As Nightwing continues to steer Teen Titans Academy, the unique Boy Wonder lastly will get to avenge an Infinite Crisis tragedy.
WARNING: The next comprises spoilers for Shazam #1, accessible now from DC.
Dick Grayson has been particularly busy within the Infinite Frontier period, dividing his time between his solo superhero actions as Nightwing in his residence metropolis of Bludhaven to serving as one of many main lecturers and pupil mentors for Teen Titans Academy. And as Grayson leads the following technology of aspiring Teen Titans into motion, he lastly will get the prospect to avenge Bludhaven in Shazam #1, by Tim Sheridan, Clayton Henry, Marcelo Maiolo and Rob Leigh.
Nightwing didn’t correctly defend his adopted residence from the poisonous villain Chemo in a previous iteration of the DC Universe that was fully obliterated in the course of the 2005 crossover occasion Infinite Crisis, however this problem sees Dick Grayson lead a staff of Titans in opposition to the radioactive villain.
In Shazam #1, Chemo launches an assault on New York Metropolis’s Liberty Island, Nightwing leads each the veteran Titans and a handful of newer members to evacuate the favored vacationer attraction whereas making certain that Chemo’s poisonous chemical compounds aren’t unleashed into the Hudson Bay as he’s defeated. With Chemo noticeably stronger than traditional, Nightwing makes a name for reinforcements just for the Titans to be stunned when Shazam arrives on the scene. Whereas Billy Batson has struggled with controlling his magical transformation, prompting his enrollment in Teen Titans Academy, the Earth’s Mightiest Mortal is ready to forcibly carry Chemo to a protected distance away earlier than Raven transports the supervillain from the scene by a well-paced portal.
Though this looks as if a reasonably commonplace superhero operation, it permits Nightwing to do defend New York from the menace he failed to save lots of Bludhaven from. Nightwing spent a number of years defending Bludhaven as its guardian superhero upon studying that Gotham’s sister metropolis was simply as corrupt as Batman’s residence. Decided to root out corruption from the within, Grayson went so far as to enlist in Bludhaven’s police division whereas persevering with to work exterior of the regulation as Nightwing earlier than he was ultimately ousted from his burgeoning regulation enforcement profession. Whereas Nightwing tried to infiltrate Deathstroke’s operations, the Secret Society of Supervillains dropped Chemo in Bludhaven throughout Geoff Johns and Phil Jiminez’s Infinite Crisis #4 in a present of pressure, fully destroying town whereas Nightwing was away.
For a lot of the post-Infinite Crisis DCU, Bludhaven remained a smoldering, irradiated ghost city and served as a grim reminder of how the heroes had didn’t work collectively to cease the Secret Society from decisively drawing first blood. This sense of failure was particularly and acutely felt by Nightwing, who was away unsuccessfully making an attempt to get the bounce on Deathstroke at a time when his metropolis wanted him essentially the most. By the beginning of the DC Rebirth period, Bludhaven and Nightwing’s connection to town would quietly be restored, with no overt point out of its destruction throughout Infinite Crisis and any potential circumstances behind its eventual return, fully liveable — if simply as corrupt — because it had been earlier than.
No matter historical past Nightwing and Chemo could now share, the supervillain has soundly been defeated by the mixed efforts of the Titans with Grayson again on the helm. Lately, the residents of Bludhaven have reminded Nightwing simply how a lot of a distinction he has made defending them through the years, stepping as much as save their very own below the specter of town’s new, resident supervillain Heartless. Bludhaven could have endured a catastrophically grim destiny throughout Infinite Crisis. however its second likelihood at being a thriving metropolis within the DCU has not gone unspoiled, with Nightwing again as its personal shining knight. And whereas Shazam’s powers should be in flux, the teenage superhero simply helped took down one of many DCU’s most corrosive supervillains.