It wasn’t too long ago that Dick Grayson was waking up on a slab in a morgue drawer. The first thing he did was call his girlfriend. Now, Dick is waking up in a similar situation, but he can’t call his girlfriend. He’s strapped to a bed. In Arkham Asylum. And he’s not exactly awake in Knight Terrors: Nightwing #1. The writing team of Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad take the original Robin back to his early days in the circus and beyond through the magic of nightmare with the aid of artist Daniele Di Nicuolo and colorist Adriano Lucas.

Grayson is in a lot of pain. He overhears a voice ask if maybe he couldn’t get some sort of painkiller, but the suggestion is declined. A little bit later, they’re throwing water on him and calling him “killer.” (Evidently, he’s killed someone he loves and can’t remember having done so.) There’s something that doesn’t feel right. He doesn’t know why he’s been placed in Arkham. He doesn’t know why he still has his mask on. They’re letting him wear his costume. And then there are the guards: they’re pigs. Literally. Anthropomorphized swine in prison guard outfits. Nothing out of the ordinary in Gotham City, but still...

It’s nice to see another Cloonan and Conrad story for DC. The writing lost TWO series with the publisher going into this summer: Wonder Woman and Batgirls. Grayson has had some really memorable moments in the current run of his series with writer Tom Taylor. His work has largely been with Grayson in the present. Cloonan and Conrad take a look back to Dick’s childhood through to his adulthood. So much of the character has been focused on his time as Bruce’s sidekick. It’s interesting to see some further perspective on that in a way that seems like a fractured overview of his whole life. 

Daniele Di Nicuolo amplifies the weird intensity of the drama with slightly exaggerated angles and interesting perspectives. There’s also some very dreamily surreal repetition that locks in the nightmare. The disorientation hits the page without embellishment. Rather than making the nightmare feel hopelessly surreal and twisted, the artist allows the relentlessness of the experience to speak for itself. It’s Arkham Asylum. It has to feel oppressive to lock in the horror, and the art team DOES lock in that horror. The situation itself is weird enough without trying to punch it up with the visuals beyond basic visions of darkness.

Grayson makes a solidly heroic impression in his journey into the realm of nightmare. Having been through a hell of a lot over the years, he’s actually become a really fun guy. Taylor has been keeping Batgirl Barbara Gordon firmly in the background of Nightwing’s main series. It’s cool that Conrad and Cloonan get a chance to place her at the forefront of Nightwing’s nightmare as well. It’s also nice to see a twisted “this is your life” nightmare for Grayson. Cloonan and Conrad give him an interesting nightmare of a narrative exercise. 

Grade: A