TITLE: Nightwing #9
AUTHOR: Tim Seeley
PENCILLER: Marcio Takara
PUBLISHER: DC Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASED: November 16, 2016

***WARNING: Spoilers lay ahead.***

By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

The dynamic between Superman and Dick Grayson has always been interesting to me. In most continuities they meet each other fairly early, as Dick is just starting out as Robin. As a youngster, he’s still in a position to stand in awe of the grandeur of Superman. But in a way, they’re also peers. They fight a lot of the same enemies, and both have their own unique relationship with Batman. As such, they have an inherent chemistry that people tend to forget about.

Nightwing #9 taps into that chemistry to establish Dick’s relationship with the new Superman (new to him, at least), and set him on a new course: Bludhaven. (Again, new to this Nightwing. Ugh. This is needlessly complicated…)

Keep in mind, the Superman we’re seeing in all this DC Universe Rebirth stuff is the pre-New 52 Superman. He’s married to Lois Lane, has a son named Jon, and has all sorts of memories of things that happened before the New 52 reboot. Nightwing #9 shows us he’s actively on the hunt for enemies that existed in his reality, but haven’t shown up in this one yet. One such enemy is Doctor Destiny, a supervillain who can turn dreams into reality. Using Kryptonian tech, Superman detects his old enemy haunting Dick Grayson, and comes to his aid.

This issue puts Dick on a path toward the city of Bludhaven. Longtime fans recognize Bludhaven has the setting for the original Nightwing series in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Once again, DC is appeasing some of its older readers by restoring certain pre-New 52 elements. I don’t know how much bringing Bludhaven back does to entice readers. But in theory its fine. What I’m not a fan of is how it’s done.

I’ve talked before about the downside of having the old Superman back. It’s a thrill for fans who’ve been around for awhile, but it also makes things really convoluted. I love the way Dick has been influenced by both Batman and Superman (the Nightwing name originated in a Superman story), and I give this issue credit for continuing that tradition. But Dick only learns of Bludhaven’s existence when Superman shows it to him in a dream, and tells him about the connection with the pre-New 52 Nightwing. That’s a cheap shortcut. Tell me a story and take him there organically.

While I didn’t appreciate the way it was facilitated, there’s promise in Nightwing heading back to Bludhaven. In the ’90s, Chuck Dixon and his cohorts gave that city it’s own  feel and identity. It would very much behoove this team to do the same thing, whether it’s a similar feel or not.

As much of this issue takes place in a dream, it’s fitting that artist Marcio Takara and colorist Marcello Maiolo’s work has a sort of soft, dream-like vibe to it. Takara’s characters are very expressive, which helps tremendously when Dick gets a little help from some old friends. In one panel he’s downright overjoyed, which is something we don’t see too often from our friends in Gotham. We also get a really nice splash page of Dick and the wide array of DC heroes he’s connected to in some form.

That’s really the theme of Nightwing #9. Dick Grayson may have been raised by a notorious loner, but this little adventure with Superman reminds us he’s hardly a loner himself. He and Batman are so much alike, yet so different. Tim Seeley gets that dynamic, and it’s one of the reasons he’s had such a solid solo run with Nightwing thus far. This wasn’t his best issue. But there’s a lot of intrigue on the horizon.

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