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Nightwing (2016) (Single Issues)
Nightwing (2016-) #122
Nightwing faces the memory of a dark encounter from his days fighting alongside Batman as Robin—an encounter which might hold the secret of Spheric Solutions’ mysterious CEO and her machinations for the city of Blüdhaven.
Kindle Edition
Published January 15, 2025
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5 people want to read
About the author
Dan Watters
423 books143 followersDan Watters is a UK based comic book writer. His first book, LIMBO, was released through Image Comics in 2016. He has since written THE SHADOW at Dynamite Comics, and ASSASSIN’S CREED and WOLFENSTEIN for Titan Comics.
Currently he is writing the relaunch of LUCIFER for Vertigo’s Sandman Universe, as well as DEEP ROOTS for Vault Comics. Deeply rooted in London Town, and firmly of the Devil's party.
Currently he is writing the relaunch of LUCIFER for Vertigo’s Sandman Universe, as well as DEEP ROOTS for Vault Comics. Deeply rooted in London Town, and firmly of the Devil's party.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 17, 2025
I really enjoyed flashbacks, and art was great.
January 16, 2025
The imagery of Dick alone in the dark, empty Titans Tower long after everyone else has moved out hit me harder than I expected it to. His work/life balance is clearly starting to fall apart again.
July 29, 2025
ON WITH THE SHOW PT.4 - LITTLE CIRCUS BOY
Flashback to Batman / Robin (Dick) days when Dick remembers his first encounter with Colombia/Olivia...in the Circus Du Sin.
Flashback to Batman / Robin (Dick) days when Dick remembers his first encounter with Colombia/Olivia...in the Circus Du Sin.
February 26, 2025
Present day-wise, it's more of the same and continues from last issue. Otherwise we get a Nightwing flashback to an Adam West-like Batman (in demeanor, not look), and a Holy Wow Batman! type of Dick Grayson Robin. Overall, I liked it. The art and coloring is phenomenal. I only wish we'd gotten a little more actual info out of it.
January 21, 2025
Still highly entertaining. Some big background info drops in this one.
January 17, 2025
Such a good continuation of the gang war story. The city is in flames, the cops are super charged and there is no end to the violence until Nightwing can find the proof he needs to implicate Spheric and it’s CEO Olivia in everything. As the mayor and the commissioner stand on a roof overlooking their dying city waiting for Nightwing, it’s then that I realized the commissioner of Bludhaven is Sawyer! What happened to the gig at the SCU?? Nonetheless, she is here trying to cleanup the department but only took the call from Nightwing because she expects an explanation for the officer he assaulted. Only explanation he needs, he was stopping them from blowing holes in kids. He then proceeds to explain that spheric are the ones blowing up the city, when they ask for proof all he can explain right now is that he knows who the ceo really is.
But to find that out, we have to go back to another life, a time when Nightwing was Robin working with Batman. And I have to say all throughout this series I loved the art, Nightwing looks so good but when we went back for these flashback scenes, it was taken to another level. Robin looks great, with his bright colors shining through the dull atmosphere, but Batman and his blue suit really stand out. Looks so good. Regardless, the story takes up back to an investigation into the cirque du sin. What appeared to be a ransom racket is really a criminal circus luring and killing the wealthy. They are even greeted by a juggler juggling skulls, which Batman promptly knocks out. As they enter the big top they become surrounded by mirrors, which Robin points out as odd because that’s not right it’s not supposed to be a carnival attraction. As Robin is then punched on by a member of the circus, she points out that he is quite knowledgeable. If it’s not obvious at this point, that’s definitely Olivia. As Robin chases after the acrobatic girl, Batman is left to fend himself off against 4 of the other performers. Looks to be the strong man, tattooed lady, stilt walker, and ringmaster. Shouldn’t be an issue.
