Nightwing Vol. 2: Death Traps

Nightwing

by Dan Watters, Dexter Soy (Illustrator)

The critically acclaimed Nightwing run by Dan Watters continues, pushing Dick Grayson to his limits as he faces the ever-present dangers lurking in the shadows of Blüdhaven

Following the explosive events of Vol. 1, Blüdhaven remains a city on the edge, where crime never sleeps and trust is a luxury few can afford. As tensions rise between Nightwing and Commissioner Maggie Sawyer, a shocking murder investigation forces them both to question everything they thought they knew. Acclaimed writer Dan Watters (Lucifer, Arkham City: The Order of the World) continues his gripping take on the beloved hero, with stunning artwork that brings Blüdhaven’s dark underbelly to life.

Collects Nightwing #125-129.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Batman, Comic Book

232 pages, Hardcover

Published January 20, 2026

About the author

Dan Watters is a UK based comic book writer. His first book, LIMBO, was released through Image Comics in 2016. He has since written THE SHADOW at Dynamite Comics, and ASSASSIN’S CREED and WOLFENSTEIN for Titan Comics.

Currently he is writing the relaunch of LUCIFER for Vertigo’s Sandman Universe, as well as DEEP ROOTS for Vault Comics. Deeply rooted in London Town, and firmly of the Devil's party.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.1 stars

[Axel · Rating 3 out of 5]

mediocre y además lo salva el annual (que me ha encantado) porque los demás capítulos me han parecido mediocres y encima copaganda. La gente en Twitter lo hypea demasiado y a mí me gustó más el volumen anterior, pero bueno a ver si los 3 siguientes números del próximo volumen sí son tan buenos cómo dicen.
El Zanni y la metanarrativa siguen siendo INCREÍBLE y por eso me ha gustado muchísimo más el annual que el resto de números.

[Riley Pilgrim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely a lot weaker than the first volume. I think Watters did an amazing job with the annual, and the mini arc with the corrupted cop story. However, once he dived into the 5th dimension stuff he lost me, and overall I didn't connect with that story at all. It was the weakest part of Taylor's run, and it feels like Watters included it because Taylor had established it previously. With that being said Watters did do some interesting things with it; with Nightwing Prime now being officially part of the world and stuff. Although, again, this arc just didn't do much for me.

The best part of this book was the stuff with Maggie, and her investigation into who Olivia Pearce really is. This was the annual, and I really loved the deep dive into Oliva's origin. I found it to be real sinister, and sort of meta in a way with how it was told.

I'm still going to continue reading this run, as I do feel like the annual has set up some really cool stuff to come.

[Bab · Rating 5 out of 5]

hell yeah

[Maddie Spicer · Rating 4 out of 5]

nightwing x oracle my beloved

[Suillellus · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun, quick read, but yeah definitely a big pivot from the first one. With how the last one ended, I was expecting a lot more of the gang and police stuff to continue in this one, but both got sidetracked for the 5th dimensional stuff. Seeing Maggie and Kate was a pleasant surprise, although I dont get who Kate's kid is, unless that's Rebirth shenanigans (or unless that's not Kate Kane but another Katie with red hair...) As others have said, the Maggie stuff was the most interesting part, but I loved the creativity that came with Night-Mite, although I was also confused by it and how exactly it got resolved with chicken soup (honestly, how it started too, like how did Zanni flashbang Night-Mite like that??) Also, I kind of wish there were more than just ~4 not THAT out there things in the 5th dimensional space, but I get that there was no time.

The art was great as always, though honestly after the other artist's work on the intro story, seeing olivia's doll-like, pencil-sharp nosed face was very jarring. I originally didn't like the new artstyle that much, though it definitely grew on me by the end. But by god do some artists draw Nightwing fugly and thankfully Dexter Soy at least is not one of them. Really love how his art pops out its just generally great.

The creative narration work given by Nightwing Prime, Night-Mite, Maggie, Zanni, the crazy ringleader, etc. was probably my favourite part of this book. However, I was kind of confused at the end with Olivia's backstory. Wow I must sound like the most neurodeficient comic book reader alive if you look at my last couple of reviews, but you have to understand that I either read these at 2am when I'm a quarter awake, on the bus before school (my brain isn't working) or after school (it also isn't working), so it's not my fault this happens to be when I have free time. Back to the comic, I do understand technically what happened, but it all feels so convoluted and what was the point of repeating 'death traps' all those times? Aura? But then the Zanni's insistence on being edgy and mysterious to the point of incomprehensibility makes him lose significant aura in my eyes.

Ah well, I'll probably pick up the next volume when it comes to the library, but I don't expect I'll be hunting it down or buying anything from this series. I hope the gangs come back eventually (wow this is like the opposite to Lookism lol). Nightwing's crashout in Volume 1 after the dead child was the peak of this series, and I honestly have no idea where its even heading next. Also I really wonder if batman and/or the others are ever making an appearance...

[Subham · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was legit so good and probably one of the best things I have read this year!!

