Nightwing (2016) #78-86

Nightwing #78-86

Originally released in 2021

Written by Tom Taylor

Art by Bruno Redondo (#78-83), Robbi Rodriguez (#84-86)

While I've read plenty of comics over the past nine months with Dick Grayson, whether it's as Robin or Nightwing (I haven't covered his Batman era... yet), those were cases where he was part of a team, so I decided to look into one of his solo appearances to change things up and see how he works on his own.

The story starts off to a flashback to Dick's childhood in Gotham, where he and Barbara save a kid from a group of bullies.  One of those bullies, a Draco Malfoy type of character ("wait until my father hears about this!" and so forth), seems like a character who could wind up being an antagonist in the present day, but the main focus of this flashback is Dick's connection to Alfred.

In the present, Alfred has passed away, with Dick only getting his share of the will recently. (Dick was amnesiac for a while, believing himself to be a cab driver named Ric) As it turns out, due to some good investments and humble living, Alfred had saved up billions of dollars, and he chose to give all of his money to Dick, knowing that he'd make good use of it.

Dick is currently operating in Bludhaven, which is generally portrayed as Gotham but worse.  It lacks the costumed supervillain element for the most part, but the police lack a Commissioner Gordon figure and are firmly under the thumb of the crime lord Blockbuster.

It's the sort of city where people will get drunk and try to shoot a puppy for kicks, which is the point where Nightwing steps in. He intends to bring the puppy to a pound, but winds up taking him in.

Bludhaven has a new mayor after Blockbuster got annoyed with the old one.  Mayor Melinda Zucco has a name that haunts Dick - Tony Zucco is the gangster that killed his parents. While investigating this new mayor, Nightwing is unmasked, and finds out that Melinda Zucco isn't quite who he thinks she is.

While Melinda's mother was forcefully married to Tony Zucco, she escaped him and had a kid with John Grayson before Dick's parents were married.  Melinda and her mother seem to be honest about this and determined to leave Tony Zucco in the past; Melinda only seems to use his last name to get criminals to trust her before she brings their organizations down from the inside.

However, to set up this conversation, Melinda chose to knock Dick out first, so once he regains consciousness and explains the situation to Barbara Gordon, she has to call off the cavalry.

Barbara plays a major role in this series in all three of her identities - she has experimental technology in her spine that lets her walk and be Batgirl again, but it's new and experimental so she tries to avoid fighting crime directly unless she absolutely has to. (Plus she's more dangerous as Oracle)

She's portrayed as Dick's love interest here; I prefer his relationship with Starfire, but I can see why people would prefer a more grounded love interest.  I'm not sure what their history is like as of the current reboot (Tim Drake reacts to them kissing with a "finally", so I'm not sure if they hadn't been in a relationship before in this continuity or if they were on-again, off-again), but they clearly know each other well and have a fun dynamic.

In addition to Blockbuster and his minions, Bludhaven also has to worry about a serial killer who goes by Heartless that steals people's hearts and keeps them in jars for an unknown but undoubtedly creepy purpose.  Going by Dick's comments when fighting him (saying that he's untrained and basically bought his way into supervillainy), I'm guessing he's the Malfoy-esque bully who Dick dealt with in the opening of this run. If that's the case, I fully suspect that Dick will have no idea who he is, while he's obsessed over Dick for decades because Dick (and Commissioner Gordon) made him face consequences for his actions.

Dick figures that, thanks to Alfred's gift, he can do more good for the city outside of his costume, though he runs his ideas past his friends and allies to see what they can add to it.  In particular, it leads to a touching conversation with Superman.

When he's ready, Dick Grayson announces that he's planning on using the billions that he received to start up extensive housing, infrastructure, and support programs in Bludhaven, along with other cities. He wants to make sure that nobody goes without a home while dealing with the underlying problems that the city faces, hoping to use Bludhaven as an example for other cities to follow.

He calls it the Alfred Pennyworth Foundation, which leads to a short but touching phone call from Bruce after Dick's given his press conference.

Issues 84 through 86 are a tie-in to an event called Fear State. With a name like that, you'd expect the Scarecrow to be involved - while he's only mentioned indirectly in these issues, he turned Gotham into a brutal police state with the help of a businessman, Simon Saint, and a computer hacker named Seer who was able to get into and manipulate Barbara Gordon's network as Oracle.

This manipulation of Oracle's network manages to lure Nightwing back to Gotham, where he teams up with Tim Drake, Barbara, Cassandra Cain, and Stephanie Brown to bring down Seer and shut down most of this police state's surveillance network.

My first impression of this series is that it seems wholesome and uplifting.  The potential conflict with Melinda Zucco was ended a little quickly, but it's nice to get a better perspective on who Dick's parents were beyond them being victims of a tragic accident. It has me hoping that Dick's plan for the Alfred Pennyworth Foundation will actually succeed.  Given the often cyclical nature of comic books, I have my doubts (somewhere down the line, some writer will likely want to bring Bludhaven back to being a crime-ridden hellhole), but unlike Gotham City, Bludhaven doesn't seem like a place that would have a firm status quo, so big changes like this could actually stick.