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Nightwing (1996) (New Edition Trades)
Nightwing, Volume 8: Lethal Force
Award-winning author Chuck Dixon concludes his groundbreaking run on Nightwing with a bang!
In the final volume of Dixon's Nightwing run, Dick Grayson is emotionally and physically pushed to his breaking point. Dick Grayson searches within for what it is to be a hero in the aftermath of the Joker's latest reign of terror. Just before he can catch his breath, another shocking development threatens everything he has ever known, as Bruce Wayne is charged with murder! This volume also features appearances from the Flash, Blue Beetle and the rest of the Bat-Family.
Collects Nightwing #61-70.
In the final volume of Dixon's Nightwing run, Dick Grayson is emotionally and physically pushed to his breaking point. Dick Grayson searches within for what it is to be a hero in the aftermath of the Joker's latest reign of terror. Just before he can catch his breath, another shocking development threatens everything he has ever known, as Bruce Wayne is charged with murder! This volume also features appearances from the Flash, Blue Beetle and the rest of the Bat-Family.
Collects Nightwing #61-70.
248 pages, Paperback
First published November 20, 2018
4 people are currently reading
146 people want to read
About the author
Chuck Dixon
3,426 books1,029 followersCharles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, perhaps best-known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.
His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.
In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.
His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.
He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .
While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.
In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.
On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."
His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.
In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.
His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.
He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .
While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.
In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.
On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 6, 2019
A lackluster finish to Dixon's run. These 10 issues are plagued with events where you only get a small piece of it and major things happen to Nightwing in those other books. Joker's Last Laugh, Bruce Wayne: Murderer?, and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive eat up large chunks of the narrative leaving a lot of ongoing plots unresolved.
Trevor McCarthy is the primary artist. His art looks like caricatures with panels so busy it's difficult to determine what's happening. It's as if you're viewing the art through a funhouse mirror.
I do hope DC decides to collect the rest of this book as the next 40 issues have never been collected.
Trevor McCarthy is the primary artist. His art looks like caricatures with panels so busy it's difficult to determine what's happening. It's as if you're viewing the art through a funhouse mirror.
I do hope DC decides to collect the rest of this book as the next 40 issues have never been collected.
November 27, 2018
Most of this final volume of Chuck Dixon's Nightwing is devoted to tying in to other stories instead of dealing with the menagerie of dangling plot threads that Nightwing's solo series has had up until this point, so we get something like 5 of the 10 issues here kind of feeling a little pointless, especially since they're random parts of bigger stories like Joker's Last Laugh, and Bruce Wayne: Murderer? and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive.
What actual Nightwing stuff there is is pretty good, but it still feels very safe for the series. We finally get that Amygdala plot line resolved, as well as (yet another) appearance by Soames and Nitewing, while Hella (from Nightwing: The Target) also shows back up for one final appearance. Things end on a bit of a duff note, with just a one-shot story instead of some kind of actual coda for the series as Dixon's final issue.
Artwise, most of these issues are penciled by Trevor McCarthy, whose art is a hell of a lot looser and a lot more similar to previous artist Scott McDaniel than I've ever seen. There are a few fill-in artists but no one of particular note I don't think.
Nightwing under Chuck Dixon is one of those runs that's lauded as perfect for the character, but I feel like this is kind of just...okay. This last volume does nothing to assuage that thought, and it's a shame that this is how we end, constantly pulled into other stories instead of allowing those that Dixon was trying to tell the room to really have an impact.
What actual Nightwing stuff there is is pretty good, but it still feels very safe for the series. We finally get that Amygdala plot line resolved, as well as (yet another) appearance by Soames and Nitewing, while Hella (from Nightwing: The Target) also shows back up for one final appearance. Things end on a bit of a duff note, with just a one-shot story instead of some kind of actual coda for the series as Dixon's final issue.
Artwise, most of these issues are penciled by Trevor McCarthy, whose art is a hell of a lot looser and a lot more similar to previous artist Scott McDaniel than I've ever seen. There are a few fill-in artists but no one of particular note I don't think.
