Follow TV Tropes

Following

Comic Book / Nightwing: The New Order

Go To

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nightwing_the_new_order_1_cover_600x911.jpg
The New Order

Nightwing: The New Order is a comic book miniseries published by DC Comics starting in August 2017, written by Kyle Higgins and illustrated by Trevor McCarthy.

The story takes place in a Bad Future where Dick Grayson leads a government task force (called the "Crusaders") to hunt down metahumans after Bruce is accidentally killed by a meta with poor control, depowering the ones they can and putting the ones their tech can't in stasis until they can. However, he starts questioning his betrayal of his former friends and allies when his son develops powers that would require him to be put in stasis.


Nightwing: The New Order provides examples of:

  • Action Dad: Dick Grayson himself has a son, Jake Grayson. And the mother turns out to be Kory, the former Starfire.
  • A Lighter Shade of Grey: Since it is two sides of good fighting over what is best to establish and maintain peace in a world with superpowered individuals. Superman himself basically states this as he explains that his worldview has diversified somewhat, as has Luthor's, and while they want a return to the way things once were, they perfectly understand why Dick did what he did. A bit better than most examples, as while the Regime doesn't come off well, it is stated that positive outcomes have occurred from their activities. Even Dick admits the "stasis program" at least is a step too far.
  • Alternate Company Equivalent: A series where a character that was formerly The Cape hunts down their former friends as part of an oppressive government regime? It's DC's version of Secret Empire, which was still ongoing when The New Order was solicited. The main difference is that this is an Elseworld story, as opposed to in the prime universe.
  • Amicable Exes: In the end, Dick and Starfire never truly get back together, but they stay as friends as best they can and do the best they can to be there for their son.
  • Anti-Villain: Nightwing and his forces seem to be the well-intentioned kind.
  • Apologetic Attacker: The opening flashback shows that after removing all of his friends' powers, Nightwing sincerely apologized to Superman for harming them all and assured him that ambulances were on the way to help the wounded.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: When struggling with the fact that his son Jake has powers, Dick cites placing his son in stasis as a worst-case scenario that he desperately wants to avoid, but may be necessary. Alfred then pointedly asks just how many superhumans in stasis have ever actually been "cured." Dick's silence is deafening.
  • Audience Surrogate: Jake Grayson, Dick's son, acts as one. He's fully aware of his father's past as Nightwing, but has several questions in regards to what drove him to turn against his friends and act against people with superpowers.
  • Badass Normal: Dick Grayson remains this, despite the years starting to catch up with him.
  • Both Sides Have a Point: As noted under A Lighter Shade of Grey both sides are ultimately good people who have differing views on the overarching conflict. The Crusaders are tasked with keeping powered citizens from threatening nonpowered ones and even prior victims of his actions understand Dick's motives. La Résistance freely and openly break the law but do make a compelling argument about how flawed the system that the Crusaders enforce truly is (the stasis program meant for those that Power Nullifier medicine doesn't affect apparently hasn't cured any of those it's used on, the Crusaders are severely prone to Lack of Empathy about any harm they cause, the hypocritical use of metahumans of their own). The story notably gets resolved when Dick recognizes the valid arguments on both sides and decides to Take a Third Option that addresses the problems each side has.
  • Brought Down to Normal: Nightwing's initial attack ended up removing the powers of about 90% of the superhuman population's powers.
  • Darker and Edgier: As is the usual case with DC Elseworld stories. However, it doesn't involve a high bodycount, aside from the deaths of Batman and Alfred.
    • In fact, the ending is a happy one, with everyone getting superpowers, Jake saving everyone from the explosion that caused the aforementioned effect to happen, old wounds being healed and Dick working to teach new generations how to control their powers and use them for good, and the Crusaders acting as more as a police force to continue regulating superpowers so they're not abused rather than locking people up purely because they have powers. Even Lex Luthor gets what he wants.
  • Deus Exit Machina: Not everyone's powers were taken away, but the opening scene seems to specifically pick the heroes and villains who would be best able to threaten Nightwing's regime after the De-power weapon in his hands hits them: Superman, Doomsday, Wonder Woman, Cheetah, Giganta, Flash, Gorilla Grodd, Green Lantern, Sinestro and both Hawk-heroes, among others.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: One past incident used to rationalize Dick's and the Crusaders' actions involved a minor car crash leading to one driver panicking and killing the other with electrical powers after the former started yelling at him over the accident.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The arguments used in favour of Dick's anti-metahuman crusade seem awfully similar to anti-gun arguments.
