In this review of Nightwing #116, Nightwing is drugged, injured and under police custody. But that won’t stop him from conquering his fears and clearing his name before Heartless destroy Blüdhaven!
Nightwing #116
Written by: Tom Taylor
Art by: Bruno Redondo
Cover by: Bruno Redondo
Variant covers by: Dan Mora, Marco Santucci, Vasco Georgiev, and Bruka Jones
Page Count: 32
Release Date: 6/18/2024
This review contains spoilers
At a press conference outside of Blüdhaven Police Department, Commissioner Maggie Sawyer fields questions about the latest Heartless murder and Dick Grayson’s involvement – not disclosing that Dick’s under custody for suspicion of being Heartless. The reporters go over the last year of public events involving Dick, Heartless and the late Roland Desmond a.k.a. Blockbuster. With Melinda Grayson assuming the role as mayor and Desmond’s fortune going over to Dick, everything looks as though Dick planned to take over the city by day in the public eye and by night as Heartless.
Inside, Dick comes to groggy and injured. Determined not to let Heartless get away with destroying Blüdhaven, he immediately escapes and makes it back to his apartment, just as Oracle informs Nightwing’s closest allies on what their options are to rescue him. Barbara informs him that Batman has examined Dick’s blood, finding trace amounts of Scarecrow toxin which would explain his acrophobia. She also says that he’s suggested everyone publicly give up their identities in order to clear Dick’s name. Dick resolves that the fallout would too big a price and that Heartless needs to be stopped as soon as possible. He asks Babs to remain in Blüdhaven and protect it while he travels to Nanda Parbat. Through the assistance of Bea, he takes Haley and undergoes a long trip on foot to the hidden city, home to the goddess of karma Rama Kushna and Boston Brand, a.k.a. Deadman – the former acrobat who initially helped Dick get over his fear of heights when he was a boy.
Back in Blüdhaven, Heartless goes on camera and claims to be Dick Grayson, describing his plot to take over the city economy. He orders The Titans to leave town or else people will die every half hour. While the Titans accommodate, Batman and Oracle resolve to keep up Nightwing’s appearances until Dick is back in town. Bruce disrobes and remerges as Nightwing in Dick’s place.
Analysis: While the previous two parts to this arc have been solid, this is where my umbrage with Taylor’s writing and characterization return. It’s not a huge gripe, but ultimately fall back on his writing of the Nightwing title to be too soft-handed as to always be believable.
But let’s get the positives on the record. Bruno Redondo is still doing stellar work on art duties. Hardly a surprise, the man is one of the industry’s best by this point. I’ve written before that while the book has generally enjoyed a bevy of solid artists, Redondo’s work makes it feel more wholesomely complete. Whenever this man is on the book, the grade will always be at least generally positive. There are some background characters whom I’m sure are references to real life people such as the news anchors and reporters, but in any case it shows off his flair for making people as characteristically distinct as possible.
I also think that Taylor’s working of Dick’s good fortune as a giant set-up for his public fall is well realized. So many things have gone right for him, and while the majority of my gripes happened in the micro with Bea and the like, things like Melinda changing her name really have screwed him over, which is good plotting. I’m not suspecting that this will remain and Blüdhaven will go back to being a cesspool, but it’s nice to show that actions still have consequences, even if they were planned ahead of time.
For my quibbles, 1) Dick’s off-panel escape from the cops reads like shorthand and kind of cheats the audience. It’s reminiscent to a few scenes from the classic Chuck Dixon and Scott McDaniel Nightwing run in which Dick had to escape the cops before (He’s also been framed for murder before as well, see Nightwing: The Target), but Dick’s seriously on the ropes when we open the issue up. He’s shot, doubly drugged with Heartless’ gas and morphine, and has broken ribs from the fight in the fire last issue. I can buy him breaking his handcuffs and escaping, but not so easily that it’s off-panel and we have to imagine how he did it. The specific detail which halts me is the silhouetted image of half-a-dozen cops watching over his hospital room just before he breaks the cuffs. That puts his objective in keeping his identity secret and escaping without anyone noticing on hard mode, but we’re just told he did it. Come on, that’s cheap. A page of panels showing how he thinks his way out of the building wouldn’t be a large ask, but putting him this much on the backfoot, then ignoring those odds erases the drama entirely.
Secondly, I didn’t like the speed at which it was suggested – by Batman of all people – that the Bat-Family give up their secret identities to clear Dick’s name. As I’ve said earlier, this isn’t the first time Dick’s been framed for murder, but even if we’re playing fast and loose with continuity (or, more realistically Tom Taylor either forgot or never read The Target which isn’t unreasonable), how many times have member of the Bat-Family been framed for murder? One of the biggest and best stories in the last twenty years was Bruce Wayne: Murderer, in which this exact scenario nearly broke the Bat-Family in half. The suggestion to reveal Bruce identity was hardly ever brought up. With everyone else, Cassandra Cain was recently framed for murder in the pages of Batman: Urban Legends. Understandably, there’s a difference between the hero’s persona being seen as the culprit and the civilian identity under suspicion, but this is inside of twelve hours of Dick being framed and arrested. It also doesn’t speak to Bruce’s detective skills. He can’t figure out how to save his adopted son without potentially ruining everyone’s lives in the process after a few hours? I understand it’s a nice thing for everyone to be ready to give up their lives for Nightwing, but the situation has yet to call for that kind of response. But that seems to be in the forefront of Taylor’s mind in writing it, which in my opinion clouds his storytelling skills from proper characterization of these heroes. If The Titans or even Starfire were to suggest this (and I don’t think she would), it would make more sense than Bruce Wayne, Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake and the other trained detectives who could solve this in a few hours. It’s a small couple of lines of dialogue, but it speaks volumes against who these people to this reader.
Now the big reveal at the end which may result in some wild reactions is Bruce resolving to act as Nightwing in Dick’s stead while he’s in Nanda Parbat. This is actually a really fun idea, and one I imagine is inspired by fan art of Bruce dressed as Robin that has popped up online in the last few years. But as things remain, it is an inversion to the two times Dick has done the same for him, and it’ll be fun to see Bruce operate in another persona in another city. It’s really fresh, and the questions that arise from it don’t rob the idea of its storytelling potential. I was left thinking that maybe Jason could be a better pick to fill in, although admittedly he’s busy in his own title at The Hill. Jon Kent also could’ve done it, but he might appear too recognizably himself since he’s Superman. With Bruce, his Batman operation has been a lot more lowkey since the events of Joker War in the last few years. After losing his fortune and Wayne Manor, and the events of Failsafe, Batman’s not been as public a hero as he used to be. And Gotham is patrolled by Robin (Damian), Robin (Tim), Batgirl (Stephanie), Batgirl (Cassandra), The Signal and Red Hood. So he can actually take time out his schedule to do this. It should be fun, and I’m looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I’m hoping for a return to what Taylor did in those two issues pioneered by Bruce’s POV, taking in Blüdhaven through Nightwing’s eyes.
I should probably not end before mentioning the invocation of Deadman in this story and Dick’s history. I’m not super read-up on Deadman comics outside of the initial run of his early appearances by Neal Adams. I’m aware of the tangential connection he has with Haly’s Circus, and while the detail of him helping Dick as a kid feels like a retcon, it’s not really that big of a deal and puts him around Batman’s age – as though age even matters with a dead guy. I do like whenever the larger cosmic/spiritual side of DC is brought in to relative street level books like this.
Overall my quibbles with this issue were big to me but still personal. Things like Dick’s escape and Bruce’s suggestions are really minor compared to the overall story. I think there were stronger ways to write this issue, but they don’t detract too much from the idea of this issue.
