Story: The Freebooters (22 pages)
Writer(s): Chuck Dixon
Pencils: Scott McDaniel
Inks: Karl Story
Characters:
Dick Grayson / Nightwing
Minor Characters / Guest Appearances:
Bruce Wayne / Batman, Tim Drake / Robin III, Bridget Clancy (we learn her last name, the first name is not given yet), Reynard, Sgt. A. Capone (a police officer), Sulieman Thomas Ali, Pescado (one of Reynard's men), Doc (one of Reynard's men), Mitch (Reynard's helicopter pilot)
Synopsis:
Nightwing moves into his new apartment, dealing for the first time with mundane concerns, like utility bills, on his own. He's cleaning his apartment and musing about his life, when he has to prevent a mugging right under his window. He realizes that Blüdhaven needs a protector. He e-mails Soames and they meet again. Nightwing suspects that Soames is playing both sides, and not sharing everything he knows. Nightwing knows that somebody is running Blüdhaven in the vacuum left by the Angel Marin gang, but it's not Black Mask (though he also wants to take over Blüdhaven's mobs) and it's not Freddy Minh, but Nightwing doesn't know who it is. He thinks Soames knows, though. But Soames only tells him that Blüdhaven's underworld is going through a sea change and that Black Mask and his gang from Gotham aren't helping matters. Soames gives Nightwing the tip to check out "Ali's Bank in the Zee Moores" because Black Mask has a new score planned there. Nightwing figures out that this refers to one of the places which cash checks in the "Zee Moores," a Blüdhaven slum. Nightwing watches the container and concludes that the place has to be crooked, because he doesn't see a single elderly person or "welfare mom" all day but only young guys who come in with paper bags and leave without them. Nightwing is interrogating the owner, Sulieman Thomas Ali, when a helicopter flies over them, lowers a magnet onto the container, and lifts the whole thing off ground. Nightwing throws Ali out of the container shortly after it has been lifted and then stays to fight Reynard and his men, who rappeled themselves down into the container. The helicopter has problems holding the container because of the weight and the windshear, and is forced to drop it. It collides with the edge of one of the highrise buildings. Reynard and his men manage to jump onto the roof top in time, but Nightwing has to jump off the container as it already tumbles down. When the container crashes, the crack money, that was stored in the container, rains down on the poor neighborhood. Nightwing gets back on the rooftop in time to catch Reynard and his men, and gives Reynard a message for Black Mask, that Black Mask should stay out of Blüdhaven. Later Nightwing checks in with Batman and Robin, reporting slow progress on the twenty-one dead, that the real power in Blüdhaven is well concealed, and that the police is corrupt. Batman offers to be there in a half hour, but Nightwing says he can handle Blüdhaven.
Important Continuity Events:
Nightwing moves into his new apartment in Blüdhaven. [p. 4]
Continuity References:
- Dick mentions that Batman sent him to Blüdhaven to find out who killed twenty-one of Angel Marin's gang, that happened in Nightwing #1. [p. 1]
- He mentions his former girlfriend Koriand'r (Kory), they were together from ?? to ?? [p. 5]
Dick Grayson Character Details:
- Dick feels he's letting down both Batman and the twenty-one dead Angel Marin gang members, because so far he hasn't solved the crime [p. 1]; he thinks that this ties him still to Gotham and to Bruce, though he was looking to get a new start. [p. 2]
- Dick encounters problems with the utilities companies because he has no credit history and needs to pay cash advances. [p. 4]
- It is like Dick Grayson doesn't really exist, Dick feels he hardly knows him. [p. 5]
- For years Alfred or Kory have handled the mundane details (like utility and phone bills) for him, and he had to rely on a line of credit paid for by Bruce. [p. 5]
- Dick thinks Gotham will always be Batman's town, never his own turf, and this new start on his own in Blüdhaven might be what he needs [p. 5]; and Blüdhaven deserves -- or at least needs -- a protector. [p. 6]
- Nightwing has the sudden vanishing when he meets with police officers down pat, just like Batman. [p. 8]
- Nightwing takes his victories where he finds them, even if they're just temporary. [p. 20]
- It's important to him to handle Blüdhaven on his own, and he likes the challenge of a town hopelessly lost to corruption, injustice and violence. [p. 22]
Bruce Wayne Character Details:
- Batman calls Nightwing "Dick", even even though Nightwing is in costume and their conversation centers on superhero things. [p. 22]
Romances:
- Dick is still interested in the superintendent of his building, but so far hasn't even managed to get a look at her face despite his curiosity. [p. 3]
Blüdhaven Details:
- The Zee Mores are hundreds of acres of highrise slums built in the name of the philanthropist Zeephram Moore who oversaw their construction as a "haven for the city's poor." Now they are "fortresses for the vicelords." [p. 9]
Trivia:
- The superintendent's last name is Clancy, and she prefers to be called just "Clancy" not "Ms. Clancy". [p. 3]
- There's a "Sgt. A. Capone" in the Blüdhaven PD. [p. 6]
- Soames calls Nightwing "lad". [p. 7]
- There are no banks in the Zee Moores only containers cashing checks for a percentage. [p. 9]
- Surprisingly there are what looks like rooftop gargoyles on (at least one of) the utilitarian highrise buildings in the Zee Moores. [p. 20]
[Note: This entry is based on the TPB edition of the issue.]