Blüdhaven. A short car ride down the coast from Gotham. But it seems a century away. As bad as Gotham is, Blüdhaven's worse in a lot of ways. If it's too coarse or too awful or too vile for Gotham, it winds up here. 
Nightwing (Volume 2) #1 is an issue of the series Nightwing (Volume 2) with a cover date of October, 1996. It was published on August 7, 1996.
Synopsis for "Child of Justice"
Nightwing was in a sticky situation―handcuffed to a heavy refrigerator underwater. He recalled the events that put him into this predicament.
Nightwing and Batman were at the Gotham City Morgue checking some dead bodies that were recovered from the estuary. All of the victims died by their necks being broken, seemingly by hand. Batman informed Nightwing that the bodies floated in from the south of Gotham into the harbor, straight from Blüdhaven. The 21 dead men were all part of Angel Marin's gang in Blüdhaven. Nightwing agreed to go there and investigate.
Blüdhaven's reputation was much like Gotham's, if not worse, and when Dick arrived to the city the first thing he did was stand up for a girl being harassed by two men in the street. Dick gave the girl some money for the ticket back to Gotham and told her to ask for a job at WayneCorp on his behalf. Later, Dick planned to start looking for the possible murderer: a gang leader named Freddy Minh, rival of Angel Marin's gang.
Nightwing suspected that it was the beginnings of a gang war in the city that could quickly escalate into uncontained violence. When he arrived at Minh's place, he found a shootout happening on the street in front of the house but was shocked to see that Minh's people were fighting against Black Mask's False Face Society. The False Facers appeared to be kidnapping the children of the Minh's using a refrigerator. Mrs. Minh wailed about her babies as the False Facers took off in a truck. Nightwing realized that Black Mask was trying to expand his operations into Blüdhaven.
Nightwing managed to jump on the top of a truck and told the driver to follow the men in masks. When he was near enough to jump into the False Facer's truck, they shot at the vehicle to stop Nightwing. Nightwing reached the vehicle and tried to fight his opponents despite being outnumbered. The fridge started to slip out of the truck and Nightwing grabbed for the electrical cord keep it inside the truck. One of the Facers, christened "Foxy" by Nightwing, tried to slash him with a knife from behind. He dodged the attack but the feat cost him his ponytail. Angered by the loss of his hair, he beat almost all of the False Facers and opened the fridge to save the kids but found only a briefcase inside. The False Facers took advantage of his confusion and subdued him, knocking him out.
When Nightwing woke up, he found himself handcuffed to the refrigerator. The False Facers explained that the briefcase contained some of Mrs. Minh's egg cells that were to be used for in vitro fertilization to conceive children. Black Mask needed those to extort Minh and place himself as the main drug dealer in Blüdhaven. Nightwing had heard enough and kicked the briefcase out their hands and grabbed it just as they toppled the fridge into the water, leaving him to drown.
On the verge of suffocating, Nightwing used a magnesium flare in one of his gloves to burn the refrigerator's handle and free himself. The False Facers informed Black Mask of their failure and he reminded them that he wanted all of Blüdhaven under his control and warned of the consequences if they continue to fail. Meanwhile, Chief Redhorn of the Blüdhaven Police Department angrily discussed the appearance of a costumed vigilante in Blüdhaven with Inspector Dudley Soames. Nightwing, not having heard their conversation, cheerily came into the office through the window to drop off the Minh's eggs and talk to the police about Black Mask and his men. To his surprise, Chief Redhorn slapped a handcuff on him while Inspector Soames pointed his gun at Nightwing. Nightwing asked if he was under arrest, to which the inspector responded that he would end up wishing he was.
Appearing in "Child of Justice"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Black Mask
- False Facers
- Reynard
- Blüdhaven Police Department
- Chief Redhorn (First appearance)
- Dudley Soames (First appearance)
- Freddy Minh (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Mrs. Minh (First appearance)
- Tandy (Single appearance)
Locations:
- Blüdhaven (First appearance)
- Gotham City
Items:
- Magnesium flare
- Refrigerator
Vehicles:
Notes
- This first issue picks up from Robin (Volume 2) #33.
- The story continues in Nightwing (Volume 2) #2.
Trivia
- This issue marks the trimming of Dick Grayson's ponytail. He wore his hair long for a while, but since this issue, he has never let it grow back to that length.
- Characters reference in vitro fertilization technology. Because eggs are frozen to subzero temperatures with liquid nitrogen for long-term preservation, Mrs. Minh's home refrigerator would likely be inadequate for her intended purposes.