough, let me dive into what actually grinds my gears about this run.
Nightwing is a complete moron
I don’t say this to mean that he has to be a genius and needs to be perfect, no there’s a difference between being fallible and being a moron. Dick has been a superhero since before he hit puberty, over half of his life at this point has been being a superhero and detective. With that in mind, I’d say it’s fair for him to be a little experienced and seasoned when it comes to doing superhero stuff. Yet, there are plenty of times in this series where he makes VERY avoidable mistakes with the main reasons being “the story requires him to,” like charging head first into a fight with Heartless without knowing anything about him.
Honestly, his most in-character moment is when he goes after Melinda while still being injured from his head wound, which is another weird subplot that’s been prolonged over the time of this run. What follows isn’t great to me, but it at least reminds me of the times Nightwing would have broken ribs and still go out on patrol and investigate things. Even then, Nightwing is a very calculated hero. Yes, there are times he must think on his feet, and there are even plenty of times when he makes terrible decisions, but if he can plan for it, he’ll make several plans.
On top of that, Nightwing seems to have forgotten to be a detective. I haven’t read this series regularly since #95, but for 17 issues, there isn’t a single ounce of detective work done by Nightwing. This is a huge problem for a series that follows a detective with an overarching narrative regarding a mysterious figure whose identity isn’t even investigated by the detective and instead just flat-out told to us by this mysterious figure.
The series forces us to care about this new villain Heartless, however, for those 17 issues, Nightwing does zero research on the man. Doesn’t even try to locate him, tail him, nothing. Through those 17 issues, we virtually know nothing about the character except that he has superhuman strength and uses a gun that steals hearts. The first of which we find out is because Nightwing underestimates him and the latter, Nightwing doesn’t even find out himself. How are we supposed to care about this villain when even the protagonist clearly doesn’t care enough to make us care? Nightwing is one of the best detectives in the DC Universe, he’s praised for it countless of times, even Ra’s Al Ghul who ONLY calls Bruce “Detective” out of respect, has called Nightwing that. So what are we doing here?
The half-sister retcon
People went on for days over how unnecessary this change was, and it was absolutely deserved. I’m not going to tackle this in a “Dick’s father wouldn’t have done that” way. Honestly, the most egregious part about this retcon is that you could’ve made Melinda Zucco unrelated to Dick and it changes nothing about the story, their dynamic, or Dick Grayson as a character. That’s pathetic. Dick Grayson had already dealt with Tony Zucco and the effect he’s had on his life, so to add a piece like this, it would have to have huge ramifications on the character of Dick for it to matter, but it doesn’t.
Melinda’s mom tells Dick the backstory, and it doesn’t change him, he isn’t angry, he isn’t shocked, nothing. Dick is presented as this perfect person, and instead of having flaws like any human being, we just move on. I would’ve rather Melinda be unrelated to Dick because at least that way he’d have to get to know her genuinely as a person instead of this whole “We’re related so we’re cool” vibe that they have which is unearned and lazy. And that’s just whenever she’s actually in the book because she’s extremely irrelevant after her introduction. Neither of the characters gets to know each other and there’s no drama between these two. Which brings me to my next point.
Tom Taylor is allergic to drama.
I actually would’ve been okay with Melinda being related to Dick if there was some sort of reaction from him, but there just wasn’t. This entire book is devoid of any real drama, everyone’s just happy-go-lucky, and it makes me scratch my head because how do you write any kind of story without drama and stakes for the main cast? Barbara and Dick’s relationship kind of just happens and we’re supposed to just go “Aww that’s cute,” and it absolutely can be but relationships aren’t just that.
What am I supposed to sink my teeth into, what ACTUALLY makes these two work outside of them having cute moments together? There’s nothing that defines their relationship unlike it did back in the day when they were both pretty snarky to each other, it created this sexual tension between the two. Here, Barbara and Dick could just be friends, and again, nothing of significance would be lost. We get zero insight into the relationships Nightwing has with people, no disagreements, no arguments, hardly any discussions, or anything that shows how he handles them.
Then we come to my final point and I will just relegate it to the first 17 issues that I’ve read:
Dick Grayson doesn’t have any character development.
