Dan Watters’ Best Comics To Read Before Nightwing

Summary

  • Fall in love with Nightwing all over again in Dan Watters’ new run in October, which promises an exciting street-level heroics journey.
  • Watters’ unique storytelling style offers a fresh take on Gotham, breathing life into lesser-known characters and dark themes.
  • Dan Watters is an up-and-coming talent with great DC and indie comic series that highlight his potential to become an industry titan.



DC: All-In is a widely anticipated endeavor from DC Comics this October, promising readers new and old a completely accessible jumping-on point. While similar to the Dawn of DC initiative of 2023, All-In is much more exciting due to the approaching Absolute Comics universe and its new vision for the DCU. Unlike previous publishing initiatives, driven simply by an evil force or status quo shakeup, though that may result after the events of Absolute Power. Instead, All-In is more creatively driven, a promising aspect for the new comic line.

Many series will be continuing with their previous creative teams, but a good many will be getting new blood to leave their mark or will shuffle in existing talent to take their place. Such is the case with a new run of Nightwing, previously written by Tom Taylor with art by Bruno Redondo. Taylor has moved on to work on Detective Comics, and while Ram V isn’t taking his place— now working on The New Gods alongside Evan Cagle— one of the series’ backup writers will be taking up a spot on Nightwing: that author being the talented Dan Watters. While Watters isn’t an industry titan quite yet, he is a phenomenal creator with the potential to be one and whose recent DC works deserve a read by fans.



What’s Planned For Dan Watters’ Nightwing?

Nightwing 119 Dexter Soy cover cropped

Debut Issue

Creators

Date of Release

Nightwing Vol.4 #119

Dan Watters & Dexter Soy

October 23rd, 2024

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Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo’s Nightwing was an attempt to bring Dick Grayson back to a comfortable status quo. This was something much needed and highly anticipated by fans after the incredibly controversial “Ric” era of the character, where Grayson had become an amnesiac after surviving a bullet to the head. This run did introduce some fun new concepts and faces like Beatrice Bennett— but returning Nightwing to a more comfortable spot while cementing his position as a figurehead of the DCU was key to Taylor’s run on the character.

As a result, this leaves future creators with more room to experiment and push Nightwing a bit further from a comfortable square one. While Watters’ run begins in October, readers have been granted a few key details as to what the run will detail. Taylor moved Nightwing high up on a pedestal, dealing with crime indirectly through his wealth. Watters’ run, however, seems to be moving Grayson back to the streets. After cleaning up corrupt officials, many gangs and common crooks have sprung up to fill a power vacuum, and Nightwing is the only one able to stop them.


It seems like a natural step to bring Dick Grayson back as a character more directly involved with heroics, with Watters even mentioning in a League of Comic Geeks AMA that he plans on prominently focusing on Blüdhaven’s civilians. With supporting casts and ordinary people being a sorely lacking aspect of many modern cape comics, it’s refreshing to have Watters bring them into the spotlight. It also may be interesting to see how Watters can potentially add a horror tinge to the series, as many of his most notable works are part of the genre.

Another promising part of Watters’ Nightwing is the art by Dexter Soy. Another recent talent in the industry, Soy has done impressive work in the past on titles like 2016’s Red Hood and the Outlaws, 2019’s Batman and the Outsiders, and 2021’s Suicide Squad run. His style is polished and clean while retaining a necessary dynamism, and with the right colorist, his work will certainly pop.


Watters Is An Important Part Of Gotham Nocturne

Key Issues

Creators

Dates of Release

Detective Comics #1072-1083, #1087, #1089

Dan Watters, Stefano Raffaele, Lee Loughridge, Steve Wands, Hayden Sherman, Tríona Farrell, Aaron Campbell, Patricio Delpeche, Christopher Mitten, Liam Sharp, Caspar Wijngaard, Juan Ferreyra, Jorge Fornés, & Francesco Francavilla

May 2023 – September 2024

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One of DC’s best titles of the decade so far, Detective Comics has been on a roll ever since the phenomenal Ram V started writing for it. While V is the main author behind the story’s central plot, other writers have taken the time to flesh out certain plot threads and weave them into the wider epic of “Gotham Nocturne”. Dan Watters is one of these writers, alongside other fantastic talents like Si Spurrier. It isn’t necessarily dramatic to call “Gotham Nocturne” an epic when one takes the time to factor in how many individuals work on it and the story’s general scope. While it isn’t globe-encompassing, the number of characters, the story’s themes, and the series’ stakes for Batman and Gotham City are nothing short of monumental.

Watters has been handling backups on the series uninterrupted from Detective Comics #1071-1083 and has credits on issues #1087 and #1089 in July and September, respectively. All in all, his writing has found its way into half of “Gotham Nocturne”’s issue count. While the stories vary in terms of focus, they’re all top-tier— be it the origins of an Orgham family member, the Ten-Eyed Man going on a surreal adventure for pizza, the strained relationship between the assassin Cheshire and her daughter Lian, or Azrael’s self-improvements after the events of Sword of Azrael. While each story had different artists, they exemplified Watters’ character-focused stories and his proficiency in horror. The fact each tale fleshed out tertiary characters, those who existed in the corners of “Gotham Nocturne”’s main events, really highlights Watters’ talents for giving dimension to things otherwise taken for granted.


