NIGHTWING: RENEGADE

WRITER

Devin Grayson

PENCILLERS

Phil Hester, Cliff Chiang, Brad Walker, Wellington Alves; Marcos Marz

INKERS

Ande Parks, Rodney Ramos; Edde Wagner

COLORIST

Gregory Wright

LETTERS

Phil Balsman, Pat Brosseau, Rob Leigh; Travis Lanham

ORIGINAL COVERS

Phil Hester, Ande Parks with Guy Major

PUBLISHED BY

DC Comics

I have to start the review by saying a few things about former Robin and in this collection Nightwing = Dick Grayson.  I'm a really big fan and always have been of the youngest of The Flying Graysons and his masked idenity of Nightwing is one of my all time favorite superheroes but I am not a fan of Dick becoming and I've read now staying as Batman while Bruce was lost in time and now that he is back. Talk about ripping away years of building Nightwing into his own strong character. Oh, and if you want my opinion, which is all this is and all my reviews ever are, I would have made Jason Todd take up the Batman costume with Damian as Red Robin and when Bruce came back they could have stayed a team with Jason gaining his own costumed indenity. I like Tim Drake staying as Robin because he has established Robin strong outside the shadow of the Batman and the modern costume doesn't look a kid superhero so age doesn't matter either. And no I don't think Batman always needs a "Robin", I just think he needs someone to mentor and show him a different view on his misson. For that role you could have Batgirl.

But none of that rant and ramble has anything to do with this trade outside Dick going through a lot of stuff because he doesn't match up with that self-righteous ass named Bruce Wayne. Batman is all cool but the dudes a dick also.

I love that this story is one big adrenaline rush, which the whole Nightwing series from the begining was for the most part, and here Devin Grayson hits the adrenaline button perfect with the right guest characters and story structure. I've always loved how Dick relates and reacts to Superman. I've always wanted to see more stories with Nightwing and Superman because I think they relate to each other better than Superman and Batman. Plus, I also think Superman has a certain amount of pride and faith in looking at the man Dick has become on his own. Never been a huge fan of Deathstroke but liked how he was used here from Ravager to what happen with Bludhaven.

By the way, Bludhaven was my favorite DC Universe city. The name alone was just cool in a kid, "That's cool," sort of way.

Oh, and the last page. Not a fan of it then or now. Too much of a jump the shark moment for my taste.

And you see in this review, though calling my reviews reviews are like saying the *baseball Hall Of Fame means something, the actually book I was reading was drowned out by my feelings of what is currently going on with the Dick Grayson character.

*I know, not adapt, but I have to finish this and put a cat in time out.

REVIEW WRITTEN BY brian c. williams

NIGHTWING: RENEGADE