Nightwing under Chuck Dixon is one of those runs that's lauded as perfect for the character, but I feel like this is kind of just...okay. This last volume does nothing to assuage that thought, and it's a shame that this is how we end, constantly pulled into other stories instead of allowing those that Dixon was trying to tell the room to really have an impact.
January 21, 2022
This was going to be a 2⭐️ but the last few issues with Dick/Tim/Alfred and Hella bumped it up
January 2, 2019
This trade paperback picks up where the previous volume left off, collecting the next ten issues (61–70) of the 1996 on-going series.
It is very difficult to review this trade paperback, as there is no one theme or story throughout it. With three tie-in events, that the Nightwing series was a part of it made it difficult following and flow of the series. This trade paperback covers the Joker: Last Laugh (Nightwing #62), Bruce Wayne: Murderer (Nightwing #65–66), and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive (Nightwing #68–69). One issue is dealt with the aftermath of these crossover events and there is one-shot dedicated to Christmas (Nightwing #64) and another one shot that dealt with the return of Hella, which we meet in Nightwing 80-Page Giant.
I like tie-ins well enough when I read them within the Crossover Events they're apart of, but I really hate them when they're published within trade paperbacks outside their events, because they're no pretext or postscript of what is going on or rather what happened prior and how's it going to end and the tie-ins are rarely self-contained. Unless I know something about the Crossover Event prior, I would be lost.
Chuck Dixon penned the entire trade paperback and for the most part, I think Dixon did the best he could with not one, or two, but three events that diverted him with the story he wanted to tell and interrupting the narrative and flow that he wanted to tell.
Rick Burchett, Staz Johnson, Trevor McCarthy, and William Rosado are the pencilers for the trade paperback. With so many pencilers, it is rather difficult to grade the overall artistic flow. For the most part this hodgepodge of pencilers has similar styles with few exceptions and that the flow of the artistic style flowed rather smoothly with a few sudden jerks. I just wished that I liked the penciling style, with the exception of one – most of the penciling style was much to be desired.
All in all, I really enjoyed this trade paperback, I just wished that this would have been a better send off for Chuck Dixon who done so much for the Nightwing franchise.
It is very difficult to review this trade paperback, as there is no one theme or story throughout it. With three tie-in events, that the Nightwing series was a part of it made it difficult following and flow of the series. This trade paperback covers the Joker: Last Laugh (Nightwing #62), Bruce Wayne: Murderer (Nightwing #65–66), and Bruce Wayne: Fugitive (Nightwing #68–69). One issue is dealt with the aftermath of these crossover events and there is one-shot dedicated to Christmas (Nightwing #64) and another one shot that dealt with the return of Hella, which we meet in Nightwing 80-Page Giant.
I like tie-ins well enough when I read them within the Crossover Events they're apart of, but I really hate them when they're published within trade paperbacks outside their events, because they're no pretext or postscript of what is going on or rather what happened prior and how's it going to end and the tie-ins are rarely self-contained. Unless I know something about the Crossover Event prior, I would be lost.
Chuck Dixon penned the entire trade paperback and for the most part, I think Dixon did the best he could with not one, or two, but three events that diverted him with the story he wanted to tell and interrupting the narrative and flow that he wanted to tell.
Rick Burchett, Staz Johnson, Trevor McCarthy, and William Rosado are the pencilers for the trade paperback. With so many pencilers, it is rather difficult to grade the overall artistic flow. For the most part this hodgepodge of pencilers has similar styles with few exceptions and that the flow of the artistic style flowed rather smoothly with a few sudden jerks. I just wished that I liked the penciling style, with the exception of one – most of the penciling style was much to be desired.
All in all, I really enjoyed this trade paperback, I just wished that this would have been a better send off for Chuck Dixon who done so much for the Nightwing franchise.
October 6, 2020
This series kind of went out on a whimper.
