One Road Out Of Blüdhaven — Reviewing ‘Nightwing’ #136

Roads provide the means to take us from one spot to another, but they often carry their own dark secrets. Connections to unpleasant pasts or to disconnected presents and tumultuous futures.

Blüdhaven’s new superhighway has deadly mysteries running through its asphalt as Nightwing #136 begins a new direction for the series. Writer Dan Watters and letterer Wes Abbott return for more tales in Nightwing’s city, joined by inker Norm Rapmund, colorist Francesco Segala, and legendary artist Denys Cowan.

<<Spoilers Follow>>

‘Gritty street gang wars meets dark horror fantasy’ was much the vibe from the first portion of Watters’ tenure as series writer. Gone now are the gang wars and the fifth dimensional circus that plagued our hero. In their place is governmental corruption of the highest order, mixed with that same gritty street-level feeling, with likely supernatural horror vibes. This keeps the grim and grit and spooky that really sell this run.

I love how much Watters just gets Nightwing, and also Dick Grayson, as characters. Even faced with danger, he’s the hero that tries to reach people, utilizing heart as much as brain and body when it comes to defusing a situation. Having him dueling between his analytical mind and his experience with things beyond explanation is quite intriguing. Especially since it seems that he was quite wrong, and it cost him and others dearly.

Something like this is sure to weigh on Grayson, and Watters is the right one to really dig into this.

Cowan is an absolute legend; there is no denying that. Somehow, though, I realized I haven’t really read the things that he had worked on over the years. To be fair to myself, things like DC Comics and old school Milestone are some of my lacking areas when it comes to comic book reading. Gee golly, have I been missing out.

This is such a stark kinetic style that really feels gritty to the touch on sight alone. This is a story with a lot of inherent darkness in tone and that is felt in every bit of the artwork. While yes, the story does take place at night, there is an ominous darkness that seeps into all the pencils and pages beyond this time element. Much of that comes from the inks that Rapmund adds to the party. All of those inks soaking into the pages gives the already dense artwork an even heftier presence.

I’ve come across, and reviewed, the color work of Segala quite a few times in the past. In many of those cases there was more vibrancy and lighter palettes befitting those stories. Here, he also taps into the darker shades to keep the city feeling dark and oppressive around this superhighway, dropping in flashes of bolder and brighter elements along the way.

Being the voice of Nightwing has been a task Abbott has handled exceptionally well for years now. He keeps the words feeling familiar and full of power and hope, no matter who is providing them in the script. Abbott knows how to keep the flow working smoothly on the page without losing a single bit of visual boldness.

Nightwing #136 is now available from DC Comics.