Nightwing #133 - DC Comics

NIGHTWING No. 133, February 2026

If Dan Watters’ motivation behind penning the narrative for Issue One Hundred and Thirty Three of “Nightwing” was to give the more brassic bibliophiles buying his book a bit of a financial break for a month by not needing purchase this particular publication, then the English writer’s plan certainly seems to work. True, any fans of the ongoing series will miss a rather unexpected cameo by the Martian Manhunter. But other than the Justice Leaguer helping Dick Grayson’s alter-ego step foot into the Fifth Dimension, arguably nothing else happens of any interest within this entire twenty-two page periodical.

Instead, readers are simply asked to witness a variety of this title’s supporting cast sat around poor Bryce Moran’s rehabilitation bed repeatedly telling the original Boy Wonder that the media’s belief he beheaded Olivia Pearce on local television wasn’t really his fault, and that his reputation would eventually recover. Indeed, perhaps the only one of these sedentary scenes which contains any real plot progression is the apparent imminent departure of Bludhaven’s former mayor who plans to leave the city in order to get “a fresh start.”

By far this comic’s most soporific moment however, debatably comes with the sudden appearance of J'onn J'onzz, who takes a whopping twenty-seven panels to provide Grayson with a gateway leading to the mysterious Cirque du Sin. The pair obviously discuss other matters during this scene, such as what the Zanni did to Nightwing-Prime. Yet so much of their dialogue may still strike this book’s audience as simply 'treading water' so that the lead protagonist can encounter a ghoulish incarnation of Pearce in Nite-Mite’s inter-dimensional reality at this instalment’s end; “And here he is. The Ringmaster. At long last.”

Significantly more scintillating than the script for “A Thing That Should Not Be” has to be V Ken Marion’s layouts, with the concept artist desperately attempting to imbue as much of the magazine as he can with some semblance of life. This approach appears to mainly stem from the illustrator pencilling all the talk around Bryce’s body from as many different angles as possible. Albeit every now and then the man manages to take any onlookers onto the very streets of Bludhaven where Spheric Solutions’ technologically advanced law enforcement officers are dynamically battling the conurbation’s criminal gangs, or its young children are being abducted by the Zanni’s circus.

Writer: Dan Watters, Artist: V Ken Marion, and Colors: Veronica Gandini