Exclusive DC Preview: Nightwing: The New Order #1

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers scribe Kyle Higgins returns to Nightwing next week in Nightwing: The New Order, and DC has provided ComicBook.com with an exclusive preview of the first issue.

In The New Order, Dick Grayson has taken control of an alternate future where he has outlawed all use of superpowers. Those who exhibit powers have either been eliminated or exiled, and writer Kyle Higgins knows that it will throw some fans for a loop.

“My all-time favorite DC books throw characters we know and love into future worlds that are equal parts familiar and terrifying, laced with moral issues that aren’t black and white or easily solved,” Higgins said when the series was announced. “Ultimately, these stories say something about our world. And that’s what we are aiming to do with this Nightwing series, through the lens of a future generation of heroes.”

Shortly after it was announced, Higgins went online to reject comparisons to Secret Empire, Marvel’s controversial crossover that shows Captain America aligned with the Nazi organization Hydra.

“Nightwing is NOT running around killing people. He has NOT committed genocide. That’s NOT what this book is,” Higgins explained. “His love, optimism, and belief in his fellow man is second to none. Which is why it’s so unsettling that 20 years from now, he’s become the face of the ban on metahuman powers. How does someone like him get to that point? What did he lose? How bad had the world become? And how much better is it now? Really, this is a story about how good people can come to believe in terrible things. It’s a look at a possible future of the DC Universe.”

Interestingly, the Batman-themed peace officers roaming the streets of this dark take on Neo-Gotham (Higgins also wrote Batman Beyond for a while, remember) feel right at home in the current DC Universe; the first arc of James Tynion IV’s Detective Comics saw Batwoman’s father trying to build an army of Batmen to carry out law enforcement and military tasks, while Batman is currently having nightmares over in Metal that he will spin similarly out of control, with airborne Bat-sentries watching over a cowed populace.

Higgins first wrote Nightwing at the start of DC’s The New 52 relaunch, helping to make him a household name in comics circles and enjoying mostly positive reviews at a time when DC did not have many titles that could say that. He would go on to write a digital first Batman Beyond series at DC before turning to creator-owned projects and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

You can check out the preview pages in the attached image gallery and the solicitation text for the first issue below.

NIGHTWING: THE NEW ORDER is the story of a future world without “weapons” — where superpowers have been eliminated and outlawed. The man responsible? None other than Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Nightwing, now leader of a government task force called the Crusaders who are charged with hunting the remaining Supers. But when events transpire which turn the Crusaders’ aim toward Grayson’s own family, the former Boy Wonder must turn against the very system he helped create, with help from the very people he’s been hunting for years — the last metahumans of the DC Universe. Don’t miss this bold new vision from the team behind the New York Times bestseller BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM!

Nightwing: The New Order will hit the stands on Wednesday, August 23rd. You can get a copy from your retailer, or pre-order it digitally.