Nightwing vs. Firefly, Pt. 2

As we left off on Monday, Nightwing’s beloved home circus burned to the ground thanks to that jerk Firefly.  Dude’s sort of a mercenary, getting paid to ignite whatever his employer wants.  Still, that doesn’t mean that Firefly doesn’t deserve to be punched into a unconscious heap by our young vigilante.

As we finish our story today, we pick up in the middle of the Batman event War Games.  Once again, the city’s at war and aflame.  Gotham City gets blown up a lot when there’re ten Batman comics to write every month.

Luckily, with ten Batman comics every month that leaves lots of manpower to protect their fair city. All non-powered, but a bunch of them anyway.  As each member of the Bat posse (Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, Onyx, Catwoman, Oracle, Orpheus, etc.) receives a section to beat criminals in, Nightwing finds his inhabited by someone who he still bears a serious grudge.

Oh yeah, despite this occurring a good year or two after Nightwing allowed Tarantula to kill Blockbuster, he’s still riddled with guilt, as most superheroes who commit immoral actions tend to be. Except Punisher.  After an evening of gutting and murdering criminals, he soundly goes to sleep counting tiny machine guns jumping over corpses.

We must remember that last time they met, Dick Grayson wore his circus outfit and not that black and blue beauty he currently wears.  So Firefly, while he knows of Nightwing and has been kicked by him plenty of times, doesn’t know he incinerated Nightwing’s home.  Well, that and one more reason to be fearful of the former Robin.  Bad guys are a superstitious and cowardly lot, after all.

Like I said in part one, everything’s way more suspenseful with the background on fire.  Symbolism and all that jazz.  While Nightwing didn’t actually kill Blockbuster, a little Firefly pantswetting should shift momentum to our hero’s side.  More importantly, Nightwing has had fifteen years of training in Batman-style intimidation and fear.  Soon, Firefly’ll soil himself on both ends.

Unfortunately, Nightwing’s plan to punch Firefly until his face turns into something resembling a jello mold takes a sharp turn when Gotham’s finest show up.

The relationship between the Bat posse and the GCPD changes every other year or so depending on who’s in command, the horrible tragedy going on, and how much of a jerk Batman’s currently being. When Spoiler (one of the costumes) accidentally sets off a city-wide gang war destroying much of Gotham and taking scores of lives, the relationship between the superheroes and the police has chilled a tad.  Like cops shooting freely at anyone in a mask chilly.  Luckily, our hero is too fast and skilled to get hurt by measly police bullets.

Okay, so not that fast and skilled.  Unfortunately, Grayson’s costume doesn’t contain the armor his adopted father’s contains.  More difficult to cartwheel into flying headstands when one has to pack several layers of Kevlar.  While our adventure today ends in a cliffhanger (though with Firefly thoroughly punched), it’ll lead up to Friday’s article: an admission of that pesky and total disregard for Batman’s ethics and code that Nightwing passionately broke.