Since reading about Marvel’s best couple and leading calender man, I decided I’d give one of DC’s top hotties a look. As you can guess by the title I’m talking about the Flying Grayson!

These five volumes by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo highlight how Nightwing is the best of the new generation of heroes. He has Batman’s grit and discipline with Superman’s light and humor. These volumes showcase how he’s the champion of Bludhaven, not drawn down by his inner demons as his mentor is, but always looking to help others be their best and live life free of strife.  

It helps that he is the child of a millionaire, and he’s gotten a recent inheritance thanks to Alfred (I know, he died! So sad!). Which is good timing too. Beating up bad guys is great and all but he’s getting ired of it. There always seem to be more, and Dick wants to do something more tangible. Use his money to help people so that only they’re physically safe but they’ll be able to thrive.

Oh, and remember what I mentioned about not being weighed down iwth inner deomons? Uh, I spoke too soon about that. The new villain in Bludhaven is absolutely chilling and in a menancing backstory revealed in later volumes, he has a connection with Grayson.

He’s not the only one as it turns out Dick is not the last of the Flying Grayson. . .

It took some time for me to get used to Rodondo’s art style but I’ve come to admire Rodondo’s clean lines that emphasize Grayson’s gymnest physique and showoff the dynamic flexibility of the fight scenes. Plus he keeps things interesting with art shifts. In flashbacks to Dick’s circus days, it is illustrated in 30s vintage comic book style. When he illustrates Heartless’ backstory, it is in faded black and white of Psycho. The Nite Mite adventure is in chibi and so on.

On the narrative side, Taylor shows Grayson’s intense desire to do more and his doubts in the shadow of Batman. Specifically that he should be tougher in order to eradicate crime, but we know that’s fruitless and some talks with the old guard bolster his thinking that he’s an awesome hero on his own merits.

Taylor also shows a softer side to the Batman-Robin relationship as Bruce comes to terms with his grief over Alfred and acknowledging where he failed as a parent and as a mentor. Nicely done is that Dick acknowledges where his mentor did wrong in his brutal, tough, don’t trust anyone method. He doesn’t idolize him that way and you can see that in the way Nightwing mentors Superboy.

Oh yeah, Nightwing is mentoring Superman’s son, isn’t that sweet? I mean, cool. Oh whatever, it’s both.

There’s plenty of excellent team-ups. Actually those standalone team-up issues were my favorite parts over the long-running narrative. Nightwing reuniting with the Teen Titans. Nightwing and Superboy being the new World’s Finest. Nightwing and Wally West as the Flash which I adore their friendship in YJ and is so nice to see it as adults even though it’s not the same universe.

My other favorite issues were the more light-hearted standalone story like Nightwing meeting the irritating rogue, Nite Mite, a story specifically from Nightwing’s eyes, and a story celebrating Bitewing! Dick’s three-legged dog because all good people are dog people. She’s adorable.

Not that this series was perfect. I wished the storyline did more with Nightwing’s surprise family member as she was very important in the first volume, and did a surprise appearence in the second volume but was otherwise not very present. A shame because it could have been used to explore Dick creating a new family outside of Batman. The Titans were underutilized in that regard to. Unless I’m wrong and the Titans are more like work collegues and not family in the comics.

Moving on, I’m still not sold on Nightwing and Oracle. Maybe I’m biased as I grew up with Dick being with Starfire or Zatanna so I prefer those ships. But at least Barbarara recognizes what makes him so awesome and loves him so I can’t complain.

Since the Heartless storyline was resolved in volume 4, volume 5 felt less personally interesting as it dealt with Nightwing facing the Underworld. Way too supernatual and not personally investing.

Yeah, that’s about it when it comes to Dick who is the totally opposite of a dick (hey I made it this far without a joke, be proud) but a leather-clad ball of sunshine and suave.

4 stars.