NIGHTWING #1

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Written by KYLE HIGGINS
Art and cover by EDDY BARROWS and JP MAYER

Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99

Over the summer I got introduced to a brand new writing with Kyle Higgins. Along with Scott Snyder he wrote a fun mini-series with ‘Batman: Gates of Gotham’. While the debate of who exactly wrote what is up to debate, it was clear that Higgins also had a great knack of writing Dick Grayson. Speaking of which, Grayson had a great time at being Batman but now he’s back (some say demoted) to Nightwing for the New DCU. While it’s going to take some time seeing Dick back in his old costume, I’m excited to see where Higgins can take himself without another writing at his side.

For the most part, I had nothing to worry about because this was a really fun issue to read. Yet another book where the character has to be reset, it still feels fresh without feeling like Higgins was forced to bring it all back. Grayson is cocky but still smart enough to realize that being Batman hasn’t made him a better superhero. While he isn’t fighting villains though, we get to see a nice addition back to the character with his circus troupe coming back to Gotham. While Higgins is obviously setting the place up for the future it’s nice to see that Higgins brings back Dick’s past without making it feel shoehorned in. The only problem I had with this issue is that towards the end, Dick totally let a couple of cops get killed. Now maybe Higgins had no perfect way of Dick changing into costume, but just letting two cops die seems really un-Dick like. (Actually it makes him like a Dick…HA! Get it?…eh)

Eddy Barrows hasn’t been the most watched artist in my book for the last year. His run on Superman certainly didn’t help with some very uneven and downright ugly pencils in my mind. Here though he’s going full out Neal Adams (not the first artist lately to mimic him) on his layouts and it’s all for the better. The beginning train sequence looks really good and so does the circus scenes. Although his character models are still pretty funky to me. I mean I know Dick used to be a great trapeze artist but those other trapeze artists are a bit too ‘excited’ to see him work it. That and a few moments of action involving blood, especially with the cops, look a bit too cartoony.

Color me impressed, seriously. I did not expect to enjoy this issue all that much when I first picked it up. But Higgins definitely got me with a great voice for Dick Grayson and Eddy Barrows art looks really good here. There obviously needs to be some better choices in the future, especially with Dick making sure to SAVE some people and Barrows art could be more refined. As a whole though, this is definitely the most surprising comic for me for the New DCU.

Story: 4 - Very Good
Art: 4 - Very Good

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