Nightwing #138 - DC Comics

NIGHTWING No. 138, July 2026

Initially seeming to pit Dick Grayson’s alter-ego against “something bestial lurking in the forests just outside of Blüdhaven”, Dan Watters’ narrative for Issue One Hundred And Thirty Eight of “Nightwing” appears to be about to dip its toes into one of the intriguing mysteries currently haunting the city’s new super-highway. Indeed, the notion of farmer Jones fending off some deadly bipedal fiend with his shotgun and disconcertingly still coming off second-best suggests that the English writer is rather enthrallingly planning to take his audience on a trip down memory lane for the former whaling town which will raise another unpleasant supernatural link between its violent past and concrete structure obsessed present.

Unfortunately though, a quick blood test at ‘the scene of the last crime’ soon has this fascinating notion shelved for a much more straightforward storyline featuring a crash-landed alien from the Vega system, and resultantly so much of this script’s mystery arguably evaporates almost instantaneously. Now admittedly, the presence of an extra-terrestrial known to have subjugated and experimented upon Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran does lead to a surprise cameo by Starfire herself. But the powerful Teen Titans’ presence also means that the lone Psion invader is quickly dispatched.

Perhaps therefore a much more interesting sub-plot is the notion of Nightwing being sued for Manslaughter by “the families of eight of the deceased” from the recent pile-up upon Blüdhaven’s new super-highway. This private investigation and vilification by Miss Eastbourne appears to be packed full of just the sort of legal casework which could see the titular character lose his vigilante status, and even worse make him a target of the city’s law enforcement department which he has spent so long building up a working relationship with; “If you’re here to intimidate me out of taking this case against you. You’re very much barking up the wrong tree.”

This book’s disappointing departure from the place’s paranormal history also debatably appears to detrimentally affect the layouts of Denys Cowan too, with so much of the twenty-two page periodical becoming a somewhat sedentary, dialogue-drive yarn. To begin with the American artist’s pencilling appears to work so well with farmer Jones’ aforementioned clash with a hungry Psion. Yet as soon as the much more wordy side of the storytelling starts, the poor illustrator is repeatedly tasked with just depicting Nightwing and Starfire in profile making conversation.

The regular cover art of "NIGHTWING" #138 by Jorge Fornes