Review: NIghtwing #135

In this review of Nightwing #135, Nightwing must end the Zanni’s horrifying plans…but maybe not the Nightwing you think!

NIGHTWING #135
Written by DAN WATTERS
Art and Main Cover by DEXTER SOY
Variant Covers: DAVE JOHNSON, FABRIZIO DE TOMMASO
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 2/18/26

This review contains spoilers

Nightwing #135 begins as Titans Tower falls under Olivia/Columbina’s metaphysical attack. Martian Manhunter holds Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) back from trying to rush in to save Nightwing Prime – but the Fifth Dimension powered child wakes up and rescues himself in an awesome display of superhero power. He tells Babs he hears the Zanni’s music, and follows it. 

In the Cirque du Sin, as the Zanni is injured by the Nite-Mite Fifth Dimensional soup, Nightwing manages to imagine/create a ladder of escape and persuade the lost children to climb it – but the Zanni soon follows, a malevolent nightmare. As Zanni taunts Dick, saying he’s more of an idea and asking what a Nightwing is, Nightwing Prime arrives and begins battling the evil demon. Zanni claims that a shard of darkness is now buried in each child’s heart, ready to let the Zanni burst into reality. But Nightwing Prime says he’s going to stay in the Cirque to fight – since superheroes are a much cooler idea than the circus. 

Nightwing reaches Bludhaven with the kids and tries to go back for Nightwing Prime, but the door to the Cirque is closed, and the children need help in the massively destroyed city. The Justice League helps search and rescue, and the gangs Flyboiz and Teddies both help as well.

Martian Manhunter says Nightwing can’t go back to the Cirque to rescue Nightwing Prime, and Babs tells Dick it’s a victory – something Dick can’t accept. He visits Claire, Commissioner Maggie Sawyer’s girlfriend’s daughter, and learns that Nightwing Prime is all right. He visits children in their dreams, whenever the Zanni tries to give them nightmares – a superhero for children terrified of the dark. Strangely happy, Dick gives Claire the rabbit who powered the Spheric mech that he rescued many issues ago.

Epilogue: Mayor Bernard Bisogni looks over Bludhaven and plans to break the city to his will, and enjoy the pain.

Analysis

I’ve been pretty hard on Watters’s run on Nightwing for a while now. I really, really loved the miniseries Sword of Azrael, with its thoughtful, delicate, vivid, nightmare and dream-inducing qualities. Nightwing has some of that same unreality, which doesn’t work as well in a hero who tends to be more grounded and street level, but in the end, I feel that Watters managed to make all the metafiction work. Perhaps inspired by Neil Gaiman (and Terry Pratchett) misquoting G. K. Chesterton, Watters illustrates this deep truth about stories for children: “The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon” (“The Red Angel” – sourced with commentary on the misquotations here: https://saveversusallwands.blogspot.com/2016/05/tracking-back-that-chesterton.html).

The Zanni – a horrifying clown (who, thankfully, Watters has NOT tried to tie to The Joker, a wise choice given the prevalence of clowns in the Batfamily villain gallery) who conjures up all of the terrifying things children imagine in the dark, is finally beaten by a child who has embraced the metafiction/fifth dimensional idea of the superhero – the idea that someone who started out weak and helpless can gain power and use it to help others. And even though I’ve been very frustrated by the seeming ideological incoherence of Watters’ criticism of the Comics Code Authority in the Nightwing Annual last year while also showing that there’s real evil found in stories that can warp and ruin lives, the complex deployment of the Circus image – not just free spirited entertainers, but also the Romans feeding Christians to lions before cheering spectators – displays a story that’s more interested in a complex seeking of truth rather than cheap historical ideological points scored. Well done, Watters, well done.

For the past two years, artist Dexter Soy has been the main provider of visuals for the story of Nightwing vs. the Zanni, and as he bids farewell to Bludhavenin Nightwing #135, his work is really well done. The sketchy but clear linework around the nightmare Zannia and the dark but heroically dreaming Nightwing Prime form a beautiful poetic capstone to this metafictional story. Colorist Veronica Gandini provides the dark, noir and nightmare inflected tones that wash through the Cirque and Bludhaven, and the book continues to be a wonderfully consistent package in an age of all too common fill-in artists.

Watters could perhaps be accused of letting Nightwing take a step back in his finale as his original character defeats his original villain. I’m not sure that anything from this long arc will really be employed by other writers going forward – the Zanni and Nightwing Prime are contained, and it would be a shame to undo that delicate metafictional balance created by Watters. But as a story that highlights both who Nightwing is, and why superheroes are important, I think it’s a very solidly crafted arc, perhaps a little too dependent on the ending, but most good stories do depend heavily on the ending to really work. The epilogue promises a conflict between the new mayor of Bludhaven, which feels a TAD bit overdone after both the “evil police violence” in the just finished arc, and the Batman arc that is both ongoing with Vandal Savage as police commissioner of Gotham and Poison Ivy about to become Gotham’s mayor – but hopefully Watters executes with a twist, just as he has with the Zanni.

As main series artist Dexter Soy bids farewell to the title after a very solid run, he provides a fitting farewell cover with Nightwing driving a motorcycle up a crane towards the moon, with some lovely doves flying above – giving the emotional impression of “onward and upwards!” Dave Johnson’s variant features a grinning, square jawed Nightwing leaping down the urban canyon with a lot of negative space, humorous title lettering, and more flying doves! Lastly, in the style of Julian Totino Tedesco, Fabrizio de Tommaso’s variant shows Nightwing blasting a gun wielding criminal into a trash heap with his escrima sticks – lovely painted feeling, but with a very humorous layout and concept – and a seagull. I wonder if flying white birds was an editorial brief on all these covers!

Final Thoughts

After quite a few shaky chapters, Watters and Soy stick the landing quite well, with thoughtfulness and emotional power.

Ian Miller

A latecomer to comics - I started reading Bruce Wayne: Murderer, Birds of Prey, Hush, and War Games in college. Over a decade and a half later, I'm still inspired by Batman, and especially the Bat-Family (Stephanie Brown!) I started out listening to BTO, then Stella drew me to TBUCP, I volunteered to write reviews, and the rest is history! Love recording the podcast, especially with my amazing cohosts. Also a huge fan of Jane Austen, C. S. Lewis, Tolkien, and many more books!