In this review of Nightwing #140, the origin of the Superhighway, REVEALED!
Nightwing #140 main cover by Jorge Fornés (DC Comics)
NIGHTWING #140
Written by DAN WATTERS
Art by DENYS COWAN
Main Cover: JORGE FORNES
Variant Covers: GUILLEM MARCH, WERTHER DELL’EDERA, DAN MORA
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 7/15/26
This review contains spoilers
As a result of the new Blüdhaven Superhighway, the once popular Divebar now has just a few despairing patrons in a crime-filled area. He crashes the Divebar looking for Cannibal Colm, suspect in a murder discovered by Nightwing’s new Dark Patterns friend, Dr. Sereika, from the harbor confluence point explored last issue. Charles Halstead’s arm with bite marks matching Colm prompts Nightwing’s furious rampage, intensified by the deadline from Blüdhaven’s prosecutor to turn himself in by Friday morning. Finding Colm in his apartment, Nightwing subdues the maniacal man, who tells a tale of working for the old and new mayors (Blockbuster and Bisogni), who employed Charles Halstead, the first Psycho Pirate. Halstead says he can reduce crime through Medusa architecture, which steals the population’s hopes, which leads to no crime – starting with a highway.
Colm watches as the highway, supernatural or not, destroys the poor AND suburban parts of Blüdhaven, and when Halstead asks him how the destruction makes him feel, he thinks about it and then hacks the man to death with a machete. Nightwing wants to take Colm in, but Colm knows Bisogni will tidy him up as a loose end – and the cops burst in and blast him to pieces as he predicts. They try to kill Nightwing, too, but he beats them to a pulp.
Analysis
After last month’s Knives Out 3: Wake Up Dead Man parallel issue, this week we have another horror tale of spookiness that focuses more on comics lore – the architect of the evil Superhighway, the first Psycho Pirate. I’m a bit bummed that there’s no reference to Nightwing’s confrontation with the SECOND Psycho Pirate in Shadows of the Bat: The Tower by Mariko Tamaki (a very delightful story), but this issue makes good use of an aging supervillain trying to make the world a lot worse in a mundane way. The idea that crime will go down if you’re as miserable as you can be seems like what would appeal to a villain or supervillain, though Watters stays away from any kinds of studies or statistics that might make an argument either way.
There’s an effective sense of dread and absolute exhaustion, both moral and physical, that pervades Nightwing #140, beautifully conveyed through Denys Cowan’s legendary pencils, inked expertly by another industry legend, Norm Rapmund. Though I’m still unconvinced of the horror approach to Nightwing, the art and craftsmanship on the book continue to be consistent and fairly high quality. With the next issue promising to bring things to a head, it will be interesting to see if Watters pulls all his horror anthology tales together, or merely pushes the arc to its stopping point for the next phase of Nightwing’s descent into hell. Hopefully he’ll have a longer period of rising than just a few issues, though it’s hard to see the daylight after so many issues of gloom.
Jorge Fornes’s main cover features Nightwing’s fist, huge against an image of The Dive’s door, blood and a mask on the ground. Guillem March’s variant features an intense Nightwing vaulting in vicious rain, only blue, black, and white colors creating a gorgeous effect. Werther Dell’Edera’s variant features a fisheye effect Nightwing crouching amidst a neon yellow and pink alleyway – nicely dramatic. Dan Mora’s swimsuit variant features Dick in board shorts with his logo all over them, giving a “hang ten” as he heads out to the sparkling waves.
Final Thoughts
Cowan and Watters craft another spooky, horror-filled tale of urban despair and a man succumbing to it.
