WARNING: The next accommodates spoilers for DC vs. Vampires #6, now on sale from DC Comics
The fact in DC vs. Vampires has already racked up a staggering variety of deaths, as a number of heroes and villains have already fallen to the vampiric curse. Nevertheless it simply bought even worse, with the last word lord of the vampires revealed, and it is a large drawback for the remaining heroes.
DC vs. Vampires #6 by James Tynion IV, Matthew Rosenberg, Otto Schmidt, Simone Di Meo, Daniele Di Nicuolo, Rex Lokus, and Tom Napolitano revealed Nightwing was the key lord of the vampires — with all of the strengths that make him the lynchpin of the hero neighborhood making him additionally a really devious villain.
On the coronary heart of DC vs. Vampires has been the lingering query of who’s secretly the brand new king of the vampires. In secret, somebody has taken command of the vampire nation and set about carving out a darkish future for the world. Contemplating the carnage and demise that is already befallen many of the super-villain neighborhood, it was straightforward to imagine that the Joker could be the Vampire King. However upon the Suicide Squad discovering his physique, it turned obvious to Batman that it is certainly one of his allies who’s the true menace — simply as Nightwing punches a gap in his chest. It is a surprising second, with Nightwing gleefully tearing aside the Bat-Household very quickly in any respect. By the point the battle was over, Inexperienced Arrow, Cassandra Cain, and Alfred barely managed to flee, whereas the remainder of the Bat-Household was both lifeless or bitten.
It is a brutal second and one which lands as successfully because it does due to Nightwing’s ordinary place as certainly one of DC’s most necessary heroes. Nightwing is sometimes called the guts of the DC Universe, with virtually each notable hero having a robust relationship with him. Dick Grayson is Batman’s final triumph as a hero and an emblem; proof that kids left orphaned by the world might overcome the darkness and turn into higher individuals than what got here earlier than. Nightwing is the type of hero Superman turns to in occasions of want, talking to his significance throughout the neighborhood. So it then makes excellent sense that he’d be essentially the most harmful of the heroes to turn into a vampire, and capable of impress them round him. He is had entry to Batman’s information on everybody, giving him data of all types of weaknesses.
Nightwing’s potential to work with anybody probably helped him strike at individuals like Zatanna and Inexperienced Lantern, giving him a gap to deprave a number of the hero neighborhood’s strongest figures. His expertise with so many corners of the DC Universe and his time as a pupil of Batman additionally makes him theoretically an excellent and devious commander. And it is clear that his charming persona has been refined right into a extra fearsome kind because of his vampirism, as Grayson jokes together with his former household whereas slaughtering them. He is additionally bought all the coaching Batman gave him through the years, now amplified by vampiric attributes to grant him efficient superpowers. He is even found a method of overcoming typical anti-vampire strategies by utilizing the distinctive properties of Tamaranian blood — suggesting a darkish destiny for Starfire on this world.
It is a darkish path, however one that completely sums up how harmful the vampires of DC vs. Vampires have turn into. They’ve discovered methods to make use of the heroes’ personal talents and strategies to their benefit, wiping out the competitors and leaving a lowering inhabitants of heroes to deal with them. It is probably the most efficient Nightwing reveals ever, and highlights all the pieces that makes the character necessary by subverting it and turning him into maybe the best villainous model of the character within the multiverse.