Nightwing #51 Review

All-New Nightwing

Written By: Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza

Art By: Travis Moore, Garry Brown, Hi-Fi, Nick Filardi, Deron Bennett

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: October 17, 2018

Now that issue #50 established who Dick Grayson...... or... Ric Grayson is going to be for the foreseeable future, it's time to continue his journey of self discovery and see what kind of man that he'll become now that he's completely put Nightwing and the Bat Family behind.  Let's jump into this issue and see if douchebag Dick Grayson gets a little less douchey or if likes the way it feels on him.  Let's check it out.

For this issue of Nightwing we see a new writing team, but we're continuing where Ben Percy left off with the Scarecrow connection and the new way that Dick Grayson views the world...... and his past and with that continuation, we're really just seeing a night in the life of a cab driving Ric Grayson, who drinks too much, not necessarily in this issue, but he has a tab as high as an elephant's eye and we continue to see how his family reaches out to him to make sure he's alright, while also hoping to see the man that they previously knew before the bullet wiped that part of his mind away.

The best part of this issue, besides for the journey of self discovery that we're thankfully taking our time with is that we actually have a definitive allotment of time that is given to show what Dick remembers and what he doesn't.  Basically, he remembers his time in the circus and little else afterwards.  Also, the art in this issue really works with the story that we're dealing with and is another big plus to this new status quo for our hero, which while I'm not a fan of not having the Nightwing I know and love, this is a really interesting turn for the character and I'm all on board with seeing him find his way back from the abyss. 

In the end, we have a slow burn story that isn't doing anything too extraordinary in showcasing the life of our hero, which allows us to truly understand who he is now, but what we do get out of this is the pretty cliche Jason Bourne reaction that we see in a lot of amnesia stories, where the character discovers that they're more than they seem.  That being said, I really enjoyed this issue and the art that depicted it, not to mention the subplot of what a Bludhaven detective will do in a city without Nightwing is really interesting on top of what we're dealing with with our title character.  It's not my Nightwing, but this book has got my attention again after a very long time of being bored.

Bits and Pieces:

While I'm sure that this iteration of our hero will turn a lot of people off, I'm pretty excited for what's to come for the first time in a long time and I hope that Scott Lobdell can keep it up as he continues this series.  The art in this issue works really well for the story at hand and there's just so much going on that I can't wait to see how our amnesia afflicted hero will deal with it......... or if he'll deal with it at all.

7.5/10