Collecting Nightwing (1995) #1-4 and Nightwing (1996) #1-8.

The collection begins with a confidential file about Dick Grayson written by Barbara Gordon (aka Oracle). It recounts Dick's history from his beginning as an acrobat with the Flying Graysons and Batman taking him under his wing to his superhero career as Robin, leading the Teen Titans and renaming himself as Nightwing. A handy guide for those wanting to get to know the character before starting on his first solo series.

The Nightwing by Dennis O'Neil and Greg Land begins proper with Nightwing #1. Nightwing meets with Batman and tells him that he no longer feels fulfilled by his superhero duties and wants to give it all up. Dick later gets a visit from Alfred Pennyworth, who leaves him with some documents that shed new light on to the deaths of his parents. In Nightwing #2, Dick has to deal with an assassin hired by the ruler of Kravia, a country that the Flying Graysons visited shortly before his parents were killed. Dick decides to travel to Kravia to investigate. In Nightwing #3, Dick arrives in Kravia but soon finds himself surrounded by Kravian soldiers. He soon gets himself involved in the fight against the soldiers and their attempted cleansing of the local ethnic groups as he continues on his investigation into Prince Balsik and his link to the murder of the Graysons. Events come to a head in Nightwing #4 as Dick escapes from Kravia and heads back to Gotham City. Miggie Webster, a girl Dick met before he set off for Kravia, is in trouble and there is still the matter of the hitman hired to kill him.

I was happy to see Dick wearing his terrible old Discowing outfit at the beginning of this story. Unfortunately, he soon hands over the outfit to Batman when he mentions his intention to give up being a superhero. Alfred gives him a new costume later, but it just seems rather plain compared to the old Discowing costume. I always had a soft spot for that terrible old thing. Dick still makes some pretty bad fashion choices though. My God, that spotty shirt and mullet! It only gets worse when he ties it into a ponytail when he puts on the new Nightwing costume!

Greg Land's art isn't all that bad either. I know he has a bad reputation nowadays, but I never really minded his art on Birds of Prey. Maybe he hadn't started tracing porn at this point, or if he had it wasn't as noticeable as when he did it for Marvel.

Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel are the creative team for Nightwing #1, the first issue of the ongoing series. Handcuffed to a refrigerator and gradually drowning, Nightwing thinks back to how he first got into the mess. He and Batman were in Gotham City Morgue checking out bodies that had been dragged out of the water. The cause of death was all broken necks and Batman surmises that the bodies floated from the harbour south of Gotham in Bludhaven. Nightwing headed to Bludhaven to investigate and soon had an unfortunate encounter with Black Mask and his False Face Society. Eventually escaping, Nightwing finds himself face-to-face with corrupt cops in Nightwing #2. Nightwing eventually loses the cops and decides to stick around in Bludhaven. The city is a wretched hive of scum and villainy and Nightwing thinks he is the man to clean up the city.

Nightwing starts to settle in to his new apartment in Nightwing #3. He has little time to get to know the city as a contact in the Police Force alerts him to the movements of the criminal Black Mask. Masked assassin Lady Vic arrives in Bludhaven in Nightwing #4, looking for mob boss Angel Marin. Nightwing investigates a possible shift in power in Bludhaven's criminal underworld in Nightwing #5 and ends up tangling with Lady Vic.

Robin pays a visit in Nightwing #6. Dick is wary, thinking that Batman sent him to check up on him. Meanwhile, a new force in town eliminates Angel Marin for having outlived his usefulness. Nightwing investigates Angel Marin's death in Nightwing #7 and finds out about the new aspiring crime lord is the hulking super villain Blockbuster. Nightwing and Blockbuster finally duke it out in Nightwing #8.

I'm glad to see a bad guy cutting off Nightwing's terrible ponytail during a fight in the first issue of his ongoing series. The goon even says that it looked stupid and I have to agree. No man has ever looked good with a ponytail.

The first Nightwing limited series was okay, but the idea that the ruler of Kravia had something to do with the deaths of the Graysons turned out to be nothing. Ultimately a pointless journey for poor old Dick. Things turned out better for him with his new ongoing series. I believe that the reason Nightwing hadn't appeared in the Batman books for such a long time was because Teen Titans writer Marv Wolfman had exclusive rights to the character. When New Titans started to lose readers, the Batman team saw their chance and decided to get Nightwing while they could. Nightwing missed out on all the action of the Knightfall story arc for the above reason, but he managed to come back during the Prodigal story line that came after. Bruce Wayne had battled Jean-Paul Valley for the right to be Batman but still didn't feel that he was ready to become Batman properly. Dick was still a little salty that he wasn't Bruce's first choice, but things seem to be fine between them when the Nightwing limited series starts. The Prodigal story arc is another review for another time though.

This has been a pretty enjoyable collection so far. Highlights for me being Dick's terrible fashion choices in the limited series and the introduction of Lady Vic in the ongoing series. All of you reading should know that I am a sucker for Brits playing villains and I am going to look forward to seeing more from Lady Vic. She is a literal English Lady (notice the capital letter) and she just happens to be an assassin. Let's hope the other issues of Nightwing have more memorable new villains and don't just recycle Batman villains.

My rating: 3.5 stars.