  • Driving Question: Several are set up in the first issue:
    • What led Nightwing to betray the other heroes?
    • Who and where is Jake's mother?
    • How did Batman die?
  • Empowered Badass Normal: Lois Lane has a Blue Lantern ring and uses it as part of La Résistance.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: It's revealed that a classmate bullying Jake hadn't been doing so because he was jealous of Jake's success in sports, but because the elderly Dr. Light (who Dick apprehended and depowered in the first issue) was his relative.
  • Everyone Is a Super: Preventing this was one of Nightwing's reasons for turning against the superhuman community. It's explained that science and technology had begun to advance to the point that anyone who wanted powers could more easily acquire them, leading to increases in violent incidents involving superpowers.
    • This is the end result of the story, as Lex Luthor uses the work he and Superman have been doing to not only restore all the previous powers, but to give everyone on Earth superpowers. This ultimately works out for the best, as Jake saves everyone from the resulting explosion, the Crusaders are still around to prevent abuse and Dick spending his remaining days teaching the next generations how to control their powers and utilise them for good.
  • Evil Former Friend: Inverted. Dick's old friend Wally West is shown to be a rebel against the new regime.
  • Face–Heel Turn:
    • Sort-of. Nightwing veers more to towards anti-heroism rather than outright villainy, and he still avoids killing, but his methods are considerably more authoritarian, taking away the powers of metahumans and effectively locking up the ones who can't be depowered to prevent them from becoming a danger to society.
    • It's revealed that Michael Holt (the former Mister Terrific) is a scientist working for the Crusaders. Like Dick, though, he's not a straight villain, even promising to keep Jake's powers a secret until Dick decides on a course of action.
    • Issue #2 heavily implies that Kate Kane now leads the Justice League as a branch of Dick's regime (in the absence of the usual roster), which would likely put her in the same situation as Dick and Michael. It's also at least implied that resents Dick taking the spotlight over her, even though Dick doesn't believe she'd be so petty.
  • Great Offscreen War: The battle of Metropolis is an important piece of backstory and played a major part in Nightwing's actions. Apparently, thousands died in a massive battle between heroes and villains that lasted for several days, only ending when Nightwing depowered everyone.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Superman and Lex Luthor working together is a pretty big example. Lex does betray Supes, but reluctantly, as he wants a world where Everyone Is a Super. Fortunately, it works out pretty well for everyone.
  • Hero Antagonist: Wally West and possibly other heroes have been fighting Nightwing's regime. A full-blown La Résistance turns out to be in operation.
  • Hero Killer: One of the teaser images shows Nightwing standing over a (possibly) mortally wounded Superman, with other dead/injured superheroes in the vicinity. It's clarified in-story that Nightwing didn't kill any of them, not intentionally at least, but instead took away everyone's superpowers.
    • Nightwing himself tries to avert this, stressing that he and the Crusaders do everything they can to avoid killing.
  • Hypocrite: A major aspect of the entire story. Nightwing tries to justify his actions and the system he built, arguing that it was all necessary and that it's good for the world. However, as soon as his own son stands to be victimized by the system he's built, he desperately wants to protect him from the consequences.
    • The Crusaders also engage in this when despite claiming a zero tolerance policy on powers they have recruited metahumans.
  • I Did What I Had to Do: Dick says to a wounded Superman, while holding the weapon used to depower everyone, that he did what he had to do to save the world.
  • The Immune: Much to Dick and Michael Holt's surprise, Jake is immune to the drugs used to suppress superpowers. Further, Issue #4 shows he holds the secret to reverse the effects of Dick's De-power device altogether.
  • Inexplicably Awesome: The weapon Dick uses to De-power everyone is at risk of falling into the same trap as JLA: Act of God, as it's shown to affect everyone with superpowers, regardless of the source of their powers, with no explanation given thus far. At least it doesn't affect Lantern rings, showing that the writers at least did more research than Doug Moench.
    • Averted when it is revealed that the device itself is a weapon from Apokolips, designed to neutralise a planet to make it easier to invade. It just happened to be in Batman's possession, and he was talked out of using it himself... By Dick, who later used it himself when Superman killed his father figure due to mind control, and when he realized he himself was going to become a father and was terrified for his child's well-being in a world filled with metahumans.