Back with Robin, he ended up chasing her to the trapeze act where she introduced herself as Colombina. Robin recognized it as a reference to the Commedia Dell’arte clown, but as much as he respects it, it doesn’t make him keen on the slaughtering the audience and turning their bones into trapeze bars thing. He brings to question her, what’s the point of all of this, why are they killing their hostages. But she doesn’t have a real response, there isn’t supposed to be a point, the circus exists outside the point it’s how they break reality. The cirque du sin took her in from the cold world and made her who she is, they made her glorious. But Robin sees through it, they warped her mind and took advantage of her. She thinks he is silly, judging her for being taken in by a dark protector and dedicating herself to a cause. But they told her they would take him as well. She told him to turn around, as the “Zanni” doesn’t show himself to everyone. As Robin looks up we get a full page of the Zanni, a towering figure we have only seen so far with Olivia, and looks like a puppet master. By the time Batman reaches Robin he is able to snap him out of it by embracing him, it’s like she hit him with some hallucinogen and got away. Does this mean that the figure we have seen with her the entire time is fake, and that the entire gang war was just revenge, or is the revenge circumstantial is there no real point? Nah, I think it’s pretty deliberate revenge. As we see the clown girl look on as her circus is arrested a tear streams down her face. They were never able to find a trace of her…until now.
At the moment the only proof Nightwing has is tenuous evidence based on the naming of Helios relating to the Greek god of the son, and the first circuses being held by Circe in honor of her father. Other than that, nothing. And they have other evidence but it has the potential to compromise secret identities. But sawyer is still pissed about the cops Nightwing attacked, he is lucky the one with a broken arm and jaw is too embarrassed to go public. She also sees the other titans abandoning the city as a bad sign of the way he has been acting. With that, sawyer refuses to disarm her cops and the mayor agrees, until there is real proof that Olivia is setting the bombs there isn’t anything else they can do.
Just then they were rocked back as another bomb went off in the city. Nightwing jumped into action and made his way over to find the bludhaven police station in flames and the assailant running away by rooftop. Nightwing caught up quickly and knocked the guy down, only to reveal it was a flyboi. He tried questioning him, getting him to admit spheric put him up to it, but the flyboi isn’t saying anything, he just sees Nightwing as another cop. And as the real cops and their jet packs show up, Nightwing leaves the flyboi with them. Oracle then finds him brooding in the apartment, looking on at an empty titans tower, wondering if he was too ambitious. He admits to Babs that he thought he could do things differently, he gave the gangs comms so they could call him and he would have their backs…but the bloodshed continues. She reassures him, he is trying something new they aren’t used to someone in a mask trying to help them.
“Maybe they need to see with their own eyes that not everyone in the city is just out for their blood.”
And that chance may come soon, as the end of the issue has one of the members of the fly game, a female in a lab coat freaking out about getting killed and frantically looking for the device to contact Nightwing!
But to find that out, we have to go back to another life, a time when Nightwing was Robin working with Batman. And I have to say all throughout this series I loved the art, Nightwing looks so good but when we went back for these flashback scenes, it was taken to another level. Robin looks great, with his bright colors shining through the dull atmosphere, but Batman and his blue suit really stand out. Looks so good. Regardless, the story takes up back to an investigation into the cirque du sin. What appeared to be a ransom racket is really a criminal circus luring and killing the wealthy. They are even greeted by a juggler juggling skulls, which Batman promptly knocks out. As they enter the big top they become surrounded by mirrors, which Robin points out as odd because that’s not right it’s not supposed to be a carnival attraction. As Robin is then punched on by a member of the circus, she points out that he is quite knowledgeable. If it’s not obvious at this point, that’s definitely Olivia. As Robin chases after the acrobatic girl, Batman is left to fend himself off against 4 of the other performers. Looks to be the strong man, tattooed lady, stilt walker, and ringmaster. Shouldn’t be an issue.
Back with Robin, he ended up chasing her to the trapeze act where she introduced herself as Colombina. Robin recognized it as a reference to the Commedia Dell’arte clown, but as much as he respects it, it doesn’t make him keen on the slaughtering the audience and turning their bones into trapeze bars thing. He brings to question her, what’s the point of all of this, why are they killing their hostages. But she doesn’t have a real response, there isn’t supposed to be a point, the circus exists outside the point it’s how they break reality. The cirque du sin took her in from the cold world and made her who she is, they made her glorious. But Robin sees through it, they warped her mind and took advantage of her. She thinks he is silly, judging her for being taken in by a dark protector and dedicating herself to a cause. But they told her they would take him as well. She told him to turn around, as the “Zanni” doesn’t show himself to everyone. As Robin looks up we get a full page of the Zanni, a towering figure we have only seen so far with Olivia, and looks like a puppet master. By the time Batman reaches Robin he is able to snap him out of it by embracing him, it’s like she hit him with some hallucinogen and got away. Does this mean that the figure we have seen with her the entire time is fake, and that the entire gang war was just revenge, or is the revenge circumstantial is there no real point? Nah, I think it’s pretty deliberate revenge. As we see the clown girl look on as her circus is arrested a tear streams down her face. They were never able to find a trace of her…until now.
