Nightwing #137 - DC Comics

NIGHTWING No. 137, June 2026

Whilst many a bibliophile will doubtless agree it’s always enjoyable to see the original Caped Crusaders working together, those who read Issue One Hundred And Thirty Seven of “Nightwing” will also surely believe that Batman’s presence throughout this comic is also the only good thing about it. Sure, the notion of two snipers besieging Bludhaven Bridge from opposite ends definitely sounds like a solid basis for a modern-day, no-nonsense storyline. But the implausible purpose behind one of the shooters’ actions, and supposed unwillingness to actually kill anyone makes the entire situation rather lack-lustre and unconvincing.; “Even the woman she shot was probably a lucky hit.”

To begin with, this book’s audience are meant to believe that when Ioana gunned down a “public defender” with a single bullet to the head just as she was leaving a taxi, the markswoman was actually purposedly missing her fiancée who was busy working on the flyover’s infrastructure. Such a notion just smacks of Dan Watters being desperate to pen a reason for Commissioner Sawyer to call in her city’s masked vigilante for aid, and then later explain just how Dick Grayson’s alter-ego is only nicked in the face when he subsequently makes himself a plain target by standing still on the viaduct.

Furthermore, it’s not arguably all that clear why the Romanian woman ever agreed to her brother’s plan in the beginning, if she wasn’t going to go through with it and murder the man she loved. The English writer appears determined to mask this misguided motivation with a ghost tale about the pair’s great grand-father being buried alive in the bridge’s foundation as a sacrifice to its stability. However, none of this reasoning is ever properly explored or even shown to be true and debatably makes any spectral machinations behind the gunplay disappointingly meaningless – even if Nightwing does anxiously attempt to convince Batman that without the cold-blooded killings a fatal hairline fissure in the structure would never have been discovered.

Slightly more credible than this periodical’s plot are Denys Cowan’s pencils, which at least help imbue a somewhat statically-based script with a bit of vigour here and there. The comic’s opening view of Bludhaven Bridge being scanned by both Nightwing and Batman is particularly well drawn. Though it does raise the question as to why the Police need to call in the likes of the Dynamic Duo for something that they’re clearly trained to deal with on their own..?

Writer: Dan Watters, Pencils: Denys Cowan, Inks: Norm Rapmund and Colors: Francesco Segala