Order Of The World Fleshed Out The Little Guy

Series Title

Creators

Dates of Release

Arkham City: The Order of the World

Dan Watters, DaNi, Aditya Bidikar, Dave Stewart, & Sam Wolfe Connelly

October 2021 – March 2022

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One of Watters’ first proper series at DC Comics, Arkham City: The Order of the World followed the events of the tragedy A-Day, in which Arkham Asylum had been blown to bits by the Joker. The body count was high, but the main consequence was the escape of any surviving patients from the facility, leaving the criminally insane free to do what they wished on the streets of Gotham.


Watters’ talent for shining a light on the mundane was used once more, as many of Gotham’s C-list supervillains– many of whom hadn’t been used in meaningful ways for years, like Dr. Double-X or Dr. No-Face– were the stars of the story, with their unique characters shown through the eyes of their mutual doctor, Jacosta Joy. Another prominent character is Ten-Eyed Man, a villain completely overhauled for Order of the World’s darker story. A total John Doe and black canvas, Ten-Eyed Man is a twisted visionary who seems to be the only one able to see Gotham for what it truly is.


A key component of Order of the World, and how it may be a big part of Watters’ Nightwing, is how he breathes new life into characters that aren’t exactly the story’s leads and pays attention to minor details that bring a comic to life. Order of the World presented a Gotham very different from James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez’s then-current cyberpunk interpretation, making the city seem like a grungy, shadowy, decaying entity. For the first time in a while, the city and its denizens had a sense of character that felt unique to the setting.

Sword Of Azrael Was An Epic Examination Of Heroes

Series Title

Creators

Dates of Release

Sword of Azrael

Dan Watters, Nikola Čižmešija, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Marissa Louise, Ariana Maher, Ivan Plascencia

August 2022 – January 2023

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A direct followup to Arkham City: Order of the World, the series Sword of Azrael built more onto a key antagonist from the tale– the violent vigilante Azrael. The character was always one to swing in terms of his morality, having key character development constantly undone to repeat similar plot beats each time. While Watters strayed close to this trap during Order of the World with Azrael violently attacking escaped Arkham inmates, it was revealed that the vigilante was being manipulated by Dr. No-Face, pretending to be a spirit of vengeance goading him on. Since then, Azrael was filled with shame and fled to a quiet island in Greece to join a monastery.


Sword of Azrael was a tale filled with religious trauma, abuse of faith, and reconciling with the past for a better future. It had Jean-Paul Valley break the cycle of violence around his identity as Azrael for the final time, confronting the System within his mind programmed with special abilities, as well as others who had similar Systems implanted within them. It was through this that Jean-Paul evolved from Azrael, Angel of Vengeance, to Azrael, Angel of Mercy.

While Nightwing is not a character nearly as loaded with religious themes or a dark past, the way Watters depicts the gritty difficulties of heroism feels appropriate for what he may do with the character in the future, especially the way he treats characters placed on pedestals in any way. Azrael is revered as a figure by a few characters in the story, and while the things that Nightwing deals with aren’t quite the same, he is looked at as the pinnacle of what a person and hero should be nonetheless. The showcasing of the human beings behind idealized images is an interesting theme in much of Watters’ work and one he could expertly showcase in his Nightwing run.


Watters Truly Shines With His Indie Work

Series Title

Creators

Dates of Release

The One Hand and The Six Fingers

Dan Watters, Ram V, Laurence Campbell, Sumit Kumar, Aditya Bidikar, & Lee Loughridge

February 2024 – July 2024

Universal Monsters: Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives!

Dan Watters, Ram V, Matthew Roberts, D.C. Hopkins, Dave Stewart, & Trish Mulvihill

April 2024 – July 2024

Limbo

Dan Watters, Caspar Wijngaard, & Jim Campbell

November 2015 – April 2016

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Dan Watters’s career does not start and end at DC, as he has amassed a strong portfolio of independently published comics over the years. He has worked on IP-based titles, like Dynamite Comics’ The Shadow, Image Comics’ Energon Universe, and Titan Books’ Cowboy Bebop, Assassin’s Creed: Uprising, Wolfenstein, and Doctor Who, but his collection of purely original stories is not to be underestimated in quality.

Watters has done fantastic work collaborating with Ram V, with 2024 producing not only The Creature from the Black Lagoon Lives!— a fantastic sequel to the 1954 classic about trauma— but also The One Hand and The Six Fingers. The story was published in a unique format, split in half with each writer penning a five-issue miniseries— Ram V handled The One Hand and Watters covered The Six Fingers. Each would be released right after the other, with readers having to alternate between issues to get the full story. It was a genius way to take advantage of the comic medium while also telling a fascinating mystery exploring themes of fate, dreams, and memory. Neo Novena is the story’s setting, a city whose character is just as important as the story’s two leads. While the story is a joint venture between V and Watters, it highlights the latter’s skill in fleshing out characters and environments in ways unique to the respective story he’s penning.


One of Watters’ earlier works, Limbo, also showcased his talents in a mystery story infused with horror. Following an amnesiac detective named Clay and his voodoo practitioner roommate Sandy, the former is enlisted by a mysterious woman to take out his local city’s crime boss. The story is chock-full of supernatural elements, and a beautiful visual style provided by Caspar Wijngaard gives the book its own unique identity.

Fans will have a lot to look forward to when Dan Watters takes over Nightwing with October’s 119th issue.

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