  • Lack of Empathy: This is the biggest problem the Crusaders have. They are completely apathetic to any harm that befalls others in the course of their duties and don't care what happens as long as they do their jobs. The best example would be when Alfred is shot and killed and no one but Dick cares because he was impeding the law from doing their job.
  • Missing Mom: Starfire, who was confirmed to be Jake's mother in #2, is not in his life anymore, feeling betrayed by Dick's persecution of super-powered individuals; this doesn't cover why she didn't take their son with her when she left Dick, though she may have felt it was better for him not to be affected by her revolutionary activities.
  • Morality Pet:
    • Alfred tries to convince Dick to stop what he's doing, to no avail.
    • Jake convinces Dick to return to help the Titans, by invoking that Dick himself was this to Batman.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Starfire says that Dick taking her powers away made her feel like she was back with the Citadel, the wicked alien empire who enslaved her in her backstory. Dick is unable to deny the similarities.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Superman is responsible for the murder of Batman due to Black Kryptonite mind control (something Luthor denies being responsible for), which he feels deeply haunted by despite it not being his fault.
  • Necessarily Evil: Dick argues that the Crusaders, who all qualify as Well-Intentioned Extremist at their best, are this. He notes that what they do are drastic and harsh but feels it necessary to protect unpowered citizens. He's forced to question how much of this is truly necessary once his son develops powers.
  • Old Retainer: Alfred, despite being an old man at this point, wields a normal baseball bat to try and defend Jake from the Crusaders who arrive to take him away.
  • Papa Wolf: Dick is determined to save his son Jake.
  • Paranoia Fuel: In-Universe, the ease of which people could get superpowers led to increases in violent incidents, partially since the knowledge that anyone could have powers led to increases in paranoia. One incident that's brought up involved a driver killing another driver after a minor car crash due to fear that the latter might have some sort of power.
  • Plot-Triggering Death: One of the events that kick off this story is the death of Batman.
  • Power of the Sun: Jake's powers are fueled by sunlight, just like his mother's.
  • Power Nullifier: The Crusaders don't kill or lock up metahumans, but rather force them to negate their superpowers by force of law - Dr. Light is mentioned as being charged of "premeditated neglect". The ones who aren't able to be depowered are put into stasis until scientists can fix that.
  • Sacrificial Lion: Alfred Pennyworth, who remains Defiant to the End when the Crusaders come for Jake.
  • Shapeshifter Mode Lock: When most of the heroes and villains lost their powers, Beast Boy was in the middle of transforming into a tiger when he was depowered, and is now trapped as a hybrid of man and big cat.
  • Superhero Registration Act: Metahumans are by law documented and depowered in this story.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Alfred tries to protect Jake from Crusaders when they come for him, but he’s quite elderly and all he has is a bat, while his enemy is in his prime and has a gun. It's not even close.
    • Batman’s death is this, as the Black-Kryptonite-infected Superman attacked him, held him in place, and destroyed his skull with his heat vision. It shows that without any tricks or chance to prepare for or escape from the attack, Badass Normal Batman doesn’t have a prayer against an unrestrained Physical God Superman.
  • Transformation Horror: Beast Boy was mid-transformation into a tiger, and is now stuck as a weird beastman-like hybrid. He is very bitter against Dick for doing this to him.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist:
    • Nightwing supposedly has a very good reason for hunting metas. With that reason implied to be the death of Batman, possibly at the hands of supers.
    • Lex Luthor, who betrays Superman to create a world where Everyone Is a Super, stating that the means of doing so were not ideal, but simply returning to the previous status quo wasn't what he wanted.
  • We Used to Be Friends: Nightwing and the heroes he betrayed.
    • Played with in regards to Alfred. While the two are still on decent terms (to the point that Jake treats Alfred as a beloved uncle), Alfred makes it very clear that he doesn't agree with Dick's actions. Jake even notes that he can tell that they're not as close as they used to be.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The De-power doesn't cover how exactly Badass Normal villains like Lex Luthor and Captain Cold, both of whom are present for the big fight in Metropolis, could be affected by Nightwing's weapon or what happened to them afterwards.
    • Explained by the fact that the device was a neutraliser weapon from Apokolips, meaning it would wreak havoc on technology as well as superpowers.
  • Xenafication: Without her powers Starfire has adapted by dispensing with her long hair and Stripperiffic clothes, adapting a more tomboyish hairstyle and strapping into Space Marine-style Powered Armor, as well as grabbing large guns as her new weapons.
  • You Are Not Alone: Alfred assures a scared Jake that, no matter what, he and Dick will do everything they can to protect him. Which makes Alfred's murder not long after all the more devastating.

Top