I love how this run is just taking the meta elements of comics and weaving is so effortlessly into Nightwings world and its awesome showing him in stories both realistic and fantastical and its amazing! Like the first story is a cop gets murdered and we follow Maggie Sawyer whose investigating who it could be and she is hesitant about taking Nightwing's help and over the course of her investigation we find its CAPTAIN HALLOW, an urban BPD myth and then the reveal of who it is...that was just amazing showing it from the POV of Maggie and like showing the tension between the heroes and the police and whether the latter can trust the former.

Also love how the next 3 issues are basically a horror story where Bat-mite takes over the tower and gets changed by ZANNI whose like the big over arching threat of this run and its amazing seeing it like how Nightwing goes to the tower which has been taken over and going through it fighting death wings and other traps like whatever memories from Dicks past Nite-mite conjured up and its awesome and its so unique and props to the artist for having done so and then finally towards the end you see Nightwing-Prime aka Van-zee the kandorian Superman gave the identity to and going back and pulling from various eras of DC continuity and its so awesome seeing it all! Like I said Dan is on fire with this run and then how he solves the case!!

And who he turns out to be ultimately and how Dick solves the case like it was just amazing. I loved this story its just 3 issues but it was so much fun reading through it!

And then the annual which is handsdown the best annual maybe or something like I am at a loss of words of how good it was and it tells you the backstory of Olivia Pearce aka Colombina and connecting that to the lawsuit where they banned gruesome storytelling in comics and Comics code authority.. just wow and this story is so deep and filled with metaphors like Dan's best issue so far which I think I say about everything he writes now! WOAH! And also we learn of the ZAANI's origin of sorts with this one!

I am just in love with this run its perfect on so many levels and Dan is cooking with this run and the art by Dexter soy continues to be awesome!!

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dan Watters's first arc of Nightwing was fairly safe in that it was another gang war type Bat-story, but this collection branches out a little more.

The opening arc is part ghost story, part bad cop story, and then the following arc leans into the insanity of comics as Nitemite finds himself possessing the old Titans Tower and keeping Babs hostage. Both of these are a little different to what we're used to for Nightwing, but they work very well as a result, as well as feeding into the larger story that Watters is telling with the Cirque Du Sin and Spheric Solutions moving into Bludhaven.

The best issue of an already good collection however is the Annual, which gives some backstory about the Zanni, while also being a meta commentary on the power of comic books as a whole.

Artwise, we've got Dexter Soy from the previous volume, as well as Francesco Francavilla for the ghost story arc, which is always a good time.

I knew Tom Taylor's Nightwing run would be a hard act to follow, but Watters is definitely making his own mark so far.

[Clint · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of issues is broken into halves, and I liked one half much more than the other. The first half is a Francavilla-drawn exploration of “the blue line of silence” maintained by cops to extrajudicially protect (and internally police) other cops. An interesting thriller plot and thoughtful commentary held my interest, plus Francavilla makes it look great in his gloopy black light poster style.

The other half is much less interesting. Watters opts for a wacky throwback plot that relies on a lot of obscure decades-old Nightwing-specific lore in a way that didn’t seem interested in welcoming in readers who can’t already cite all that Nightwing wiki trivia by heart. Soy draws this half of the issues too, and his artwork continues to be generically unimpressive.

“Because we can’t rely on a superhero’s gut checks to make policy decisions for a whole city. You were elected. He was not.”

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoying this run. This volume has several smaller stories. First, the Captain Hallow story, with corrupt cops and a creepy urban legend. I do wish that Captain Hallow hadn't looked quite so much like Wesley Dodds Sandman, but figure that may have been intentional, to throw off readers who remember him. Next up, a fifth dimensional story that I think maybe took up a little too much space. Still, Watters did something different with Nite-Mite, and brought in a new character who has some interesting possibilities ahead of him. Lastly, Maggie investigating Pearce. Very unsettling story that gets closer to fully unmasking her while still leaving a lot of unanswered questions on the table.

[Leo Kirchner · Rating 2 out of 5]

**Slight Spoiler** I'm not going to lie Francesco Francavilla's art is really hard for me to look at. It personally just isn't my taste of comic book art but that's fine. I also feel like the "cop killer" guy was like a Scooby-Doo villain and I really didn't like that. It felt totally out of place with the last volume from this squad. After the "cop killer" arc it went back to Dexter Soy's art which was amazing just like the last volume. But it's too bad that the story line that went with it didn't help much. I thought it was too goofy and kind of undoes what the last volume did with a certain ex-teddy. I did enjoy the backstory on the main villain of the run in the annual issue but I wish Soy's art would have been there to help tell that story.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Dexter Soy's art, and this is a solid story but its much more about Commissioner Maggie Sawyer than it is Nightwing. I am really into Olivia Pierce and the Zanni as the villains, I like their angel.

[cc · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[radha · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love you dan watters

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Watters is hitting his stride now on this run

[ShamNoop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good but not great. Doesn’t quite manage to balance the quirkiness, horror, and grit.

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nightwing cooks again and is back in a great mystery style story with issues that hit.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maggie Sawyer was the star of at least half this volume. We also have a Nite-mite. The annual takes a bit of a punch at the old comic book code authority, but doesn't even feature Nightwing.

[Daniel Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously bloody good.

Excellent - 9/10

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Transformative.

[Daniela Gomez · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Hayley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars