In this review of Nightwing #136, a new arc begins with a new era for Blüdhaven. A witch might have something to say about that.
Nightwing #136 main cover by Jorge Fornes (DC Comics)
NIGHTWING #136
Written by DAN WATTERS
Art by DENYS COWAN
Main Cover: JORGE FORNES
Variant Covers: JEFF SPOKES, JAE LEE, JORGE JIMENEZ
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 3/18/26
This review contains spoilers
In the aftermath of the massive destruction caused by the Zanni and Columbina’s fifth dimensional attack on Bludhaven, Dick Grayson walks the streets of the city and drives a car through the night streets to re-learn the changed landscape. Mayor Bisogni built a superhighway through the city, causing a spike in traffic deaths and seeming hauntings. Nightwing picks up a strange ghostly lady in his car, and she tells him to go to the crossroads. Nightwing tells her that he heard a truck driver attacked by a woman talking about witches on the police scanner, and the woman draws a knife, implying she is a witch as well. When she starts bleeding from the eyes, Nightwing tries to take her to the hospital, but she attacks, causing a massive car crash, killing 9 people. Nightwing saves a man from the wreckage, but when he returns to his destroyed car, there’s no sign of the woman.
Analysis
I’m not a fan of the Batfamily vs. the supernatural. For me, Batman is a figure of noir, hardboiled detectives. So the recent trend of stories like Gotham Nocturne by Ram V or the past arc of Nightwing by Dan Watters are a hard sell. While Ram V’s run on Detective Comics completely failed for me, Watters managed to win me over with the Zanni arc because of his mirroring of GK Chesterton’s thematic message through Nightwing Prime (though I’d argue Dick himself felt like a supporting character in his own title for most of the run, the pacing was weak, and the political messaging pretty immature much of the time). Immediately starting with ANOTHER supernatural arc, while expected, means Watters once again has a hard sell for me – especially since I find the way modern writers treat witches and witch trial stories incredibly incoherent. Witches don’t exist, so killing women by accusing them as witches is evil because it’s false, but then they DO exist, and clearly are malign and like killing people, so why was killing them wrong? Hopefully Watters will figure out a way through that typical laziness in the modern witch story, but this first issue is not promising on the writing front. Though of course, the vibes he creates with the haunted highway, Dick’s quips and desire to help, and the horror of the car crash are impeccable as usual, the themes are once again messy and unclear. There’s also a bit of a sense of deja vu for those who remember Jim Gordon causing a huge train crash in the first issue of Batman Eternal due to a ghost. Curious to see if Watters reaches for the same unravelling of that plotline (mind control tech).
One thing that’s not unclear, though, is veteran art master Denys Cowan on pencils, with equally legendary inker Norm Rapmund, ably assisted by Francesco Segala on colors. After Dexter Soy’s modern, slick visuals, it’s cool to see the older-school but still powerful Cowan’s linework on Dick and his spooky Watters world.
Jorge Fornes produces an impeccably designed cover as usual for the main cover – an upside down Nightwing shaded in zippetone (dots instead of lines or gradient), over a setting sun on the Bludhaven skyline. Jeff Spokes gives us a very pretty blue, black, and white vision of Nightwing atop a graffiti-covered chimney. Jae Lee’s signature sharp lines combined with gentle coloring by June Chung features Nightwing atop a grotesque. We have a Nightwing symbol on white virgin variant. And lastly, for a significant price hike, we have Jorge Jimenez’s lovely little corner box Nightwing figure in foil variant.
Final Thoughts
Plunging right away into another supernatural plotline, Dan Watters continues his slow burn run on Nightwing with new main artist, veteran penciller Denys Cowan.