At the moment the only proof Nightwing has is tenuous evidence based on the naming of Helios relating to the Greek god of the son, and the first circuses being held by Circe in honor of her father. Other than that, nothing. And they have other evidence but it has the potential to compromise secret identities. But sawyer is still pissed about the cops Nightwing attacked, he is lucky the one with a broken arm and jaw is too embarrassed to go public. She also sees the other titans abandoning the city as a bad sign of the way he has been acting. With that, sawyer refuses to disarm her cops and the mayor agrees, until there is real proof that Olivia is setting the bombs there isn’t anything else they can do.
Just then they were rocked back as another bomb went off in the city. Nightwing jumped into action and made his way over to find the bludhaven police station in flames and the assailant running away by rooftop. Nightwing caught up quickly and knocked the guy down, only to reveal it was a flyboi. He tried questioning him, getting him to admit spheric put him up to it, but the flyboi isn’t saying anything, he just sees Nightwing as another cop. And as the real cops and their jet packs show up, Nightwing leaves the flyboi with them. Oracle then finds him brooding in the apartment, looking on at an empty titans tower, wondering if he was too ambitious. He admits to Babs that he thought he could do things differently, he gave the gangs comms so they could call him and he would have their backs…but the bloodshed continues. She reassures him, he is trying something new they aren’t used to someone in a mask trying to help them.
“Maybe they need to see with their own eyes that not everyone in the city is just out for their blood.”
And that chance may come soon, as the end of the issue has one of the members of the fly game, a female in a lab coat freaking out about getting killed and frantically looking for the device to contact Nightwing!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2025
¡Recorcholis! Una oportunidad de flashback remitiéndonos a las primeras aventuras del Dúo Dinámico. Una gozada en conjunto con el seguir adelantando esta circense amenaza que aún habrá que dilucidar si su líder tiene esa sobrecogedora dimensión sobrenatural o será algo más arraigado a lo terrenal y psicológico. En cualquier caso, es algo que Dan Watters sabrá sobrellevar manteniendo esta trama de la pacificación a la fuerza de Blüdhaven con ese equipamiento policial tan mal utilizado que el propio Nightwing se encuentra protegiendo más a los miembros de bandas callejeras que a otros ciudadanos de la ciudad. Incluso se atisba una enemistad fraternal con su hermanastra, alcaldesa que se enfrenta al proceso de re elección.
January 16, 2025
the way he describes his time as a robin "another life" hurt me, and couldn't even say batman's name...
he has so much problems, or rather bludhaven's problems.
i feel like if babs not there he's going to lurk alone in the tower with haley, reminds me so much of bruce. i love that babs is there but i feel like she could do so much more than being his partner.
he has so much problems, or rather bludhaven's problems.
i feel like if babs not there he's going to lurk alone in the tower with haley, reminds me so much of bruce. i love that babs is there but i feel like she could do so much more than being his partner.
January 18, 2025
Once the trade is out I'll re-read this series but I'm not hooked by Watters yet. Probably not giving it a fair go.
Just a big conversation about what happened last issue
The flashback art was great. I think that was more so the difference in colouring style.
Just a big conversation about what happened last issue
The flashback art was great. I think that was more so the difference in colouring style.
February 13, 2025
Underwhelming issue. I didn't dislike it, but I didn't like it either. The excitement from the previous issues is missing here. It felt stretched to buy more time for the next one, leaving this issue feeling empty. The art is still fantastic, though. Hopefully, the next issue turns things around.
January 23, 2025
Art and picture was great.
February 1, 2025
Need more “holy ______, Batman!” era Robin in modern existential dread stories and illustration. Please and thank you, DC.
April 2, 2025
3.25 stars
August 6, 2025
ROBIN MY BELOVED <3
I love Dan Watters Nightwing.
I love Dan Watters Nightwing.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews