Nightwing #50 Preview/Discussion

[K. Jones]

There's some jarring things happening here.

The Batman story in which the new Nightwing status quo happens is not even done yet. So this issue comes too soon. More than that, I'd also you know, rather Dick be taken off the board and some new character step in to be a Substitute Nightwing.

There's elements I like, though. I liked Janson's Batman and Robin vs. Scarecrow flashbacks. They felt like a mesh between some of the New 52 flashbacks (the ones from Batman and Robin Eternal) and King's flashback in #54. I can at least buy the concept that Dick wore that New 52 Robin costume ... briefly. At one point. In his long crimefighting career. I like lots of costume changes.

Anyway I mostly read this one to close out Percy's run, and out of morbid curiosity. I don't really think I can bring myself to read the new direction because I'm already reading that character in Red Hood, by the same author, plus marginally invested in what Damian's doing in Teen Titans, which connects.

Watered-down Jason Todd antics, complete with "Didn't Bruce do this last year?" amnesia, isn't a bad concept in superhero soap operas, it's just Too Samey to some other things going on recently. So it's not even a unique new direction.

I'm not like all bent out of shape - Nightwing's been treading lightly since Seeley left as a title I'm invested in, and I'd already skipped a lot of the fill-in stuff, even when it had like, Bernard Chang art. I'm sure something'll come along to make it cool again before too long. I lived through all that Owl Chosen One stuff and sort of learned to like some of it, so I mean, I'll deal. Good things are happening. I mean Tomasi's about to run with Detective up to 1000. That's worth dancing about.

[Uncanny Mutie]

Straight up TRASH. DC has no idea what to do with Dick since Grayson ended and he returned to being Nightwing. I'm done with this book.

[agentofthebat]

I don't think im going to like this

[WhipWhirlwind]

There is no direction beyond DC wanting to use shooting Nightwing in the head in Batman as a shocking gimmick and then dump the aftermath all in the lap of the Nightwing book without any idea what to do with it. It reeks of poor management and a lack of care for the book, creative teams involved, and the character.

I just don't get why people would put up with these kind of things when it is clear that DC doesn't care. It is forcing yourself to read something and buy something that DC has no plan or purpose for with no signs of any of this changing.

Preach!

Previously I would just check out of Nightwing whenever this kind of **** came about, but at this point I can't even buy a Batman book without feeling like I'm supporting Dick being tossed to the wolves.

So everyone from Bruce, Alfred, Babs and every other hero Dick knows basically just lets him go without his memories? What feels very clear to me is that this feels like an excuse to take Dick's (or should I say Ric's) character off the table. Like they specifically wanted to isolate him in Bludhaven and remove him from appearing in other books or the DCU. Him suddenly being taken off the Titans book (they had to alter a cover with him on it to replace him with Kyle) makes this more clear. The only reason I can think of is that they didn't want him to be involved in Heroes in Crisis and so they decided to shoot him in the head in Batman then contain the character and fallout to just his solo book in Bludhaven to exclude him. Things like this annoy me the most to be honest.

Edit: Also Dick not appearing in the Roy funeral issue in Green Arrow makes this even more apparent. They just didn't want the character involved in this.

Putting yourself in their shoes, why would they do this? I get it when it involves people with abilities or skills that break the story, but this clearly isn't that. I doubt the issue is King not wanting to write him, for obvious reasons.

I just don't understand why DC seems to deliberately sabotage something that could make them money.

[Avi]

There's some jarring things happening here.

The Batman story in which the new Nightwing status quo happens is not even done yet. So this issue comes too soon. More than that, I'd also you know, rather Dick be taken off the board and some new character step in to be a Substitute Nightwing.

There's elements I like, though. I liked Janson's Batman and Robin vs. Scarecrow flashbacks. They felt like a mesh between some of the New 52 flashbacks (the ones from Batman and Robin Eternal) and King's flashback in #54. I can at least buy the concept that Dick wore that New 52 Robin costume ... briefly. At one point. In his long crimefighting career. I like lots of costume changes.

Anyway I mostly read this one to close out Percy's run, and out of morbid curiosity. I don't really think I can bring myself to read the new direction because I'm already reading that character in Red Hood, by the same author, plus marginally invested in what Damian's doing in Teen Titans, which connects.

Watered-down Jason Todd antics, complete with "Didn't Bruce do this last year?" amnesia, isn't a bad concept in superhero soap operas, it's just Too Samey to some other things going on recently. So it's not even a unique new direction.

I'm not like all bent out of shape - Nightwing's been treading lightly since Seeley left as a title I'm invested in, and I'd already skipped a lot of the fill-in stuff, even when it had like, Bernard Chang art. I'm sure something'll come along to make it cool again before too long. I lived through all that Owl Chosen One stuff and sort of learned to like some of it, so I mean, I'll deal. Good things are happening. I mean Tomasi's about to run with Detective up to 1000. That's worth dancing about.

Exactly. Like... why not someone like Stephanie? They were pretty good together in Eternal.

I mean, DC is going the route of people trying to do Dick's job anyway. But instead of them actually acting like Nightwing would act they obviously have to be antagonists... at least that's what I got from the ever changing solicitations.

If they just heat up other arcs, they could do Nightwing's we are Robin. The Run-Offs could help, the St. Hadrian Girls, hell, that girl with ginger hair from Higgins run. Or people like Guppy. Or even Harper. Or you know... the actual people from We Are Robin.

