Nightwing Has Failed Bludhaven Worse Than Fans Ever Realized

Warning: spoilers for Detective Comics #1039 are ahead. 

Nightwing has established himself as a DC Comics hero independent of his former mentor, Batman, and nowhere is this more clear than in his move to Blüdhaven from Gotham City. Just a few miles away from Gotham, Blüdhaven is a former whaling city with similar problems of crime and violence, with an even more troubling layer. While Gotham’s villains are said to be consumed by a type of “madness,” the villains in Blüdhaven are cruel for the sake of being cruel, as Nightwing points out in Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Adriano Lucas, and Wes Abbott’s Nightwing #78. And while Gotham City’s villain problem has necessitated the existence of Batman and other heroes who help protect the city, Blüdhaven is protected mostly by Nightwing only. As one might imagine, leaving the safety of a city in the hands of just one man comes with its own set of risks, which a back-up story in Detective Comics #1039 has finally revealed.

The Life & Times of Hue Vile from writer and artist T. Rex, colorist Simon Gough, and letterer Dave Wielgosz delves into the personal history of Gotham City’s newest villain. After becoming infected with a parasitic bug that feeds off of violence when he was a child, Hue Vile moved to Gotham City to best take advantage of the city’s existing problems. As Hue Vile edged closer to his plan of making Gotham his feeding ground, he made use of the fact that Blüdhaven was so often left undefended by Nightwing whenever Dick Grayson was called back to Gotham City by Batman. With Nightwing away from Blüdhaven, Vile could more easily feed himself while remaining hidden from authorities.

This secret history that Hue Vile has with Blüdhaven hits on some longstanding tensions between Nightwing and Batman related to Dick Grayson’s move away from Gotham. While Nightwing has been one of Batman’s closest allies for several decades now, there is a cost that Blüdhaven pays whenever their main protector is called away by Batman. Though Blüdhaven is a much smaller city than Gotham, the scope of its problems cannot be ignored, and the suffering of its people are equally important to consider.

Currently, in Nightwing’s solo series, he has dedicated himself to becoming Blüdhaven’s “safety net,” and while this is an attainable goal for him, it is one that he needs to be able to pursue without being taken out of his city once again by Batman. Becoming a billionaire overnight after receiving an inheritance from Alfred Pennyworth, Dick Grayson now has the unprecedented opportunity to do for Blüdhaven what he has always thought Bruce Wayne should have done with Gotham City. But if Batman continues to call Nightwing back in for assistance in Gotham City, he will never be able to fully protect innocent people in Blüdhaven, because there is a body count left behind by his absence.

Gotham City looms large in DC Comics because of its reputation as a place infested by some of the world’s worst criminals, but as Dick Grayson’s activities in Blüdhaven demonstrate, Gotham is far from the only place that is in need of people to protect its innocent citizens and address its systemic inequalities. While the situation in Gotham is dire, the current Nightwing run has shown how so many of Blüdhaven’s problems fly under the radar, because the city does not get the same type of attention that Gotham does. This makes Batman calling in Nightwing from Blüdhaven even more egregious, because not only is he his city’s main vigilante, he is also based in a city whose problems would never get addressed without him being there in the first place. From this, it is clear that in order for Nightwing to be the hero Blüdhaven needs, he must leave behind his consistent loyalty to Batman.

About The Author

Jules Chin Greene
(244 Articles Published)

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Jules Chin Greene is an editor, filmmaker, and animator based in Los Angeles. She has a B.A. in English and Cinema Studies from Oberlin College, where she was awarded Excellence in Critical Writing for her thesis on Indigeneity and Anti-Imperialism in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In her free time, she enjoys roller-skating and horror movies. You can find her on Twitter at @JulesChinGreene.

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