In Nightwing #117, Bruce Wayne fills in as Nightwing while Dick Grayson must conquer his fears halfway across the globe!
Nightwing #117 Main Cover by Bruno Redondo
Title: Nightwing #117 – “Fallen Grayson Part 4”
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Bruno Redondo
Colorist: Adriano Lucas
Letters: Wes Abbott
Main Cover: Bruno Redondo
Variant Covers: Bruno Redondo, Stevan Subic, Jason Geyer, Alex Saviuk, Belen Ortega, Serg Acuna & Nicola Scott
Release Date: August 21, 2024
Just like he did years ago, Boston Brand a.k.a. Deadman assists Dick Grayson with his fear of heights by using exposure therapy, having him confront his phobias directly at a high altitude in Nanda Parbat. Mind too crowded to process his feelings, Dick resorts to relaxation to clear his head. While resting in a soothing bath, he recalls the time he took a drink of water from Shelton Lyle, figuring that’s when he was first exposed to fear toxin. He delivers this revelation to Oracle, who then informs Nightwing II – Bruce Wayne. Bruce -as -Nightwing investigates Shel Pharmaceutical to find the source of the toxin, and the three conclude that Shelton Lyle may be Heartless.
Deadman takes Dick up to the top of a mountain for another try at exposure therapy one last time. Left at the edge of a precipice for over 24 hours, Dick dreams of his fallen parents and awakens with a startling conclusion about the source of his fear. With it, he conquers his acrophobia and returns to Blüdhaven, meeting with Oracle and Bruce before rescuing his sister Melinda from Tony Zucco. Zucco’s just about to murder Melinda’s mother before Dick returns as Nightwing, then phones Heartless for help. The two acknowledge that Zucco knows his secret identity before Dick states the nature of his fear: He was originally meant to die instead of his parents.
Nightwing #117 Variant Cover by Bruno Redondo. Image: DC Comics
We are rounding out the penultimate issue of Fallen Grayson, so many important threads must now be tied up. On top of the Heartless mystery and Dick’s fear, we’ve got Dick’s training with Deadman and Bruce’s stint as Nightwing to tackle. It’s a lot of content for a single issue to cover.
For the positives, Bruno Redondo’s artwork is always tight and enjoyable. His rendering of a bearded Nightwing is actually somewhat surprising because Dick really does look like a different person. The fact that he keeps the beard throughout the issue even when he returns as Nightwing is neat to see. There’s also the fun of him going out to Deadman and the invocation of the larger DC universe when the plot calls for it that I still am entertained by.
Finally the big scene of the one true Nightwing coming to the rescue was awesomely illustrated. Between the KSSSSHHH!!! sound effect of the shattered glass and the multiple panels of violence before his stoic pose at the bottom, that was a great sequence.
Unfortunately the setbacks for how this story is ending up saps most of what should’ve been a kickass issue. It had been creeping back in before, but now Taylor’s “tell-don’t-show” style of writing is seriously hampering his overall run.
Let’s start with the immediate concerns of Nightwing #117: Dick in Nanda Parbat and Bruce in Blüdhaven. At the risk of being an armchair writer, they should’ve been split, if not two separate issues altogether. Dick confronting his fear and figuring out Shelton Lyle is Heartless should be the climax of a very personal, painful, and inspiring story about how he spiritually comes back from his lowest moment to figure everything out and become the hero Blüdhaven needs. You can see the opportunity for more scenes with Boston Brand, more flashbacks of young Dick and a more thorough presentation of Dick’s relationship with heights – which is something still waiting to be examined as he’s the most airborne and acrobatic of everyone in the Bat-family. Looking at where his comfort level and fear meets and overcomes one another is prime material for an entire issue, if not two or three. As it is, we see Dick struggle, have a nightmare, then he’s all better. In much the same way that his fear of heights was brought on unceremoniously (remember we didn’t even know where this fear came from until one issue he randomly says that he fell once when he was younger with little fanfare), him conquering this fear is presented with a single splash page of him taking a leap. We aren’t sufficiently with Dick going through these personal struggles, we’re simply watching him from afar as he experiences them.
The same goes for Bruce as Nightwing, because we see all of two pages of that and it’s only a single fight scene. We don’t see Heartless react to Nightwing still operating after he knows he put Dick away, we don’t see Blüdhaven or Maggie Sawyer reacting and we don’t get Bruce’s thoughts of posing as his ward’s persona in another city. So much potential, completely ignored! Bruce – as – Nightwing is the cover of this issue, so what’s the point if he’s a minor character in the story?
A simple explanation for all of this squandered potential is that Taylor was contracted for a set amount of issues before his contract ran out and he couldn’t properly focus on these ideas. Otherwise he’s way too distracted to follow through with interesting concepts. Bruce as Nightwing is a really cool, fun, and new idea, and it’s just not explored. That sucks.
At the end we return to Taylor monkeying with Dick’s origin story, stating that Dick was intended to die that night of the final performance for the Flying Graysons. Of course, the origin has been told and retold dozens of times, but as I recall, Dick did already go on stage first before his parent took their fateful jump. The rope was laced with acid, so how could Zucco even control who died first anyway? Ultimately, I’m not sure what difference any of this makes to Dick’s origin or Nightwing as a character. There’s the despondently utilized theme of “guilt”, but that doesn’t matter in the long run. Bruce infrequently expresses survivor’s guilt, but it fundamentally doesn’t affect how he operates or who he is as a character. If anything, this alteration puts Dick closer to Bruce, but at the same time I don’t like the idea of giving Dick guilt from his parents’ death to begin with. These are kids who are seeing their parents killed by criminals, what more else do their psyches need to suffer to drive them? Also, I don’t like Dick copping to being Nightwing immediately after Zucco calls him out. Sure, he did find him with his Nightwing mask out of costume, but he should still be working to protect the identities of Batman and the others. That’s the whole point of the Bat-family’s secret IDs, one slip-up brings down the whole organization. And either Zucco’s going to die like it’s a Silver Age comic or we’re just going to go on the honor system that Zucco knowing his ID won’t mean anything in the long run, and why would that be a good idea if that’s the case?
Editor’s Note: 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.
