Building an issue around a big surprise works best when the approach is accomplished on the sly instead of being so obvious that readers are sat around waiting for the other shoe to drop. This first part of Future State: Nightwing #1 is built around multiple moments of such narrative trickery.
Written by Andrew Constant
Art by Nicola Scott and Ivan Plascencia
Lettered by Wes Abbott
Published by DC
'Rama Rating: 4 out of 10
Andrew Constant's scripting ultimately fails the approach as he leans too hard on the idea, even going so far as to have a pair of characters discuss matters of misdirection during a scene. Before he gets to that, however, he opens with a man and woman under threat from some of the Magistrate's goons, as Dick rushes in to save the day, but not everything is as it seems.
The fight is rendered by Nicola Scott and Ivan Plascencia – the former of whom is responsible for some of the more iconic Nightwing images – though it's not particularly playful. Dick's dealing with the death of Bruce so he's not going to be too cheerful, but the overall air of moodiness reads as dystopic shorthand more than anything else and doesn't play to either of their strengths.
With how much time is spent on this otherwise run-of-the-mill confrontation, Constant tips his hand too early in regard to there being something of later narrative importance happening within this sequence, and as a result, the rest of the issue reads as padding until he can give deliver one last switcheroo. There are a number of twists here and ultimately not a substantial enough story to support them.
Future State: Nightwing #1 is available now in print and digitally. Check out Newsarama's list of the best digital comics readers for Android and iOS devices.