Instead we'll get new characters once again that won't stick once the next writer takes over.

[Murrocko]

I mean... this wasn't a terrible issue. Loved the art. Trying to be optimistic here, hopefully this leads to a solid direction and maybe a writer that will actually stays on the title for more than 6 months. Whether it be Lobdell or whoever. I just want to someone to have a mapped out direction for the character, multiple story arcs, real supporting characters. If he's in Bludhaven, bring back Clancy from the Dixon era and Pigeon with the runoffs. Assuming he'll be back as Nightwing with most if not all his memories back, this'll be a good launching point for the character to finally have some stability.

Also (I know I may take some heat for this but...) I'm ok with them wanting to keep the name as Rick Grayson (something I think they should have pushed during the New 52). It's 2018, no one in their mid-20's is going by Dick as a nick-name. Also also... hope we'll be getting a new costume by the end of this #BringBackTheFingerStripes

[Badou]

Putting yourself in their shoes, why would they do this? I get it when it involves people with abilities or skills that break the story, but this clearly isn't that. I doubt the issue is King not wanting to write him, for obvious reasons.

I just don't understand why DC seems to deliberately sabotage something that could make them money.

I really don't know other than they didn't want to use him in HiC and this serves as a good excuse for why they couldn't use him in it given how heavily involved characters like Roy and Wally are in it. Maybe people like King or Didio didn't want Nightwing in it to take away focus from Batman, but I can't be sure. It just feels very deliberate that they want to isolate the character in Bludhaven while this is going on with no real plan in place for why they would do it.

Also the fact that Percy's next story arc was going to be about Dick's importance in the DCU with the Dark Web stuff it feels like DC specifically didn't want that to happen so we got this new "direction" instead.

[byrd156]

In theory, could Zatanna bring Dick his memories back? Or literally another other magic character in the DCU?

This feels like a OMD situation. Aunt May gets shot and Peter goes to all the big scientists and magic users of the Marvel universe and no one can heal a bullet wound. Like that story this Nightwing story is the kind that only works because the plot says so.

Batman is ready to give up on Dick because the plot because the plot said so.

Dick is Rick because the plot said so.

Babs is the only one acting like herself.

[Supermutant2099]

This issue was worst then I could ever imagine. The ending especially was a middle finger to fans. It makes no sense. Its disaster size bad. On scale of 1 to 10. Its a 9001 bad. Excuse just drastically change a character into a jerk and separate him from Batverse (and titans maybe) for no reason. It makes no sense that everyone else would stay away and not help him. Just the way he acts around "F my old life. I'm going to be ahole now. You don't like go shove it" It feels Didio trying to make us hate him now so he can kill him off like he wanted to back Infinite Crisis. That only thing makes sense.

[byrd156]

Exactly. Like... why not someone like Stephanie? They were pretty good together in Eternal.

I mean, DC is going the route of people trying to do Dick's job anyway. But instead of them actually acting like Nightwing would act they obviously have to be antagonists... at least that's what I got from the ever changing solicitations.

If they just heat up other arcs, they could do Nightwing's we are Robin. The Run-Offs could help, the St. Hadrian Girls, hell, that girl with ginger hair from Higgins run. Or people like Guppy. Or even Harper. Or you know... the actual people from We Are Robin.

Instead we'll get new characters once again that won't stick once the next writer takes over.

Personally I think something like the BTAS episode Perchance to Dream (widely considered one of the best episodes) would be a perfect story to do right now.

You can do this grumpy, jaded, ******* Dick who runs around Bluhaven feeling trapped. Dick knows something is missing but he isn't sure what. Then you re-introduce Nite-Wing who becomes the new hero of Bluhaven. Antics ensue and Dick remembers he's Nightwing but can't prove it. You still have the Scarecrow stuff going on (without the gruesome crap, that's not his style) and he comes to Bludhaven to kill Nite-Wing thinking he's the real one. Dick saves him and the two team up to take him down or something of the like.

It's not hard to come up with ideas and have it tie into previous ideas, come on DC I did this in 5 minutes.

[Zaresh]

Well, I read the issue and liked it. I see potential for the story and lot of things that could bring a solution to the whole problem. Pacing was a bit slow, though. So far so good for me. Nothing exceptional, but it caught my attention. But I'm not the intended target readers so, I guess that doesn't count for a lot.

[CPSparkles]

I'm yet to read it but these reviews have me very worried. Why isolate him? Why have him forget loved ones and Damian is gonna be crushed.

[Arnoldoaad]

so, I guess this pretty much throws a curve ball at the new Titans bok just like 4 issues in

[Starrius]

the most recent Nightwing issue shows that
he was shot in the head
he lost bone,brain tissue,blood,and cerebrospinal fluid and that he has memory loss, moodswings,blackouts,seizures,and loss of motor function

he got brain damage that led to altering his personality

it reminds of Jason Quartermaine getting brain damage from a car accident , and he had suffered severe memory loss to the point that he became a person with a totally different personality forever as Jason Morgan who a lot more edgy than good two shoes Jason Quartermaine
this is in soap opera General Hospital

[yohyoi]

Stop buying the book. It's better the series gets cancelled rather than DiDio gets his plans to unfold. A quick death is better than a slow death filled with Ric Grayson. Wally and Roy had it easy.