In this review of Nightwing #115, we get “Fallen Grayson Part 2!” As the siege on the Alfred Pennyworth Foundation Fundraiser continues, Dick is separated from his family and gets attacked by Heartless!
This review contains spoilers
Nightwing #115 main cover by Bruno Redondo
Nightwing #115
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
As the sprinkler system douses their guests, the Bat-Family (Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Damian Wayne and Bruce Wayne) help evacuate the room before the fire spreads throughout the building. Shelton Lyle approaches Dick for help, claiming he’s unable to find his butler Gerald. While the room is emptied, Dick goes off on his own to find Gerald, only to be ambushed by the man, Lyle, and drugged gas that throws off his senses. Cold-cocked into the wall unconscious, the flashbacks of Dick’s first fall at Haley’s Circus continue.
Lyle and Gerald bring Dick out and take his to an ambulance, telling Bruce he’ll be transported to Gotham General. Secretly, the ambulance stops in an alley, where the paramedics deliver Dick’s unconscious body to Heartless and Tony Zucco. Searching for his phone to destroy, they find his Nightwing domino mask, deducing his identity immediately. Gerald murders the two paramedics, leaving him, Heartless and Zucco as the only witnesses to the scene.
Dick awakens on a rooftop and discovers the body of Mr. Waghorne, the journalist who interrogated him over his funds being used to acquire Blockbuster’s holdings earlier in the evening. Waghorne’s heart has been plucked from his chest, and just as Dick sees the Heart-Gun clenched in his hand, he’s tackled by Blüdhaven PD, alerting him to his whereabouts. Dick’s disguised in Heartless’ costume, mask and all. He tries to flee the cops on the rooftop, but his acrophobia cripples his timing, leading to him getting shot in the shoulder and quickly unmasked.
Trap sprung… (Image Credit: DC Comics)
Analysis:
The team of Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo keep the fires burning with Fallen Grayson Part 2, where the rhythm of Dick’s descent increases which each new calamity. He’s tricked and injured (Lyle’s punch broke his ribs), kidnapped, secret identity blown and framed for murder before being arrested – all in one issue. A solid series of events well paced with good insertions of his childhood flashbacks and increased amounts of violence.
Characterization is good throughout as well, from Barbara’s pleased reaction to Damian’s mastery of all potential exits in the building, to Bruce’s glare on the ambulance as Dick is carried off. That last detail is once again owed to Redondo’s subtle renderings, but has me figuring that whatever evil plan Heartless has for Dick, even with finding out that he’s Nightwing, he couldn’t have accounted for Batman and we’ll be seeing Taylor’s penchant for bringing in the storm of the DC Universe to save our boy before long. I like this potential a lot, more so than Dick simply calling in favors, which he did several times during Taylor’s first year on the book. While I may be wrong on that outcome, I don’t think I will be. After three years on this title, I’d like to think I’ve got Taylor’s writing down.
That’s not to suggest that there’s any weaknesses in this part either, but there is something that I’m curious about. Shelton Lyle a.k.a. Heartless discovers that Dick Grayson is Nightwing in this issue. While this may reveal poor reading comprehension on my part, I had presumed him to already be well aware of Dick’s secret identity the whole time. Reading back, there’s nothing substantial to corroborate my guess, but Lyle’s obsession with Dick seemed to be all-encompassing. I suppose it explains how he’s been unable to account for the Titans or Batman family showing up to help Nightwing whenever they did, but I went into this arc anticipating that revelation to have already happened and for it to be a surprise for our hero. But it’s a surprise to the villain. Nothing wrong with it, just my assumption for a while.
So where’s this going? Now that Heartless knows Dick is Nightwing, does his revenge end simply with framing him for his own crimes? In a scene with Dick fighting the cops (which echoed Watchmen’s scene with Rorschach’s arrest hardcore), one might imagine it would end there, but to be honest that’s not much in the realm of revenge. Would he try and capture Barbara or his sister and pull out their hearts in front of him? Will he go after Batman now after learning the secret? And where does Zucco fit into all of this? I’ll have to read back again, because I’m unsure why Zucco hates Dick Grayson so much, since his arrest was at the hands of Batman and Robin years and years ago (hopefully that hasn’t been retconned, still not liking Taylor’s fussing around the details of that original story). Nevertheless I’m once again in a position to merely praise and ponder the outcome, which means for the second month in a row Nightwing’s knocked it out of the park.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advanced copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
