Nightwing #17

Issue Details

Synopsis

NIGHTWING MUST DIE! PART TWO Damian is travelling together with Dick, remembering one of the battles they had together when Dick took on the mantle of Batman: they faced Simon Hurt and the Joker, and he was dressed as a clown and put inside a tomb, with a scent of rotting flesh around him. And Damian thinks that experience was more pleasant than their thirteen hour voyage together in the Batmobile. They are following tracks to save the life of Nightwing's girlfriend Shawn Tsang, who is pregnant and that has been kidnapped.  Damian starts arguing with Dick about the legacy of Batman: he sustains that Dick moved to Blüdhaven to establish himself as a "franchise" and a first-class superhero, and this is proved by the fact he is already called "the Batman of Bludhaven". Damian thinks he already had his run at being Batman, and that the mantle should clearly pass to him once Bruce retires. Dick is a little surprised and annoyed by the whole argument, and tells Damian that what he's doing right now is finding and saving the girl he loves, and the mother of his son. He does not want to be Batman, seeing how Bruce frantically struggles in keeping all his different lives together.  Nightwing and Robin were led to Fontevraud-l'Abbaye, a village in France where the tomb of King Richard I is. Also known as Richard Lionheart, the king was the only real character inside the Adventures of Robin Hood, the book Dick read since childhood when he wanted to "escape". This means that whoever took Shawn is someone who knows him, and knows what his dreams and habits are. As they enter in the tomb, Dick scans the casket of Richard, that should be empty, but finds out it isn't. He's afraid it's Shawn, so he wants to check it out, but Damian stops him, telling him that whoever is in there has no face: he does not want Dick to see something like that.   In that exact moment, a mysterious man dressed in Nightwing's old red-themed costume comes out, moving like Grayson and speaking like Grayson. It's an exact copy of him, and when he start talking, it's clear that he also has all of Dick's memories. But his character, his attitude, his feelings are like the ones Dick has always been ashamed of: it's like Dick's dark side has incarnated inside the body of another. As their opponent locks Damian inside a coffin, Dick gets cut by a knife on his forehead, and starts daydreaming about alternate versions of himself.   As the criminal is about to kill him, a strange Robin with no face comes out, saving Dick's life. Soon after, Damian, the real one, manages to free himself and gets to Dick, who seeing him also sees all his alternate versions. Damian, confessing to Dick that he is afraid that when Grayson will have a son he will forget him, makes Dick come back to his senses. Together they defeat Deathwing, and discover him and the fake Robin are distorted creation of one deranged villain: Professor Pyg, who is the one who kidnapped Shawn.