“Yesterday’s” Comic> Nightwing #1 (miniseries)

“This is what I get for letting you buy the concert tickets.”

Nightwing #1

DC Comics (September, 1995)

“The Resignation”

WRITER: Dennis O’Neil

PENCILER: Greg Land

INKER: Mike Sellers

COLORIST: Cathi Bertrand

LETTERER: John Costanza

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Keri Kowalski

EDITOR: Pat Garrahy

Nightwing rescues a kidnap victim named Miggie Webber, who gets hurt during the rescue. The cops arrive in time to tend to her and the kidnappers, all while Batman watched, Nightwing not wanting him to interfere. The reason is that he wanted Batman to be sure he wasn’t leaving because he was losing his edge but because he honestly wants to try at a normal life. Yes, Dick Grayson is quitting the superhero business. He also visits Miggie in the hospital, saying that he found her in the alley, and meets her parents. She also offers to buy him a cappuccino as thanks. Alfred comes not to talk him back into action but to deliver some papers from his late parents that he had forgotten about and nobody had gone over. Included is a death threat that predates his parents’ murder and references something they must have seen when the circus was in the nation of Kravia, a nation run by a dictator. Dick places a call to the Embassy to get passage into the country, but the dictator knows that name and sends an assassin to kill Dick. As Dick’s meeting with Miggie turns into a date, the killer is waiting to meet him.

What they got right: I like that Nightwing got this solo miniseries to test the waters for an ongoing. It shows further evolution of the character. I’m also wondering if Sellers is just that good at hiding Greg Land’s usual direct copying of photo references or if Land was better at using them because outside of a few panels I only question due to his reputation it didn’t stand out nearly as bad as it usually does.

What they got wrong: Batman still has those stupid spikes on his cape that ruined the look in the 90s. Giving Dick a love interest was a nice idea, but as you’ll see in later issues we’re going to have two stories going on at the same time, and Miggie’s story will either suffer for it, or come off as unnecessary as we go along, either way ruining a good plot. I’m also not sure that we needed a story in which Dick has to re-investigate his parents’ murder but it could lead to an interesting story just the same.

Other Notes: If you do a search on the site you’ll find this did lead to a full series, a few issue of which I’ve already reviewed and hope to get back to the issues I have yet to review as I push through the DC Universe section of my longbox.

Recommendation: I remember enjoying this miniseries when it first came out and re-reading it in the past, so hopefully it’s worth checking out.