The screenwriter Tim Seeley and cartoonists Javier Fernández, Marcus To y Otto Schmidt They face Nightwing against the Court of Owls in a volume published by ECC Ediciones
Dick Grayson is now on the lips of all comic readers thanks to how well the stage of Tom Taylor y Bruno Redondo with the character. But before they arrived there were already very interesting things with him when the era of Renaissanceand now thanks to ECC Editions we can enjoy a volume in which its first numbers are collected and which comes to us under the title of Nightwing vol. 1: Better Than Batman (Rebirth Part 1).
grayson reborn
in the time of The New 52during the event eternal evil, Dick Grayson’s identity as a masked man is made public by the crime syndicate. This leads to Batman Organize a plan to fake the death of your ward so you can infiltrate him into the ranks of the spy organization known as Spiral under a new identity, that of Agent 37.
That was how the old Robin became a kind of spy halfway between James Bond y Ethan Hunt who abandoned the tights for the tuxedo. After this provisional transformation it was obvious that the dust should return to its course, and Grayson ended up returning to the streets of Blüdhaven (again with his secret identity intact thanks to scriptwriter tricks) and leaving behind so much international tourism. In other words, it was time for our young hero to be reborn…
Better than Batman?
The title of the first plot arc contained here that gives its name to the volume can be interpreted in several ways, but one of them would be thinking about the appearance of the character called Raptorwhich will be of vital importance in this return of Grayson to the most superheroic action.
Raptor is presented to us as an infiltrator in the new and reformed Court of Owlsthe organization that made things very dodgy for Dark Knight in the stage of Scott Snyder y Greg Capullo at the head of his series and who here appears as the great rival to beat. He wears a colorful uniform topped with military boots and a glove in the purest style. Freddy Krueger and could become the new mentor of our protagonist. And for a good part of the plot he will be his partner in night fights, although it cannot be said that both of them come to fruition at any time…
Is Raptor better than Batman? The screenwriter Tim Seeley will strive to show that Dick could be inclined to think that about this vigilante of French origin, especially when based on flashbacks he recalls the worst moments of his apprenticeship with the masked crusader…but come on…Raptor…really? There is little doubt about the unreliability of a guy like this and how his trusting relationship with Dick is going to end…
Once we shelve this first story that opens the volume, the plot will wander along other paths that are clearly less interesting but quite well managed. Exceptional guests will pass through here such as Superman, Midnighter, Helena Bertinelli, Batgirl, Starfire, Robin or Batman himself, but the group of third-rank heroes who will form a group with our hero in blue and black will have more weight in the plot and will serve as the basis on which the plot revolves, including romantic subplots…
faded glitter
In the graphic section we have quite a few names, but those of Javier Fernandez y Yanick Paquette. It must be said that despite the fact that both have more than demonstrated their worth in other titles (Magneto o King Spawn They are two good titles to see the first give lessons), here they do not shine as much as one might expect, resulting in the general level of the volume being quite regular.
In short, we are looking at a volume whose strong point is continuity, which is carried along very well throughout all the numbers included (and which will continue in subsequent installments), something increasingly rare to see in these times where It seems that everything works from twelve installment miniseries. On the negative side, we find a drawing that is not something to write home about and a plot that has certain pronounced dips from time to time.
This volume that comes to us under the title of Nightwing vol. 1: Better Than Batman (Rebirth Part 1) It is presented in hardcover cardboard format. The volume contains 528 color pages and includes the translation of the American edition of the special. Nightwing: Rebirth and of the first 25 issues (except 5 and 6) of the regular series Nightwing.
It also contains a final section with a gallery of alternate covers as well as the original covers for each of the issues included (they all come together at the end, and perhaps inserting them instead would have been a better idea). The recommended retail price is 48 € and was put up for sale in February 2023.
Nightwing vol. 1: Better Than Batman (Rebirth Part 1)
After a long absence from Batman’s orbit, Dick Grayson returns home. Thanks to Spyral, the world has forgotten Nightwing’s secret identity, and the Dark Knight’s first ward can resume his normal activities. Among them will be the destruction of the Court of Owls, which he will have to do from within and with the collaboration of an unpredictable character called Raptor.
Dick Grayson premiered the stage Renaissance breaking with the previous years, in which he had worked as a secret agent of the Spyral organization after his double identity came to light at the event eternal evil. The new stage featured scripts by Tim Seeleythe same one that had written Grayson in company of Tom Kingand with drawings of Javier Fernandez, Marcus To y Otto Schmidt, among other authors. The immediate future reserved many adventures for him alone and in the company of the Batfamily… and also the occasional tragedy.
Authors: Tim Seeley, Michael McMillian, Marcus To, Christian Duce, Yanick Paquette, Marcio Takara, Javier Fernández, Miguel Mendonça and Minkyu Jung
