Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Nightwing the New Order #6

By Hervé St-Louis
August 20, 2018 - 23:03

The Crusaders fight the Titans and Dick Grayson finally picks the right side of history after his son Jake Grayson asks him to. While the heroes fight one another, Lex Luthor reveals that he is still a villain and plots to give every human on Earth some powers. Can he be stopped.

This being the last issue of this series, I feel confident in sharing my views on a series that In had high hopes for. I have many gripes. Cyborg and Beast Boy were barely used. There is a lot of backstory on other DC Comics mainstay that I would have liked to see explored. Did all the Amazons and Atlanteans lose their powers? If so, did the Atlanteans just drowned? Where are Barry Allen and Hal Jordan? What is Oliver Queen’s take on the fascist Nightwing? Where is Barbara Gordon? Would the tension with Bette Kane not have been stronger and more believable if Nightwing had opposed Barbara Gordon?

I am asking too much because I saw potential unfulfilled. Instead of becoming another Watchmen, Kingdom Come, or Golden Age, remembered for challenging readers Kyle Higgins gave us a safe story where even the ending felt like an afternoon television special. Everything ended well for the heroes involved. Nightwing just stopped being a jerk.

Few stories have been written about Nightwing outside of continuity the way they have for Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern. I understand that DC Comics wants to make Nightwing one of its premiere heroes but that will not happen if the stories written about him continue to be safe, especially when they are Elseworlds. Higgins borrowed all the toys and put them back in the box neatly when he was done.

It feels like a sabotage and to reinforce the old DC Comics trinity plus Justice League pantheon. Why could Nightwing the New Order not aim to be as provocative as the Golden Age, Kingdom Come, or The Dark Knight Returns? Why not explore what it means to be Batman’s first sidekick and partner and see him die. What does it mean to be Nightwing, the first sidekick ushered in the game as a kid and the darling of the super hero community and then turn into a jackass and a traitor? The series explores some of this but stops short of allowing Nightwing to become more than a secondary and a derivative character.

Trevor McCarthy had just the right pulp feel and remined me a lot of Paul Smith and Jim Baikie. He worked with the script that he was given and excelled at that. The only problem is that non-one will care about this series in a few years because while the artwork was there, the depth and grandiose scope of the story was no available.

Rating: 6 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12