I have to preface this review with the fact that I am a huge Nightwing/Dick Grayson fan. There’s just something I really dig about a character that has a defined journey, starting out as Batman’s original protégé, to leading the Teen Titans, and then finally stepping out on his own as Nightwing. To me, Grayson is a character that‘s a little more plausible than some of the other auxiliary characters in the DC Universe. He’s a character whose original function was simply to provide a bit of normalcy and brightness in the dark world of Bruce and was originally a bit of a liability out in the field. Over the years, he’s grown into a leader, one of the top DC martial artists, and the unquestioned second-in-command of the Bat family, and the person that everyone expects to step into the Batsuit when Bruce is “dead” or missing. That’s quite a growth for a character that started out wearing a questionable yellow and green costume that just flipped all over the place while Batman did the heavy lifting. But I digress; we’re here to discuss Nightwing #1 by Kyle Higgins, so let’s jump into it.
I’m not going to beat around the bush here, Kyle Higgins nailed it! And I’m not just stating that out of love for the character because as a huge fan, I would’ve been all over Higgins if he would’ve blown it. Thankfully, he captures the tone of Dick, Gotham, and relationship between Bruce and Dick with subtle grace.
It appears that all of the back history of Grayson including his time underneath the Batman cowl has remained intact and that helps to further strengthen the Bat-family as the pre-eminent crime fighting group in the DCnU. If all of their continuity is indeed unchanged then that means Batman and his long-time allies have been fighting crime far longer than any of the other DC heroes. It will be interesting to see whether the various DCU authors pick up on that fact. Higgins certainly picks up on the fact that Dick is a veteran and has progressed from simply being good to being “flawless”. Dick is depicted as someone who’s is always thinking and accounting for what’s going on around him, whether it be crashing through the window of a moving train right before it enter a tunnel or throwing a performance at the circus so that people don’t become suspicious of his dexterity, the reader can’t help but be impressed by the precision that Dick exhibits. This build-up of Dick’s skill only serves to highlight the competence of his mystery foe, who appears to be getting the better of their exchange.
The art is another strong-point of the debut issue. I love it when artist depict Nightwing’s dexterity and acrobatics with a “Flash-esque” multiple pose depiction. The issue doesn’t use big shockers or over –the-top dialogue to try and hook the reader. It simply seeks to solidly reinforce some key ideas chiefly being Dick’s character, his history, and his relationship with Gotham City. It all culminates to remind readers that Dick truly is Nightwing, he’s no longer Robin and he’s not Bruce either, he’s an amalgamation of the two but at the same time, a character with his own identity. The issue achieves it’s goal of being a solid debut issued but does so in an expert way. Throw in a shrewd reference to Batman: TAS (think back to the episode where Robin fought the ninja Kyodia Ken) and this issue is full of win that only a true Bat-family fan would pick up on. I rate Higgins and Barrows debut issue: