In this review of Nightwing #134, Dick’s adventures get REALLY metafictional as he faces down the Zanni in the Cirque du Sin.
Nightwing #134 main cover by Dexter Soy (DC Comics)
NIGHTWING #134
Written by DAN WATTERS
Art by V KEN MARION
Main Cover by DEXTER SOY
Variant Covers: V KEN MARION, ELIZABETH TORQUE, PHAN TUAN DAT, TRAVIS MOORE
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 1/21/26
This review contains spoilers
As Nightwing #134 begins, Martian Manhunter explains to Babs how he helped Nightwing get into the Fifth Dimension to attack the Zanni and his Cirque du Sin.
Nightwing follows Oliva Pearce’s decapitated form through the Cirque, and steps into the ring with the Zanni. The self proclaimed “god” Zanni challenges Dick to a game of “tin can alley” throwing balls at a tin can model of Bludhaven that will cause catastrophic damage to Dick’s city. The Zanni’s first throw collapses many skyscrapers. If Dick can’t knock down more cans/buildings, Zanni will keep Nightwing and the children he’s lured into the Cirque forever. Nightwing offers to stay and become ringmaster instead of attacking Bludhaven, but Zanni insists on Nightwing embracing the meaningless cruelty of the world. As Zanni sends the enspelled children to attack Nightwing and Bludhaven burns, Nightwing throws a ball.
But not the ball Zanni expected – a “soup grenade” made up of Nite-Mite from the Fifth Dimension adventure, which burns a hole in the Zanni. Dick attacks, fighting the weakened fifth dimensional imp, but Oliva, enraged, throws her head at Bludhaven’s model, knocking down Titans Tower with Nightwing Prime inside.
Nightwing and Zanni, face to face… (DC Comics)
Analysis
After my frustration with last issue seemingly showing Nightwing acting purely in reaction to the Zanni’s clear baited trap, it’s nice that Watters has a nicely setup Batman gambit – the weakness seeded early in another arc used by Dick as his weapon against his enemy’s secret weakness. Clever and nicely setup and paid off. I’m not sure I completely buy the amount of time spent on building up the Zanni’s evil plans, stretching back decades, and really eerie appearances throughout Watters’s run, but the arc isn’t done, after all, so maybe there’s more to come! (I’m still a bit hopeful that this is connected to the really weird Knight Terrors Detective Comics miniseries that Watters did three years ago.)
Despite this welcome bit of writerly craft, Watters does seem to have fallen back on a very small amount of story for this issue – though he flashes back and forth between Martian Manhunter and Nightwing’s locations, it’s one simple story that basically hinges on exactly one action scene – Dick confronts the Zanni and springs his counter-trap in response to Zanni’s trap. Martian Manhunter and Babs, though decently characterized, serve almost completely as exposition and reaction shots to what’s happening with Nightwing. After a nicely layered set of plotlines adding depth and reducing the overly linear nature of the first few arcs, it’s a bit disappointing to come to a climactic issue of this arc with such a thin linear thread.
V Ken Marion’s 90s-tastic art showcases a bodacious Babs, a muscular Martian, a powerful Nightwing, and reasonably creepy Zanni and Columbina/Oliva. Though not quite as atmospheric as the Dexter Soy art that’s been the majority of this run so far, Marion’s art does showcase his love of action, heroics, and these characters. Veronica Gandini’s coloring is nice, though I wish she’d chosen to emphasize some of the potential shadow and moodiness that could have made Marion’s art blend a bit better with Soy’s trends. Overall, though, Nightwing continues to be one of the more consistent and enjoyable books from an art perspective on the stands.
Dexter Soy’s main cover shows Nightwing in shadow on a black plinth above grey lost children – a nice setting of the stakes, though less reflective of the interior story than often the case with Soy’s work. Elizabeth Torque’s variant highlights Nightwing with a bloody nose post-beatdown of a gang in a warehouse. Phan Tuan Dat’s painterly variant shows Nightwing soaring above the rooftops beyond a pastel blue sky – a very sunny image, quite a contrast with the darkness of the story. Lastly, Travis Moore’s Sweater Weather variant highlights Dick’s very toned pecs and abs under a ski jacket in the snow – very silly, of course, but what are the Sweater Weather covers for if not silliness?
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Final Thoughts
Though Watters has some fun ideas, and V Ken Marion does a splendidly 90s job with the visuals, the overall effect of the story is too thin and worn.
