Nightwing Annual 2024 Revisits an Old Love

The Nightwing Annual 2024 delves into the backstory of Beatrice (Bea) Bennett, a former love interest from Dick Grayson's who made a reappearance earlier this year, In that storyline, it was discovered that Bea had a secret life as the Pirate Queen of the The Crew of the Crossed Keys, a secret buccaneer society that helped to found Bludhaven. Now I'm all in on a good pirate story, but I have to admit that the Pirate Queen arc was one of my least favorite Nightwing stories in a long time. As such, I was hesitant as to how the annual would unfold since Bea — not Dick — is actually the primary player.

As it turns out, Bea's story is a tad more convoluted than previously suspected. Orphaned after losing her mother in a boating / murder — a DC trope that wore thin a long time ago — Bea was adopted by Ruben Blüd, the captain of The Crew of Crossed Keys. Before she can devote her life to the pirate life however, Bea is determined to uncover who was behind her mother's death. To gain the skills she needs, she enrolls in St. Hadrian's Finishing School for Girls and eventually joins the covert operations organization known as Spyral, which Dick also infiltrated in an unrelated storyline (SEE Grayson the Superspy Omnibus (2022 Edition) for more on that).

At this point, Bea's resume is becoming a little unbelievable and a lot of this plot feels like it's been cranked a few too many times through the retcon machine. 

Honestly, the best parts of the annual are where Bea's story intersects with Dick's — which should not be a surprise since it is actually a Nightwing annual. In particular, Bea coping with the emotional fallout of Dick recovering his memory, ending their relationship, and returning to the Bat Family, which was the conclusion of their first storyline all the way back in Nightwing Vol 4 #50, (2018). When Bea ducks into an alleyway to avoid Dick and Barbara walking hand-in-hand down the street, it is actually quite heartbreaking. 

The annual was written and illustrated by Travis Moore (SEE Sins of the Black Flamingo as a good example), who does wonderful stuff (IMHO) but the rambling exposition and copious plot twists make this a less enjoyable outing for Nightwing. 

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