There aren't many characters in the DCU who embody optimism and joy quite the way that Dick Grayson does. The original kid sidekick, first Robin, and fan-favorite Nightwing is a hero who has held on to his top shelf position in the hearts and minds of readers for over sixty years, which is not an easy feat in the tumultuous world of cape and cowl comics.

Still, sometimes even the brightest stars have to be eclipsed now and again -- and that's exactly what the upcoming alternate universe mini series Nightwing: The New Order intends to do. Taking place in an alternative future, the story pits Dick Grayson against the super heroic community as the spearhead of an initiative to make metahuman abilities illegal, despite the potentially disastrous cost.

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CBR sat down with writer Kyle Higgins at this years Comic-Con International in San Diego to figure out what's really going on behind this new version of Dick Grayson and what inspired his monstrous turn.

CBR: So Nightwing: The New Order is actually your return to Dick Grayson after some time away. You wrapped up a run on the Nightwing ongoing back during the New 52 era, and I think it’s pretty safe to say that The New Order sounds like pretty much the antithesis of that run. Can you talk a little about how you got here? Is this story stemming from anything you’ve worked on or that’s currently happening in the DCU?

Kyle Higgins: It’s its own thing right now! I kind of based it on the 90s in DC, but it’s essentially an Elseworlds story. It takes place in the year 2040, but really at it’s core it’s an allegory for a lot of the issues that we’re dealing with in our world right now. My favorite Elseworlds-style alternate futures are stories that are complicated and morally murky. So, in this world, superpowers and magic spread and proliferated to such a degree that it was as easy to get ahold of as groceries.

You could walk into a bodega and get telekinesis to protect yourself from the scary heroes and villains, from your shady neighbor, from anyone on the freeway. It’s very much a commentary on the gun issue in our country right now, just through the lens of superpowers.

So, at a certain point -- and I don’t want to spoil too much -- but Dick, during a big battle, made a decision and detonated a device the neutralized 90% of the world’s superpowers. He did this to save the world in that moment. Afterwards, though...that’s a slippery slope. Powers became illegal in the United States, so if you were in that 10% that still hand them, you had to register and go on inhibitor meds. And if the inhibitor meds didn’t work -- super rare, but still could happen -- you were put into stasis, until the doctors could figure out how to counteract the powers. So, again, very, very slippery slope.

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All of that is actually going to be explored through a father/son story, between Dick and his 12-year-old son, Jake. So it’s all narrated by Jake, now that he’s older, looking back on things, asking the question that readers are going to be asking: how does Dick Grayson, the heart and soul of the DC Universe, who prides himself and defines himself by his relationships, come to believe that this is the best thing for the world? How bad did things really get? What changed for him? What did he go through that this was the action he decided to take? At the end of the day, there really isn’t an easy answer for any of those questions, and that’s what we wanted to dive into.

That was actually going to be my second question! I’ve always defined Dick as a sort of lynchpin -- He’s maybe one of the most social characters, and socially dependent characters DC has to offer -- so how do you go about stripping that away? Where did the idea to try actually come from?

You’re nailing what the book is actually about! [Laughs] He’s my all time favorite character and he’s the most optimistic character there is. I really wanted to explore that optimism in a very different way. Look, I think we see pretty frequently that good people can come to believe in bad things, the path they take to get there is often very complicated...Which isn’t to say that their feelings and beliefs can’t change. Having a family, the state of the world, all these things factor into the decisions we make in our lives, and they also factor into this future version of Dick Grayson’s life as well.

He really does just want to help people, he really does just want to save the world.

The road to Hell, as they say.

Yeah, exactly, he has the best intentions, but there are massive repercussions for the actions he decides to take.

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If Nightwing Has a Son, Who's the Mom?

So this might be too much of a spoiler, so forgive me if you’ve gotta skirt around this one, but do we get to know who Jake’s mom is?

Oh absolutely. We get into it in issue two -- she’s not present in issue one. Something very, very big happens at the end of issue one that really re-contextualizes what the book is moving forward, and the father/son story at it’s core.

Dick’s got his fair share of fan-favorite relationships, so is it someone readers might expect? Or will this take us by surprise?

It’s definitely someone that fans will know and recognize and love -- And there’s actually a bunch of very recognizable characters in the story in ways that are going to be very new to them. There’s powerless Superman who is still working as a hero, so we have to ask how he’s going about doing that. The design that Trevor McCarthy did is amazing.

So this is still a very populated DCU, even in such a dystopian future?

Yeah! It’s not post-apocalyptic at all. In a lot of weird ways, the world has never been safer. Lois is a very, very different role that I think fans will be excited about. Starfire is in the book in a different role, Beast Boy…

[Laughs] I can’t picture either of them without powers!

Well, that’s why you’ll need to read the book!

We’re in a pretty optimistic time for DC’s current ongoing comics -- that’s kind of the running theme of Rebirth right now -- but at the same time, we’re also in a major boom for things like the Injustice universe which is a take that leans hard into the grim-and-grit side of things. So, tone wise, where do you think Nightwing: The New Order will fit on the optimism/cynicism spectrum?

That’s a great question. The honest truth is that this is actually a book that Trevor and I have been working on secretly for over a year and a half. We were actually working on this during the Obama administration -- the fact that we’re releasing it now in a very different world is really interesting. In a lot of ways, it’s never been more relevant -- it’s not the optimism that our world probably needs right now, but it’s not the cynicism that is easy to devolve into, either.

I’m very excited for people to actually experience the book for themselves, because I think it’s much more optimistic than what you might think.