Future State: Nightwing #1 Review

 

Crazy...Insane?!?

Writer: Andrew Constant

Artist: Nicola Scott, Ivan Plascencia, and Wes Abbott

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: January 20, 2021

Future State has been all over the place with the different years and stories, but the Bat-Family books have been consistent.  Magistrate Bad!  No Masks Allowed!  Batman's Dead!  Well, that last one isn't necessarily true, but that's what a lot of people think.  Even with consistency, the books need some glue to get everything to stick, and luckily, my man, Dick Grayson, is always up for that.  It is easily the best part of this first issue.  What am I getting on about?  Let's find out...

If you read last week's Robin Eternal and/or Teen Titans, you know something is up with Nightwing.  The timing may feel a bit off, but if you hope to get some overall answer about the best character in comics (don't try to fight me on that!), you are not going to get it quite yet.  However, what you will get is an action-packed issue that sets up a Next Batman / Nightwing team-up that is alright with me.

Andrew Constant does an excellent job with a slightly older Dick Grayson trying to help Gotham out without Bruce's aid in a City trying to bring him down.  We get a bit of Peacekeeper-01, but this story seems to center more on Peacekeeper-06, also known as "The Mark", an anti-mask zealot.  Things are personal for Dick as he believes they are responsible for Bruce's death.

While most writers go with the acrobatic background of Nightwing, Constant shows his smarts through-and-through.  He figures out a trap as the issue opens and has a contingency plan for the Next Batman when they fight in his home base.  Fight?  Of course, don't you know heroes always have to fight before teaming up?!?

Watch our Future State: Nightwing #1 Video Review

The inclusion of the Next Batman in this issue does push my score up a bit.  I know he was also in last week's Justice League, but he seemed there to fill the Batman slot and little else.  I mean, he "disappeared" while Jon was talking to him, which was such a generic move.  Here, we see how good he is at fighting, and he gives the reader yet another reason to hate the Magistrate's forces.  The issue ends with a bunch of unanswered questions and Peacekeeper ready to leave her "Mark" on Nightwing and Batman, but most importantly, I want to get the next issue right now!

I liked this issue a lot.  I think I am getting used to the pacing of the Future State books, and it doesn't hurt that this one features my favorite character (still don't try to fight me), but this issue felt like it connected the dots between the Bat Books and is setting up the future Bat-Family!  It's not perfect... there isn't much overall story for a two-parter, but Nicola Scott's art was great, and it was one of the few Future State books I've read so far that made me want more by the end.

Bits and Pieces:

Andrew Constant gave Nightwing fans and Future State readers an action-packed issue that felt big (Next Batman showing up will do that) and told a quick-moving story that feels like the start of a Future State Bat-Family.  I know there probably isn't enough time and space for that, but it felt good seeing it, and I am looking forward to the next issue.

9.0/10