DC Comics has released a new free book that serves as a primer for their upcoming Future State event coming early next year. In it, several of the writers and artists involved in the project share new insights with readers, helping to set the stage for the future that awaits the DC Universe. One notable element is the knowledge that Gotham City will be under the control of the powerful organization known as the Magistrate, holding a zero-tolerance policy towards vigilantes. However, Nightwing will be among a handful of heroes still determined to protect Gotham, so much so that he’ll even be willing to be based out of Arkham Asylum.
According to this free book (DC Nation Presents DC Future State), the upcoming Future State comics set in Gotham will be taking place between 2025-2027. The book reveals that Christopher Nakano will indeed become the Mayor of Gotham, instigating a new “no-vigilante” policy that’s definitely targeted at Batman and his family. This will reportedly be in the wake of some sort of disaster as Arkham Asylum. Nakano is also the one responsible for bringing in the Magistrate private security force which soon takes over the entire city, turning it into a fascist regime, and all masks have become bad in the eyes of the law.
This new order of oppression will take over the whole city, forcing Nightwing to be quite creative when it comes to his new base of operations to better evade the Magistrate so he can continue his efforts to keep people safe. As such, Future State: Nightwing writer Andrew Constant reveals in the free preview book that Nightwing understands that he’s living in a brutal and oppressive future:
“This makes it hard for a hero to find a place to call their own. He understands that no one wants to go near Arkham, especially due to certain horrific events there. Which makes its abandoned remains a perfect place for his headquarters.”
Furthermore, Constant goes on to say that Nightwing won’t have the greatest relationship with the new Batman that comes onto the scene in Gotham’s future. Apparently, there will be some tension between the two of them, and Nightwing will choose to keep his loyalties with the original Batman Bruce Wayne, who will have become the Dark Detective after an attempt is made on his life. For Nightwing, there’s only ever going to be one singular Batman, and that’s going to be the one he’s grown up with and has been trained by.
In any case, it will be really interesting to see what dark fate awaits Arkham Asylum, as well as what might have happened to all of the villains that resided within. Did they all break free? Where they all killed? Regardless, people’s reluctance to venture near its walls will seemingly make it ideal for Nightwing’s needs in the city that will remarkably become even darker than it already is in the present of the DC Universe. Hopefully, Nightwing is up for the challenge when DC’s Future State arrives in early 2021.
