nightwing vol 1 by Tom Taylor

Vol 1: Leaping into the Light, illustrated by Bruno Redondo, Rick Leonardi, Neil Edwards, Adriano Lucas, Scott Hanna, Andy Lanning, lettered by Wes Abbott

Dick Grayson returns to his beloved city of Blüdhaven to find that the city has elected a Zucco as mayor. He is instantly on edge because a Zucco murdered his parents years ago. At the same time, Grayson has inherited quite a bit of money, so after some introspection, he decides to use it for the homeless in the city, starting with inviting lots of hungry folks to grab slices of pizza. During the celebratory mood, Dick's wallet gets swiped. He enlists Barbara Gordon, aka Oracle aka Batgirl, with her enormous repertour of tech gadgets and knowhow, to help him track down the wallet-snatcher AND figure out why a Zucco is mayor. Along with all of this is the introduction a new villain, so Nightwing and Batgirl have their hands full in this adventure!

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Taylor takes over the Nightwing storyline with this book, but we're still in the middle of "series four". Thus, this is a sort of good place to start for new readers, but it does follow along in storylines written by Jurgens, Scott, and more. Taylor and editors do a decent job of providing some contextual notes when necessary, but this is also kind of a fresh start for Dick Grayson as well. The story is well written and engaging, so comic fans who want to see what all the Nightwing fuss is about will probably enjoy this book. The illustrations are bright and well colored, as well as full of life as these two heroes zoom around Blüdhaven. I do wish there were more things to separate Batman and Nightwing - both are now insanely rich and trying to use their money to save the soul of the city, not to mention orphaned from their parents' murders, so I would like to see more characterization focusing on their differences, as well as focusing on what makes Blüdhaven different from Gotham.

Sara's Rating: 8/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: December 14, 2021
ISBN: 9781779512789 (Hardcover)

​Tags: Rating: 8/10, Suitability: High School, Comicbooks, Action Adventure, Superheroes, ​DC Comics