Nightwing: Olivia Pearce starts a Bludhaven Gang War and more

Dan Watters started his run of Nightwing with a new kind of villain. Instead of only fighting a masked villain like Heartless or a mob boss like Blockbuster, he’ll also battle a company named Spheric Solutions that's providing enhanced technology to Bludhaven’s Pollice Department.

Knowing how shady is, Nightwing goes to investigate the warehouse. While there, he learns that the tech is way too advanced for the police to use on common criminals. Before he can do anything, Pearce and her mysterious masked marionettist partner blow up the warehouse. 

The next day, Olivia Pearce holds a press conference about the incident on her property. She doesn’t do what every dime-store villain does and blames the hero for the explosion. Instead, she brilliantly says Nightwing was there to help. This does two things.

First, Olivia says Nightwing was helping. This lets Bludhaven know that she trusts and believes in their hero. To look good in the public eye, you have to act like you support their hero. You can't go to Chicago and say Michael Jordan is trash and expect people to like you. Second, it now looks like Nightwing is actively working to take down the criminals. Not that he wasn’t already, but Pearce put a bigger bullseye on his back now that the gangs believe he's part of the explosion and working with the cops.

Later in the press conference, Pearce says Spheric Solutions made Bludhaven their home because the city has been through so much and continues to improve due to things like the Pennyworth Foundation and she wants to be part of that growth. That’s when she introduces police officers with jetpacks and fancy guns and shields. Pearce is calling this the Helios project. On Helios' first mission, they killed someone and didn’t care.

Despite having his hands up, the cops said the suspect was resisting. When the masked criminal shot at the cops, they returned fire with a blast that could only be described as overkill. He was a fourteen-year-old kid. Not that the cops cared about anything other than playing with their new toys. They didn't even stay long enough to unmask the accused. When Nightwing asked what they'd done, one of them said, "My job. Taking scum off the streets." They flew away without a care in the world.

Nightwing is fighting more than just Olivia Pearce and Spheric Solutions. You can't forget about the marionettist. They're just as invested in Dick Grayson’s downfall. They know his secret identity and keep referring to Dick's days in the circus. However, one minute they're forcing Dick to smile and say goofy things. Then, at the end of this issue, they're making him furious ready to burn Spheric down.

To recap, there's the marionettist whose identity and intentions are unknown working with Olivia Pearce. A gang war that will lead to multiple deaths and injuries is on the horizon. Lastly, the blood-thirsty cops in Bludhaven have weapons that shouldn’t be used on regular people with itchy trigger fingers. This is only the beginning of Dan Watter's run of Nightwing and it's gearing up to be a good one. Stay tuned to Caped Crusades to see what's next.

Are you reading Dan Watter's Nightwing? What do you think so far? Let us know on the Bam Smack Pow Blue Sky, Instagram, and Twitter.