Nightwing #50 Review

Writer: Benjamin Percy / Artist: Travis Moore, Chris Mooneyham, Klaus Janson / DC Comics Now All You Know About Him Changes! If you didn’t read Batman #56, you’re probably wondering why Dick Grayson has a prominent scar on the side of his head. And if you did read Batman #56, you’ve probably been stressing out over the aftermath. Well, I’m here to tell you that Percy is going to continue to stress you out when it comes to the fate of our favorite acrobatic vigilante. Nightwing was shot square in the head, and it has taken a toll on him: memory loss, mood swings, blackouts, seizures, loss of motor function. All of these are so severe that the current Dick Grayson is essentially an entirely different character. The term tabula rasa, or blank slate, comes to mind. Even though he is nominally the same, watching this iteration of Dick Grayson feels like watching a stranger go through the action. It’s a strange pivot from the conspiracy-ridden Dark Web arc. Percy spends a lot of time on analyzing how such a trauma reverberates throughout life and impacts everyone around a person. Layer that deep introspection with some flashbacks to Robin flying through the skyline of Gotham, and you have a somber story, a difficult story, a surprisingly honest story.

As Moore, Mooneyham, and Janson trade-off art, Percy bounces back and forth between time periods, and the entire issue looks gorgeous. Gotham of the past captures a sort of aesthetic you’d imagine from the old 90’s animated series, w…