Comics...well yes I own my share. My collection over time and has been culled and now fits nicely into 4 standard comic boxes. I had an almost 10 a month habit at one point in the late 90's. X-men. X-force, X-statix, X-man, Generation X, Sock Monkey, Batman, JLA, JLE, Azrael and some that will elude me until I go to the garage and check. But there is one comic that I collected for almost 14 years and own possibly every issue of - Nightwing.
Right now I am hearing a pin drop or sound of some shrugging. What is a Nightwing? Well for one he is a fictional DC (Detective Comics) character who has been around for 60 years or so. To put it in the simplest terms possible; Nightwing is Richard Grayson, the first Ward of Bruce Wayne.
And now you begin to get it.
Bruce Wayne / Batman was joined by a partner early in the history of the comic - Robin, the Boy Wonder. And what a niave and exciting world these characters populated back in the golden age of comics; where macho single men could adopt teenagers so they had some one to go and dress up in some kind of skin tight, themed and often brightly coloured costume (so you are more visable and easier to shoot at?) to fight creepy evil guys and mobsters and say stuff like 'gee whiz!'. The younger crime fighter may be refereed to as 'lad'. Why? Because that is what they did. But why did they do it and what does a Robin have to do with a Nightwing? Getting to that.
The motivation to take on an alter ego is often, in the world of comics linked to vengeance or some kind of preposterous, unfortunate and catalysing event. Bruce Wayne saw his parents gunned down in front of him in a dark alley, which is in the territory of Unlikely but plausible. Dick Grayson's mythology is a tad more fanciful, beginning as a boy who grew up in a circus - one third of an acrobatic act (with his parents) called 'The Flying Grayons'.
The same night that an erstwhile but secretly brooding Bruce Wayne decides to take in a show at Halley's Circus, the main act falls victim to a terrible and not so accidental accident. Richard is orphaned and Bruce sees his own tragic catalyst moment relived and reaches out to a lonely boy who has had every thing taken from him. Richard lives at the mansion and life seems pretty glum until he finds out that his custodian has some issues that may overshadow his own. Like the big bat themed cave and accessories underneath Wayne Manor.




When you read and stick with a character though out the years you get to know what constitutes that fictional entity, what makes it great to read and when you just take the hits and wait for things to get better. For about the first year and a bit it was pretty great. Well drawn, exciting with some nice cameos and a real commitment to delving into a character that after more than a few decades was waiting to be explored. Each writer added to the series, and not always for the best. But that is instantly forgiven when you get an awesome story arc, great villain, new base or head quarters etc. Yes, I know how it sounds. But If I was talking about Sense and Sensibility and the changes Elizabeth went through that culminated in the stories end, it would be considered more intellectual. Although the word count is lower and the story less cerebral, Comics have one thing over established literature. It has twelve plus issues a year and the character changes with the writer and artist, year in and year out. That and Elizabeth had some really crap action sequences.

Or so I thought.
And so it is 2011 and Bruce Wayne returns from being MIA and starts franchising Batmen around the world. Richard remains as Gothams protector while Bruce goes on set up Starbucks...I mean Batman Incorporated (franchising the mantle of the bat in different countries and recruiting vigilantes). I go to my local comic book vendor two weeks ago, who tells me of the great DC reboot. Basically DC is rebooting their comic universe. 'Youngifying' everyone, updating costumes and even re-birthing old characters and introducing a few new ones. This offers new readers a great chance to 'jump on' but leaves old readers up in the air. Swamp Thing and Animal Man are getting their own titles, so really who knows what the people at DC are thinking. Apparently certain things will carry across prior to the reboot, but what? And it is in this craziness in a fictional world full of things of things that hold no bearing on real issues - that this happens:
Richard Grayson, who is currently Gothams Batman will be Nightwing. Again. At this point all I know is this; Bruce Wayne will return to Gotham, taking the mantle of the city's protector once more. Consequently Richard retakes the role of Nightwing and their is a plot and story arc that justifies this fairly inevitable and predicable action. But that is the logistics of something that made me really care about comics again. The comic nerd in me returned when I saw this picture. Different colour, a touch of the bat on the gloves and other tweaks to make this character look like the acrobatic ninja bad ass that he is. The action adventure that I followed for more than a decade has in inexplicably begun again. The fictional affects the factual of my life, consequently making me happy.