We'll add "costume display" to that list, as well
What is there to be said about Dick Grayson which hasn’t been said before. He’s an acrobat, the first Robin, founding member and first leader of the Teen Titans. He Lead the outsiders as Nightwing and after final crisis became Batman when Bruce was busy travelling through time in something which was not shaped like a blue phone box…… Oh and he’s also a playa. Chicks dig the Di…… Grayson. They dig the Grayson. So now that he’s no longer Batman (don’t ask me, I’m one of those people who didn’t pick up the batman series *now ducks to avoid the rocks being thrown at him*) how dose the world react to the return of Nightwing? Lets Pick up Nightwing #1 and find out.
The issue opens with Dick Grayson explaining that as he was raised in a moving circus staying in the same places is strange for him, especially this last year in Gotham, made even stranger as he’s been filling in as Batman for most of that year. So after a year of filling someone else’s shoes he’s glad to be himself (Nightwing) again, leaping off the top of a building in his new black and red costume as this is said. As he lands on the roof of a moving train Dick mentions how filling Bruce Wayne’s shoes has made him stronger, and how he was good at the job but then the city started to change around him. He then looks down into the train, and we see a psychopath murdering passengers with Dick commenting that this guys the third psycho that he’s had to take down this week. He leaps
into the moving carriage, as the train enters the tunnel, commenting on how when he was Robin his movements and mechanics (of movement) were great, but now their flawless. Dick continues to monologue about how as Batman Gotham threw it’s worse at him and that in the end he’s still come up on top, all the while beating up the train psycho until he’s unconscious, with a red Nightwing symbol painted onto his chest in blood. As Dick heads home he comments on how there’s nothing left that the city can throw at him and ruin for him, but as he jumps and leaps he stops and positions himself on a gargoyle and looks at a big top that’s been erected in the city. Hayley Circus, Dicks home, has come back to Gotham. All that Dick as to say about this is “Well played Gotham”. Meanwhile a coach arrives at the Gotham port and a mysterious man in sunglasses gets off. Who is this man? Pick up Nightwing #1 to find out.
Kyle Higgins dose a great job re-introducing us to Dick Grayson as Nightwing. He mentions that Dick was Batman, and then explains how that’s changed him and the way he operates now as Nightwing (or as Dick like to say, himself). Through the monologues Dick’s high-spirited personality seeps through, and you can’t help but smile and get a sigh of relief that the darker Nightwing Costume doesn’t mean a darker Dick. Also the depiction of Dicks new home life, as he’s moved out of the penthouse into his own place again, you cant help but laugh a little. Also as Nightwing is a more noticeable character to the public eye than most other DC characters, due to the countless Batman series re-introducing Dick Grayson over and over again, and Batman the animated series showing us his change from Robin to
Nightwing, we don’t get an origin for the character in the conventional séance. Dick mentions how he was Robin and how he was also Batman, but intead of giving us a flashback of his origin Kyle Higgings decideds to bring Hayley circus back to Gotham, and in a way bringing Dick back to his true origin without going down the “Flash back” or “origin story” rout. Eddy Barrows dose a great job on the art with a great 2 page layout of Dick landing on and then entering the train, not to mention the shift between the non-smiling Dick as Nightwing, and then Dick smiling as he enters his old home. It’s some pretty nice art, made better by J.P. Mayors inking and Rod Reis. If there’s one niggle it’s about the colouring of Dicks new Nightwing costume. Though I had no initial problems with the Black and Red, thinking that it gave a Batman Beyond vibe, it just doesn’t quite feel right.
Overall I give Nightwing #1 a 4/5. New readers and old alike will enjoy it, and despite the enjoyment that people had during his run as Batman it’s great to see Dick being his own hero again and not filling in the shoes of another. So in conclusion, if your not reading this then you obviously don’t like kittens and puppies and don’t realize that I give Nightwing #1
4/5
