Reddit mentions of Nightwing Vol. 1: Traps and Trapezes (The New 52)

In 2011, DC launched "The New 52", a reboot that reset every title back to #1, and condensed/erased many portions of the old continuity, in order to make the new books more accessible to new readers. Generally, you can start with "trades", which are volumes of issues (generally around 5-8) collected in a novel form. Vol. 1 of any series is usually a good place to start.
 

For Batman and Batman-related books, I recommend starting with the following:
Batman, Vol. 1: The Court of Owls
Batman and Robin, Vol. 1: Born to Kill
Nightwing, Vol. 1: Traps and Trapezes
Batman: The Black Mirror - This is actually just before The New 52, but I recommend this mainly because it's a very well-loved modern story that made Scott Snyder (the current Batman writer) famous. It's also fairly accessible to new readers.
 

For other characters, I would recommend:
Green Arrow, Vol. 4: The Kill Machine - The first three volumes are heavily disliked by fans. Vol. 4 is when the next writer (Jeff Lemire) takes over, and he establishes a different status quo and tone, making it easy for new readers to jump in.
The Flash, Vol. 1: Move Forward
Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: Blood
Earth 2, Vol. 1: The Gathering

• If you're buying from Amazon, then the volumes (trades) will be a better deal.
  
• There are usually around 7 issues per volume.
  
• The second volume for Nightwing (Night of the Owls) is about to come out (July 30th). The first volume (Taps & Trapezes) has been out since last October.
  
• That's the problem with volumes, if you're not a top tier character like Batman or Green Lantern, you won't get a hardcover volume, which are usually released sooner than the trades a.k.a. softcovers. Nightwing as of now gets released in trade. The wait for the recent trade (Night of the Owls) was about 9 months since the end of that books last collected issue.
  
• Nightwing #1 does a good job of letting you know what's up with Dick Grayson so you won't be confused at all from reading from issue 1. It's very new reader friendly. But just for some reminders: Right before the New 52 reboot, Nightwing was Batman for a little bit with Damian Wayne (Bruce's son) as his Robin. For the reason Dick left Robin, there have been many different versions of that interesting story. The best book that tells it is Nightwing: Year One, but it's stupid expensive in trade, so just use wikipedia.
  
• I enjoy Batman. Green Lantern just finished a HUGE 9 year run so now's a good a time as any to jump in.
  
  Hope I helped!

This is the one I need to start with and not this one, right?

I'm much more of a Pre-52 guy, so if you're concerned about only what is currently in continuity/canon then skip straight to the New 52. Also, some of these are annoyingly out of print. I'm also focusing on Dick, so I'm mostly ignoring stories that focus on side characters like Jason and Damian.

• Nightwing: Year One - One of my all time favourite Nightwing stories, it's exactly what it says on the tin. Dick's transition from Robin to Nightwinng. Also a good spiritual successor to Robin: Year One.
  
  
• Nightwing: A Knight In Bludhaven - The start on an ongoing Nightwing series set in Gotham's nearby city of Bludhaven. Reading this first volume will give you an idea of whether you want to read the remaining volumes. Personally I really enjoyed it, although it's been a long time since I've read them so it's possible they haven't aged well.
  
  Skipping ahead, there's:
  
  
• Nightwing: The Lost Year - Pretty far into Dick's career, it has some nice flashbacks and character development involving his relationship with Bruce and Babs.
  
  
• Nightwing: Freefall - Peter J. Tomasi's era on Nightwing. Seems to have mixed reviews, but I enjoyed it.
  
  The Battle for the Cowl era. This is after Bruce is lost and feared dead (the first of many times this happens) and the former Robins attempt to work out who is going to take his place.
  
  
• Batman: Battle For The Cowl - I didn't love this story, but it's kind of essential in seeing Dick's road to becoming Batman.
  
  
• Batman & Robin: Batman Reborn - My favourite DickBats book. It introduces Dick as Batman and Damian as Robin. These are all great, written by Grant Morrison and focus on Dick's struggle with wearing the cape and cowl while dealing with his bratty step-brother. The rest of the series.
  
  
• Batman: The Black Mirror - Okay, my other favourite DickBats book. This focuses on Dick's relationship with Babs and Jim Gordon both as Batman and as Dick Grayson. Written by Scott Snyder, this is the book that made me notice him as a writer. Great stuff.
  
  If you wanted to get right into the Grayson series, you should be fine with the New 52 Nightwing books starting with Traps and Trapezes.

His run on Batman begins at Batman & Robin vol1 (though a case could be made for Battle for the Cowl) and continues through Batman & Robin Vol.4 and The Black Mirror.

As far as "where to start?" - that's a difficult question. If you really want to start at the beginning you can look at the Wolfman/Perez run on New Teen Titans, where Robin makes his transition into Nightwing. Or, you could start looking at Nightwing miniseries from 1995 that lead to the ongoing series in 1996. Here is a listing of all the Nightwing TPBs from that period.

Personally, I think a good jumping on point for anyone that wants to start with the character from before the New 52 would be Nightwing: Love and War. From there you can go into The Lost Year, Freefall, The Great Leap and then his Batman run before jumping into the relaunch.

You could try the first trade of the New 52 called Traps and Trapezes or New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract. If you want a good Dick Grayson story, I highly recommend Batman: The Black Mirror.

Nightwing Vol 1 is already paperback on amazon. I think it's likely you can find what you're looking for in paperback now, if not soon.

Woah. Did not see this. Sort of late comment.

Okay. I am a huge comic book fan. I am not sure what you would be in to, but my strong point is superheros so I will recommend you some.


Batman Vol. 1 of the New 52 series (DC's remake on 52 comic series) is a great one, mostly because the story line is pretty amazing and batman is one of the most popular series.

Another good starter is Nightwing Vol. 1. This story follows Dick Grayson, a former robin who is now a solo hero (nightwing.) Batman Vol. 1 and Nightwing Vol. 1 are sort of tied together so if you get this, although it would be optional and you would still understand the storyline, I highly recommend you also get Batman.

Other batman issues I recommend picking up are the new 52 issues 21-29 (Zero Year) and also batman #30 (Zero Year - Ravage City) I picked up #30 yesterday and it was superb. One of my favorite issues ever. I was also recently recommended Batman Death of the Family, which is inbetween the Court of Owls (1-12) and Zero Year (21-29)

Other than that, you could try starting on another New 52, such as the Flash, Aquaman, Batman & Robin, Action Comics, Detective Comics, or Green Arrow, just to name a few.


Have fun :)



Edit: Just noticed you like dark and intense storylines, which makes this even better because thats basically all batman is (lol).


Edit 2: I would also recommend looking into some comic book subreddits, such as /r/comicbooks /r/batman /r/marvel /r/DCcomics

Edit 3: Saw this below, but The Walking Dead would be great if you like zombies, although it would be quite hard to catch up to.

Edit 4 (SO MANY EDITS): If you would like to know some other NEW 52s, I have some on my wishlist here (shameless plug)

For Nightwing, you can just start reading the new 52 volumes. Here is the first volume. The run has ended recently due to forever evil and there are five total volumes. They are also starting to reprint the pre-new52 series with this volume.