Nightwing #51
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeNightwing #51 is the first issue of the 'Ric Grayson' era — a radical, editorially-driven status-quo reset that stripped one of DC's most beloved characters of his memories, his name, and his heroic identity, forcing readers to watch the Nightwing mythos rebuild from the ground up. The issue's most consequential moment is its final page: the debut of Detective Alphonse Sapienza donning the abandoned Nightwing costume, launching the 'Nightwings' concept — a group of ordinary people filling the hero vacuum — which would define the book's direction for the next two years. It marks the first chapter of a bold but genuinely divisive storytelling experiment, drawing deliberate parallels to Batman's Knightfall saga while asking what a symbol means when its owner no longer claims it. For better or worse, it is a line-in-the-sand issue that every subsequent Nightwing run has had to reckon with.
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The issue was originally solicited as a Scott Lobdell solo script, but Bleeding Cool and CBR both reported that Benjamin Percy had departed the title abruptly — Percy himself noted publicly that he wished he could have told the story he had planned. Fabian Nicieza, a fellow 1990s X-Men architect and Percy's replacement collaborator, was brought in for additional dialogue, reuniting two prominent '90s writers on an urgent editorial handoff. The triggering event — KGBeast shooting Dick Grayson in the head — had been written by Tom King in Batman #55, not by Percy or Lobdell, meaning the new team inherited a premise already locked in by another book. Multiple reviewers and forum commentators noted signs of a rushed production: two artists (Travis Moore and Garry Brown) split duties mid-issue with a jarring tonal shift, and solicitation copy was changed at the last minute to reflect the new direction.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published October 17, 2018 (cover date December 2018); part of Nightwing Volume 4 (the 2016 Rebirth series).
- Story title: 'Knight Terrors, Part 2.' Writers: Scott Lobdell and Fabian Nicieza. Artists: Travis Moore and Garry Brown. Colorists: Hi-Fi and Nick Filardi. Letterer: Deron Bennett. Cover: Mike Perkins (foil-enhanced). Variant cover: Howard Porter.
- First appearance of Detective Alphonse Sapienza, who dons the Nightwing costume on the final page and later becomes a core member of the 'Nightwings' team.
- First appearance of Malcolm Hutch, a Blüdhaven fire department deputy chief who also eventually joins the Nightwings.
- Dick Grayson, shot in the head by KGBeast in Batman #55 (written by Tom King), is now operating under the name 'Ric Grayson,' retaining only muscle memory from his former life while working as a Blüdhaven cab driver.
- The issue directly continues the Scarecrow subplot inherited from Benjamin Percy's run, with Jonathan Crane operating covertly under the alias 'Dr. Gruidae' (Latin for the crane family) as a therapist in Blüdhaven.
- Scott Lobdell replaced Benjamin Percy as the series writer starting with this issue; Percy publicly noted he could not tell the story he had planned, though neither he nor DC explained the reason for the change.
- The physical edition features an enhanced foil cover by Mike Perkins, distinguishing it visually from standard Rebirth-era issues.
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Reprinted in Nightwing: Knight Terrors #[nn] (2019), Asa Noturna #8 (2019)
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