What happened? I know this is around the time Dixon departed DC but he was setting up his big returns of his baddies and they never did anything.
Also this book was hit with crossover fever as almost half of it was consumed by either Bruce Wayne Murderer? Event or some Joker event I never read (Is this empire joker?) Either way it was confusing to see Nightwing being a police officer and doing his thing, and next issue fighting weird Joker-lookalikes, and then him "I killed Joker I'm no good" without context. If nothing else the event sounds fun but the way it was placed in here is confusing.
The art sometimes is great, stylish, and fun. Other times I couldn't tell what the fuck was happening. The stories range from lighthearted and good but it also felt like Dixon was just spinning his wheels doing generic bad guys on the corner beatem up stories.
This could have been way better and not happy this was the final volume in a otherwise good-great run.
What happened? I know this is around the time Dixon departed DC but he was setting up his big returns of his baddies and they never did anything.
Also this book was hit with crossover fever as almost half of it was consumed by either Bruce Wayne Murderer? Event or some Joker event I never read (Is this empire joker?) Either way it was confusing to see Nightwing being a police officer and doing his thing, and next issue fighting weird Joker-lookalikes, and then him "I killed Joker I'm no good" without context. If nothing else the event sounds fun but the way it was placed in here is confusing.
The art sometimes is great, stylish, and fun. Other times I couldn't tell what the fuck was happening. The stories range from lighthearted and good but it also felt like Dixon was just spinning his wheels doing generic bad guys on the corner beatem up stories.
This could have been way better and not happy this was the final volume in a otherwise good-great run.
July 5, 2021
Ug, the art! All of Trevor McCarthy's faces are long and ugly. :(
I seem to have missed something between issues #62 & #63 re: Dick "killing" the Joker (and Batman reviving him?). A quick Googling tells me the storyline is called Joker: Last Laugh. Ah, well.
(The recap is: Dick kills the Joker & Batman revives him. Booo! :(
Afterward Dick is SUPER depressed about crossing the line & hides himself away.)
Dick does get back into costume & there is a human piece around Christmas, which is sweet.
Dick then uses his badge to get into Gotham to visit Bruce in Jail. (This is during the Bruce Wayne: Murderer? storyline.) Dick is full of doubts (post-killing the Joker) and guilt at leaving Bruce in a jail cell. I don't like Bab's questioning if Bruce actually did it, but I do like Dick's spelunking (later in the volume) in the Bat Cave & working together with Alfred to figure out the break-in.
While Bruce is in Gotham jail, Torque and Tad are in Bludhaven jail (they're still in this friggin story!!). They drug Amygdala (poor Helzinger) who goes on an uncontrollable rampage. :(
In the confusion, fires start & all the prisoners are moved. Surprise surprise, Torque and Tad escape.
The volume ends with Hella and Nightwing duking it out (again). And then that's it for Chuck Dixon's run on Nightwing. :'(
I really loved this series & I'm bummed to end it here. This volume was OK, but it definitely wasn't the ending I was hoping for. LOTS of loose ends & the art was terrible (imo).
3.5 stars
I seem to have missed something between issues #62 & #63 re: Dick "killing" the Joker (and Batman reviving him?). A quick Googling tells me the storyline is called Joker: Last Laugh. Ah, well.
(The recap is: Dick kills the Joker & Batman revives him. Booo! :(
Afterward Dick is SUPER depressed about crossing the line & hides himself away.)
Dick does get back into costume & there is a human piece around Christmas, which is sweet.
Dick then uses his badge to get into Gotham to visit Bruce in Jail. (This is during the Bruce Wayne: Murderer? storyline.) Dick is full of doubts (post-killing the Joker) and guilt at leaving Bruce in a jail cell. I don't like Bab's questioning if Bruce actually did it, but I do like Dick's spelunking (later in the volume) in the Bat Cave & working together with Alfred to figure out the break-in.
