DCeased Nightwing

More like "Bite"wing, amirite? If you've read the DCeased Batman review, you already know what's up with Nightwing: while the Batcave was protected against the digital spread of the Anti-Life virus, Bruce was the only one in the Batcave; everybody else was upstairs in the mansion, and while the cave's computer systems reacted instantly to the new threat, the house was more old-fashioned; so in the few seconds it took for Batman to realize what was going on and call for an emergency EMP to shut everything down, it was already too late. It does raise a question, though: why was Nightwing wearing his costume in the house? Batman is nearly pathological when it coes to separating his public and private identities, and he'd have passed that down to all his sons, as well. So Dick Grayson returns to stately Wayne Manor after a night of crimefighting, and instead of changing clothes in the Batcave like normal, he just went right upstairs without even taking his mask off? Unlikely! Paul Harding sculpted Zombie Dick's head, and based it pretty closely on what was seen in the comic: particularly that big, long gash in his scalp, which make it look like he was trying to comb his hair with a knife. At least he got a straight part? The mouth is open, for biting purposes, and he's got the nearly blank eyes all the zombies have sported. There were two Nightwings in the DC Essentials line before this one: a normal figure as #12, and a "New 52" figure as #25. [52 as 25? That's a fun bit of happenstance, isn't it? --ed] Nightwing is a good choice for Essentials, because his costume is so simple; the toyline is all about reusing generic sculpts, and he has almost no details on his suit that would require anything but paint, so it's a match made in heaven! The reused body does leave him a bit too tall, admittedly, but maybe he had a growth spurt. In his early 20s. Since the costume is all paint, you'd want it to be really good, right? Ooh, bad news then. The suit is mostly black, of course, with blue around the chest and shoulders and the shins, as he looked at the time. But the lines on the shoulders don't line up properly with the shape on the chest, and the right shin has a different shade of blue above the joint than below it. He's painted with some blood on him, as you'd expect, but one of the wounds just dead-ends at the thigh joint, like an app got missed. None of this is stuff that should get in the way of fun when you're playing around and posing him, but it's definitely less than ideal. Zombies don't use accessories, so Nightwing doesn't have his escrima sticks. He does, however, have all the articulation he should: swivel/hinge/swivel ankles, swivel boots, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, a swivel waist, hinged chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, a hinged neck and balljointed head. You know, between Mattel and DCD, I'm really noticing a pattern, here. If McFarlane Toys ever suddenly starts doing even better articulation on their DC figures, you know they're about to stop making them entirely. When the DCeased figures were initially cancelled, Nightwing hadn't even been shown as a painted prototype - just shown off in plain gray, his haircut and lack of any costume details made him look like a second Hal Jordan. Dick could use some more damage painted on him, some rips and tears in his costume that show skin - when it comes to Dick, a couple fingers just isn't enough - but the fact these Series 3 figures exist at all is a win. -- 08/03/22

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