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There are a few constants within superhero comics: Uncle Ben stays dead and Nightwing always looks good. Thankfully, for both our eyes and minds, this is a legacy that the legendary artist Denys Cowan is more than ready to uphold in his upcoming run on Nightwing with writer Dan Watters. 

At Emerald City Comic Con 2026's DC Comics: What's Next panel, Cowan spoke about the burden of incubating a bun as fine as Nightwing. "When they first asked me to work on this character, I knew very little about Nightwing," Cowan says. "I had to catch up, and then I realized, oh my God, this guy is a fan favorite."

Cowan highlighted how Dick Grayson's butt and hair always need to be on point for a successful Nightwing story.

"He's got to be cute, ALL THE TIME," Cowan said, before likening Grayson's aesthetic consistency to drawing Brad Pitt if he was a superhero.

Now, if you're familiar with Cowan's work, you'd know that the man can draw the hell out of a nice hairstyle, evident in his and Denny O'Neil's gritty run on The Question back in the 1980s.

"What we're trying to do on Nightwing, is... back in the '80s, I did a book called The Question, and it had a different kind of vibe to it," Cowan says. "A lot of things we did were outside the norm of comics... You'll notice, when you buy the books, it's going to have Question kind of vibes."

Nightwing fans, we're in for a treat. 

I have no fewer than eight pieces of Nightwing art around my house, from the likes of Travis Moore, Nicola Scott, David Talaski, Dustin Nguyen, Dan Mora, Sarah Leuver, Bruno Redondo, and Nick Robles. I cannot wait to add a piece by Denys Cowan to my walls one day, hopefully. 

Need more? Here's our picks for the best DC Comics stories of all time, and here's a list of all the free DC comics you can look forward to as part of this year's Free Comic Book Day and Comics Giveaway Days.