Nightwing: Rebirth #1 (2016) Review

Never Say Never Again


Written By: Tim Seeley
Art By: Yanick Paquette, Nathan Fairbairn, Carlos Mangual
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 13, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Our boy Dick Grayson has gone through a lot since the New 52 started....... and probably a lot before that too, but we didn't get to see all of that, what with the five year gap....... even though Batman and Robin would have been perfect to show us some earlier Robin stuff instead of giving us the stages of grief of Batman after Damian died with Catwoman, Aquaman, etc. etc.  That's probably something I'll never stop bitching about, but it serves no real purpose here because the Grayson book is over and it's time to put Dick's spy days behind him as he squeezes back into his tights and hopefully get all the people who bitched when the Grayson book came out, back on board........ bitchy little naysayers.  Anyway, Dr. Dedalus has been defeated, Dick's identity is his again and now it's time for us to finally resolve the ending to the Robin War.  Let's jump into this Rebirth issue and see what kind of tone is set.  Let's check it out.



Explain It!:

Our Rebirth issue begins with Dick Grayson taking on some Charlton Comics rejects, The Madmen, but don't worry, it's only a segue to get us to the main story, while allowing Dick to tell us that his Nightwing name was derived from the Kryptonian hero who was the great rebuilder and the catalyst for change........ So yeah, I guess we already know what the tone being set here is.  First page..... huh.  Well, clearly Tim Seeley doesn't like playing games and I kind of appreciate him for that..... oh yeah, I'm definitely letting him go all the way.  After The Madmen, this issue becomes about saying goodbye to the past and starting anew.  The past part being Saint Hadrian's School for Girls and Helena Bertinelli, who's secretly saying her final farewells so she can become Huntress and what looks like her taking out her crime family once and for all.

It's time to set things right from where we left off in the Robin War though, so our hero goes to Midnighter for a little help and after having himself a God Garden adventure, our boy Midnighter gives Grayson a strange device, which we find out is something like that wand that Arnold Schwarzenegger used in Total Recall to get that tracker out of his snout because it goes up Damian's nose as well and retracts the bomb that the Court of the Owls placed in there at the end of Robin War as a way to get Dick to see things from an owl point of view.......... but now that it's out, we've got ourselves a wild card bitches!  It's hilarious too because after all this time, nobody told Damian about the bomb in his head........ and at a point it seemed like Batman didn't know, when he walked in on Dick removing the bomb, but who are we kidding?  He's Batman, he totally knew and that pisses Damian off even more.

In the end, with everything set right in the world, Dick Grayson suits back up as Nightwing to take on the now worldwide organization, The Parliament of The Owls, led by none other than Lincoln March.  It's weird though because he's talking about how the Court are hiding in Gotham........ while the Parliament will be in the shadows, surrounded by walls........ sounds like hiding to me.  Lincoln's reign doesn't last too long though because out of nowhere he gets a dart to the eye and the new big wig in town claims his leadership.  Too bad we don't get to see who it is.

That's it for this Rebirth issue of Nightwing and while I liked the setup and that we resolved the ending to the Robin War, I did find the dialog a little stiff at times and I'm not really a fan of the art....... but even with that, it's still decent and I did love the way that Helena looked as Huntress.  Really though, I'm happy to have Dick rocking his Nightwing persona again and having his secret identity back....... even if it doesn't make much sense about who knows and who doesn't know, but maybe there will be some fun exploring that down the road a bit.  Yeah, I have some problems with this Rebirth issue, but all in all it this was a great send off to Dick's time with Spyral, while opening the door to his new adventures taking on the Parliament of Owls....... Not to mention setting the tone of this series being about rebuilding and being the catalyst for change.

Bits and Pieces:

While I found some of the dialog pretty stiff and the art doesn't happen to be my cup of tea, I do look forward to see where this story is going because Tim Seeley created a great tone for this Rebirth issue and setup what looks like a lot of fun going forward.  We also got some closure to the Robin War crossover and who doesn't love having closure?

7/10