While Bruce is in Gotham jail, Torque and Tad are in Bludhaven jail (they're still in this friggin story!!). They drug Amygdala (poor Helzinger) who goes on an uncontrollable rampage. :(
In the confusion, fires start & all the prisoners are moved. Surprise surprise, Torque and Tad escape.
The volume ends with Hella and Nightwing duking it out (again). And then that's it for Chuck Dixon's run on Nightwing. :'(
I really loved this series & I'm bummed to end it here. This volume was OK, but it definitely wasn't the ending I was hoping for. LOTS of loose ends & the art was terrible (imo).
3.5 stars
December 14, 2018
Not a fan of the art.
September 11, 2025
This volume suffers a bit from all the crossovers, and some rough artwork, but there are some great stories in here.
May 7, 2024
This was a decent volume and pits Dick against a lot of challenges like first against crooked cops like Richter and you see the corruption in the BPD and then a tie into Jokerized event with Joker infecting all villains and Dick trying to prevent a prison breakout and that story was crazy, a Jokerized "Riot" and another one "Fleeter".. a villain who can control minds and Tim and Ted stopping him and Dick contemplating what he did to the Joker almost.. I am guessing in the main event book?
There are some tie-ins to the Bruce Wayne Murderer/Fugitive story where Bruce is framed for murder and here you see Dick's reactions to it and working with the bat-family to see who this murdered girl was, and was Bruce really behind it? Whose tryna frame him and how they entered the cave and all that and I love the investigation angle and it really grounds the character in a way but what I like more is how it brings the family together and shows how closed off Bruce is even from a family he has and having read the main story of Fugitive/Murderer its actually pretty good.
I liked that one and then the story with Soames/Tad breaking out of prison and what they did to Amygdala and Nightwing's fight with him and you see he doesn't wanna fight his neighbor and yeah that story was kinda tragic but then again the way Dick defeats this guy is kinda funny. And the last story vs Hella as she is after her target.. Deever.. and that story is closes out and its the end of Dixon's run.. weird ending but there are still a lot of storylines to be ended.. I wonder if the next writer will close them out.
But overall fun volume, not as good as the other ones, but fun villain cameos and a tie into lot of the bat events at the time and so you gotta read them together to understand this story well, and maybe thats a negative factor.. like you have to read this and that so others maybe bummed out but okay still it works on its own and shows the messed up life that Grayson has and the challenges he has to face! The art was fine here and works well with the story Dixon is trying to tell and good ending to his run here on Nightwing and it really elevated Nightwing as a solo here and one of my favorites! I recommend it overall!
There are some tie-ins to the Bruce Wayne Murderer/Fugitive story where Bruce is framed for murder and here you see Dick's reactions to it and working with the bat-family to see who this murdered girl was, and was Bruce really behind it? Whose tryna frame him and how they entered the cave and all that and I love the investigation angle and it really grounds the character in a way but what I like more is how it brings the family together and shows how closed off Bruce is even from a family he has and having read the main story of Fugitive/Murderer its actually pretty good.
I liked that one and then the story with Soames/Tad breaking out of prison and what they did to Amygdala and Nightwing's fight with him and you see he doesn't wanna fight his neighbor and yeah that story was kinda tragic but then again the way Dick defeats this guy is kinda funny. And the last story vs Hella as she is after her target.. Deever.. and that story is closes out and its the end of Dixon's run.. weird ending but there are still a lot of storylines to be ended.. I wonder if the next writer will close them out.
But overall fun volume, not as good as the other ones, but fun villain cameos and a tie into lot of the bat events at the time and so you gotta read them together to understand this story well, and maybe thats a negative factor.. like you have to read this and that so others maybe bummed out but okay still it works on its own and shows the messed up life that Grayson has and the challenges he has to face! The art was fine here and works well with the story Dixon is trying to tell and good ending to his run here on Nightwing and it really elevated Nightwing as a solo here and one of my favorites! I recommend it overall!
May 15, 2023
Meh. The final volume of Dixon's run on Nightwing, and it's really a let-down. The book has some crossover titles with larger Bat Family events, and those are okay. The non-crossover issues are more of Dick as Officer Grayson, attempting to both be a cop by day and superhero by night. Even if you ignore the blatant copaganda, it's just not well written. How many stories do we need, after the first, of "Officer Grayson can't solve this, but Nightwing can!" The actual plot of Dick as a cop - him attempting to root out corruption - really goes nowhere at all. The stories are not particularly compelling or interesting, and nobody gets any real character development. The cast of supporting characters, introduced early in Dixon's run, barely appears in this volume.
The majority of the art is done by Trevor McCarthy, and it's some of the worst comic art I've ever had the misfortune of reading. Somehow the editors of Nightwing found somebody worse than Scott McDaniel and put him on the title. McCarthy's pencils are so bad that, at times, it's impossible to recognize characters - including long-standing characters like Babs or Tim Drake. Its bad enough to distract from the overall experience.
The art isn't great, and the stories are mostly predictable and boring. I see no reason for anybody to read this, unless you are a Nightwing or Dixon completist. 2 stars instead of 1 simply because I've read objectively worse Bat Family collections.
The majority of the art is done by Trevor McCarthy, and it's some of the worst comic art I've ever had the misfortune of reading. Somehow the editors of Nightwing found somebody worse than Scott McDaniel and put him on the title. McCarthy's pencils are so bad that, at times, it's impossible to recognize characters - including long-standing characters like Babs or Tim Drake. Its bad enough to distract from the overall experience.
The art isn't great, and the stories are mostly predictable and boring. I see no reason for anybody to read this, unless you are a Nightwing or Dixon completist. 2 stars instead of 1 simply because I've read objectively worse Bat Family collections.
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February 11, 2020*Sigh.* This is the end of Dixon’s run, and it’s a mediocre finish. These issues get swallowed by events - Joker’s Last Laugh, Bruce Wayne Murderer, and Bruce Wayne Fugitive - so the book doesn’t really work as a collection. Even on their own, the issues are subpar. And just when I thought the series was improving it takes two steps back.
The shame of it is I was looking forward to Dixon’s Nightwing when I picked up volume one. He’s one of the most reliable Bat family writers out there, and most of his work in that realm is good to great. And I figured this would be a home run for me - I love Dick Grayson, and based on Dixon’s various Robin series, this would be similarly fun and full of heart. Too often, though, I found the stories to be average and forgettable. Dick is great character throughout, and the parts of him doing everyday things, like spending time with his neighbors or working his police beat, are consistently more compelling than the superheroics. I never cared one bit about Blockbuster or Soams, and most other villains don’t leave an impression. I think Dixon’s run is a case of “had to be there.” The only people who truly love it are probably those who read it back in the day. It simply doesn’t stand out well twenty years later to fresh eyes. Like I said, a shame, because Dixon's other Batman work is typically good.
The shame of it is I was looking forward to Dixon’s Nightwing when I picked up volume one. He’s one of the most reliable Bat family writers out there, and most of his work in that realm is good to great. And I figured this would be a home run for me - I love Dick Grayson, and based on Dixon’s various Robin series, this would be similarly fun and full of heart. Too often, though, I found the stories to be average and forgettable. Dick is great character throughout, and the parts of him doing everyday things, like spending time with his neighbors or working his police beat, are consistently more compelling than the superheroics. I never cared one bit about Blockbuster or Soams, and most other villains don’t leave an impression. I think Dixon’s run is a case of “had to be there.” The only people who truly love it are probably those who read it back in the day. It simply doesn’t stand out well twenty years later to fresh eyes. Like I said, a shame, because Dixon's other Batman work is typically good.
April 3, 2022
Womp womp. Ultimately, I think (most of) my individual ratings for Dixon's collected Nightwing material have been pretty generous (and I did have fun with parts of it!), but this last volume especially highlights the run's flaws, while its strengths are in short supply. This entire run has been plagued with crossovers and events that offer Dick no permanent or discernible growth but require his presence and set him back to square one. Often, there's no beginning, middle or end-- we just get random snapshots of other storylines before we're unceremoniously tossed right back into Bludhaven, where... honestly, not much has happened over the course of eight volumes. I feel like Clancy experienced more character growth than Dick, and we barely knew her as anything other than his landlady.
