The next article incorporates spoilers from Nightwing #95, on sale now.
Nightwing’s time in Bludhaven has seen him go up towards town’s worst, however he has hardly ever executed so alone. It’s because he has been exploiting an apparent benefit different heroes must also be utilizing: calling on his associates for assist. In Nightwing #95 (by Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Caio Filipe, Adriano Lucas, and Wes Abbott), he took this to the following degree by recruiting a number of heroes directly to assist him take down Blockbuster.
As followers of the DC Universe will word, the varied heroes, regardless of which groups or households they belong to, are all one huge group. When certainly one of them is in bother, it often causes them to rally collectively to assist. That is an apparent loophole to their issues that extra heroes ought to use. As a substitute of simply soloing it, they might name on one another to resolve issues they might and do discover extremely difficult alone.
Nightwing’s use of his collective associates and allies allowed him to launch a coordinated strike towards Blockbuster’s main felony operations. In a single fell swoop, Nightwing organized the one best strike on Blockbuster’s empire within the metropolis’s historical past. He may by no means have completed this so rapidly on his personal. Maybe he won’t have been capable of pull it off in any respect. In spite of everything, it could have required him to be in a number of locations concurrently.
That is the place not being afraid to name one’s fellow superhero associates for assist turns out to be useful. They dropped every little thing to return and assist him. In doing so, they could have really executed extra collective good for Bludhaven in a single evening than they ever had on their very own.
This triumph brings up a wonderful query: Why do not heroes do that extra typically? There are such a lot of heroes, they usually’re not all the time busy. Nightwing could have known as upon his closest allies, however there have been nonetheless loads of former teammates and distant associates who weren’t contacted. Collectively, they might tackle any villain or felony group. Simply have a look at how helpless Blockbuster’s abnormal felony forces are towards Nightwing’s associates. Even his powered thugs are little greater than B-list villains.
There might be a number of causes. The obvious, and most meta, reply is that it is just too good a loophole to use. If each hero abruptly known as on their allies when issues bought tense, then there would by no means be any actual stakes in comics once more. A villain would not have as a lot punch as a result of their risk could be diminished within the face of so many heroes. Think about the Joker making an attempt to level a gun at Superman. It does not have the identical impact.
In a extra sensible sense, it may also not be very possible. Nightwing can name on all these individuals as a result of he’s Nightwing. He is arguably essentially the most beloved hero within the DC Universe. Compared, there aren’t that many heroes with that form of private pull with others. There is not even a assure that different heroes can afford to drop what they’re doing to assist. They’ve their very own lives. Then there’s the likelihood that it may grow to be a crutch, making different heroes complacent of their coaching after they know they’ll name within the cavalry each time. So there’s simply as a lot an argument towards this trump card as there’s for it.