Superman: The Adventures of Nightwing and Flamebird by Paul KupperbergMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
By day, Van-Zee and Ak-Var are scientists in the bottle city of Kandor. By night, they fight crime as Nightwing and Flamebird!
Nightwing and Flamebird, Kandorian analogues of Batman and Robin, are an interesting footnote in the Bronze Age Superman's history. I first learned about them in Who's Who as a kid but never had the opportunity to read their adventures until I stumbled upon this trade in a $5 bin at MightCon.
Nightwing and Flamebird started as the alternate identities of Superman and Jimmy Olsen when they visited Kandor. Eventually, they handed off the identities to Superman's identical cousin Van-Zee and reformed Kryptonian criminal Ak-Var. In this volume, they battle Braniac, giant germs, Kandorian seperatists, and Phantom Zone villains. Not bad for the Dynamic Duo of Kandor.
Paul Kupperberg handles the writing in the bulk of the tales and it's good bronze age fun, although the stories are fairly simplistic since they had to squeeze into a slot in Superman Family rather than being given book length adventures.
The book contains Superman Family 173, 183-194. I would have preferred more of Superman and Jimmy's adventures as Nightwing and Flamebird. #173 is the only one, although they team up with the second Nightwing and Flamebird in one of the other tales. Hell, they could have included the Batman and Robin team-up since it's what inspired Dick Grayson to take the Nightwing identity pre-Crisis.
Some of the stories were evidently part of crossovers and the connecting stories aren't provided, making for an unsatisfying read at times. Still, I can't complain that much since I only spent five bucks on it.
Superman: The Aventures of Nightwing and Flamebird is a fun Bronze Age read and a nice glimpse of a largely forgotten time in Superman's past. Three out of five stars.
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