What makes this sting a little bit more is the abundance of loose ends (I hate Tad with the fire of a thousand suns, what happened to him? Is Amy dead? Does Dick avenge her death? What's the deal with Blockbuster? Why was our last issue so lackluster?) and what feels like a lot of wasted potential. I subscribed to DC Universe Infinite to see if any of said loose ends get tied up outside of what's (currently) physically collected, but my hopes aren't high.
What makes this sting a little bit more is the abundance of loose ends (I hate Tad with the fire of a thousand suns, what happened to him? Is Amy dead? Does Dick avenge her death? What's the deal with Blockbuster? Why was our last issue so lackluster?) and what feels like a lot of wasted potential. I subscribed to DC Universe Infinite to see if any of said loose ends get tied up outside of what's (currently) physically collected, but my hopes aren't high.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 2, 2020
3.5
Definitely not one of the better Nightwing volumes (I miss Greg Land's art), which is entirely because of how most of the arcs in this tie into other events that the reader would have no idea about if they only read Nightwing. On the other hand, having read the other arcs, I enjoyed seeing the impact those events had on Dick that we didn't get to see in the other issues of the event.
Definitely not one of the better Nightwing volumes (I miss Greg Land's art), which is entirely because of how most of the arcs in this tie into other events that the reader would have no idea about if they only read Nightwing. On the other hand, having read the other arcs, I enjoyed seeing the impact those events had on Dick that we didn't get to see in the other issues of the event.
August 29, 2021
With both terrible art and a lackluster narrative, Lethal Force did not do much for me. Dixon's Nightwing seems to be struggling the longer it goes. There are a couple of decent moments, but most of this collection is shaped by various tie-ins to other Batman comics, which makes for a jarring read if you don't know the background behind them.
September 22, 2022
Listen, I finished it because I love Nightwing. But man, that art goes from fine to awful like a car braking when it sees a state trooper. Tad and Torque are the most uninteresting villains I've ever seen. And the lack of context for the stories that take place in bigger plotlines was incredibly confusing.
June 25, 2024
i liked most of the crossovers but that was kind of a weak ending for dixon 😭😭 also hella pls get out of ur bdsm gear ur literally in the desert i don’t gaf if ur scarred i know it stinks in there 😭😭😭😭
August 9, 2025
Other reviews have noted the prevalence of crossover material making for difficult reading, and that's true, however I think Dixon nonetheless finishes the run strong continuing to tell entertaining stories! I'll look forward to coming back to these.
March 16, 2021
Lots of half finished stories completed in better volumes
July 15, 2023
Boring, I started to just skim over it because it seemed that most of the interesting stuff happening to Nightwing at this time was in other books and this one was just reacting to it.
August 19, 2023
Welp that's one way to finish a story... It was really lacking and it all went downhill in this volume which makes me so sad bc I was really enjoying the story so far
May 21, 2024
dick grayson …my son (he’s older than me)
June 2, 2024
lacklustre end to chuck dixon’s run. most are issues from larger events so it feels redundant to have them collected here
May 31, 2025
the artwork was so distracting
March 8, 2021
So begins a rich tradition of The Nightwing solo being hijacked by event after event. Maybe these issues are good in the context of their 13-part crossovers but strung together in a Nightwing read they’re garbage. Glad Dixon is leaving. His vision of Dick Grayson is drab, with no intriguing villains or any decent supporting cast.
November 14, 2024
The art in this book was really hard to look at tbh. The characters look like ancient chipmunk humanoids.....
The stories were good, some of the issues are connected to Bruce Wayne Fugitive? So I just went ahead and read that too which was fun. I really liked Dixon's final issue, and the art does improve.
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