Nightwing #113 review/Nightwing #300 review

Yes, it’s the 300th issue of a comic book called Nightwing…I’m taking DC’s word for it, as comic book maths rarely makes sense.

There’s immediately something to celebrate with Bruno Redondo’s tremendous cover image, which I believe is a nod to a well-known artist who did flick-strip style work. I read something on Twitter, looked it up and that made sense; sadly, I don’t recall the name – I bet someone out there knows.

Sadly, Redondo does just a couple of pages in the book, they’re the best visuals in there. Unfortunately, they’re pretty excruciating to read as famed New Titans writer Marv Wolfman is given a couple of pages to fill. Left to his own devices I don’t doing Marv would do something pretty fun, but regular writer Tom Taylor gives him a terrible set-up.

The main thrust of the comic is that it’s Dick’s birthday, and also the day he’s being honoured with the keys to the city for throwing the billions left him by currently dead Alfred Pennyworth at Blüdhaven’s social problems.

If memory serves, we learned a few months ago that in the DC Universe Marv Wolfman runs a pizza eatery he owned with George Perez. I’m sure their pizzas are as nice as American pizzas can be, but what a waste of writing and artistic talent.

Finding space to pay tribute to the gentlemen who took Dick Grayson from being Robin to Nightwing is a lovely thought, but do you blame our hero for looking uncomfortable?

Also this issue, Dick, Tim and Damian stop a gang bringing illegal arms into Gotham, which leads Dick to his Blüdhaven pirate queen pal Bea.

The clue leads Dick to an abandoned warehouse, where he tells a security camera he’s coming for Heartless.

Sure he is. The serial killer has been hoovering hearts from Blüdhaven citizens for three years our time, probably several months in the comic book version. In this time Nightwing has done very little to try to stop him – apparently, Heartless appears on Dick’s priority list several rungs below ‘buy flea collar for Bitewing’. The Heartless storyline, which vanishes for months at a time, makes Dick look utterly incompetent, or just plain flaky.

Our hero is too busy with the Titans, or observing Butt Day at the gym, to bother with Heartless. Dick goes from the garage to his birthday party/keys presentation, where we learn that he’s certainly not been spending scads of time on the Blüdhaven improvements.

One thing that is on his mind is his recent fear of heights, which I think we’re all assuming is due to his having drunk water given him by an out-of-costume Heartless back in #105. A surprise on that front would be nice.

The 20pp of this story that aren’t drawn by Redondo are handled by Daniele Di Nicuolo. The storytelling is fine, the action scenes work but the scenes of our heroes in civvies are… surprising. Dick looks like a 15-year-old pointy-chinned Manga kid. Babs has a Doonsbury nose and see-through hair. Even without the Redondo sequence to contrast Di Nicuolo’s style, I’d not be keen, it’s just too far from the established look of this book.

Pirate Queen Bea does look great, very much on model, the hoods in the opening sequence are tip-top and as I really liked Di Nicuolo’s guest turn on Superman: Son of Kal-El, I do know I’ll enjoy his work elsewhere.

As ever, Adriano Lucas and Wes Abbott do a smart, sensitive job with the colouring and lettering.

And then we get another in the recent series of back-up strips. Michael W Conrad, whose Wonder Woman work I enjoyed, has been trying different things since extra pages no one asked for were added and the book’s price raised. Sadly, they’ve not been connecting with me, and that’s where we are again this month. Nightwing races to defuse a bomb in a train that’s been set by weird mimes as we watch the timer go down over eight pages.

Drawn with a terrific sense of speed by Howard Porter, lettered by Abbott, coloured by Hi-Fi and smartly written by Conrad, I can appreciate the craft… but it’s a silent strip. I just glaze over with silent strips – give me snappy dialogue, or dramatic descriptions.

Do we even need a second Nightwing strip? Let Conrad write some other DCU hero, or create someone new. Maybe give the space to Tom Taylor so he can write longer stories with Dick flirting with Babs while letting serial killers go about their business. Otherwise, give us a cheaper, thinner comic.

So, this issue isn’t my favourite, but a lot of people put a lot of work into to at least trying to make a good issue. The problem as I see it is that writer Tom Taylor seems more into Dick as Mr Perfect, loved by all, than as a superhero. Still, Taylor is ending his run soon, and Redondo will be by his side, so there’s a decent chance the Heartless strand will be pulled together.