He doesn’t learn anything, he doesn’t go through any real change. Through those 17 issues, a lot is happening around Dick Grayson, but there is nothing that actually challenges him as a character. There is nothing that forces him to do anything outside of using his billions to save Bludhaven, but that’s only a thing just because an ignorant meme about Batman not using his money to help Gotham had been going around and influenced this aspect’s significance. Again though, this doesn’t change Dick as a character, of course he’s charitable. His very first action in Bludhaven back in Nightwing 1996 #1 was giving a homeless person a wad of cash. He’s a superhero who came from nothing and values life, of course he’s gonna use this newly found money to help people, that’s not doing anything new.
There is one time where Nightwing goes around and condemns Bludhaven cops for being corrupt, and cool, I guess, but that just falls on deaf ears for me. Bludhaven has always had crooked cops, Nightwing joined the police force over 20 years ago specifically to root them out, and even if you hadn’t known that, the book is already painting this picture that Bludhaven is worse than Gotham, yet Gotham PD is riddled with crooked cops, so condemning Bludhaven PD and having Nightwing be applauded for it within the book is just the most shameless pat on the back I have ever seen.
Nightwing has somehow been allowed to be this completely safe and comfortable capes comic that does seemingly nothing interesting narratively, and while that is fine because books like that can be plain fun and maybe even needed depending on the title, for it to run this long is just weird. I don’t believe Dick Grayson needed a safe and comfortable comic, he needed a title that took him to new heights not only as a superhero but as a character. This series doesn’t do that. This comic is functionally trying to redo what Chuck Dixon did in his run with a vibrant coat of paint, but you simply can’t recapture that nor should you want or need to. Beyond the fact that I don’t believe it’s the best showcase for the character because ultimately that is subjective and some folks may feel that it is, but if you’re goal is to raise Nightwing to A-List status, you don’t redo a story, you reinvent or stunningly redefine the character, but that’s not what’s happening.
What makes Nightwing’s original series special to the character is that it was his first time in Bludhaven, he was learning the city and was challenged every step of the way. You can’t recapture that. Plus, every time Bruno Redondo isn’t drawing an issue, it’s a huge red flag. I have seen actual reviewers say they disliked issues because Redondo isn’t on it, and if that isn’t the biggest red flag, I don’t know what is. I know fill-in artists can be jarring, but if you truly enjoy a story or saga, the art won’t make you full-on dislike it, especially when the fill-in artists are mostly fine, they’re not bad artists! Stuff like this should make every fan question why this book isn’t as good when he isn’t drawing it. I’ll tell you why: it’s because Bruno Redondo is why you buy this book, not the words or story by Tom Taylor. Frankly, I’m tired of writers, especially white writers, riding the coattails of an extremely talented artist and being praised for the book, but that’s a conversation for another day.
I look at Nightwing and I have many questions, with the first one being “How is this selling so well still?” I thought the hype would die down and eventually the title would end prematurely once people realized that without Redondo this book is nothing special. This series just feels like the biggest industry plant book that ever happened. Nightwing was in a bad spot, just came back from having amnesia and DC decided to give it to a pretty popular writer but nothing interesting happened in it. I have to wonder, when will the cracks actually be revealed to people, when will this thing crumble? I’m not one to pray for the downfall of comics, I love them and I only want them to be better, but that’s why this book and its success drives me up a wall. I genuinely wonder what the appeal of this book has been, especially because I’m not some bitter, old fan. I will read anything with Nightwing in it as long as it’s trying to do something, I read through Knight Terrors for god’s sake and many Nightwing fans avoided it like the plague. And yet I’m going on 2-3 years of not reading this book regularly, and the last time I ever took a break from reading a Nightwing title was when there wasn’t one, back when Grayson by Tom King and Tim Seeley was being published.
I just miss reading Nightwing, and at least getting a genuine reaction from it outside of “is that it?” Currently, it feels like he hasn’t been the character I fell in love with back when I was a kid. I don’t need a super high concept take on the character, in fact, I love a good ol’ back-to-basics take, but if this is it? I guess I just won’t be participating whatsoever, and thankfully, the final arc has been announced, so hopefully the next writer is better.