In Nightwing #114, The Fallen Grayson arc begins with Heartless finally making his attack on Dick Grayson and Blüdhaven!
Nightwing #114 main cover by Bruno Redondo
Title: Nightwing #114, The Fallen Grayson (Part 1 of 5)
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Bruno Redondo
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letters: Wes Abbott
Main Cover: Bruno Redondo
Variant Covers: Aaron Campbell, Dan Mora, Daniel Sampere & Alejandro Sanchez
Release Date: May 21, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers.
Two weeks from now, Dick Grayson a.k.a. Nightwing will take his dog Haley across a snowy trek towards a Mount Everest-esque vista. Dick will reminisce about the first time he tried to climb the trapeze tower to be like his parents when he was seven years old, and how that first attempt was his first fall.
Two weeks earlier, Shelton Lyle a.k.a. Heartless is ready to enact his plan to take down Grayson. Heartless is holding a meeting between various former henchmen of Blockbuster and Boss Maroni in Blüdhaven. Revealing that he’s captured their children, Heartless makes an example of an infuriated mobster by murdering him in front of the man’s daughter, promising the same fate to anyone else who dares cross him. Loyalty will be rewarded with unimaginable amounts of money, and the men are subsequently branded with Heartless’ insignia.
Hours before a gala event promoting the Alfred Pennyworth Foundation in Gotham City, Nightwing does a quick patrol, running into a man stealing a rotisserie chicken. He keeps this encounter in mind as he and Barbara Gordon meet Bruce and Damian Wayne at the function, before being chatted up by Shelton Lyle. As Bruce introduces Dick during a speech, a reporter accuses the Alfred Pennyworth Foundation of being funded off of Blockbuster’s remaining stolen accounts after that gangster’s death. Suddenly, fire alarms blare and the sprinkler system goes off, as Shelton tells his man Gerald that they’re about to carve out a heart.
Nightwing #114 by Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, and Adriano Lucas. (Credit: DC Comics)
Foregoing the back-up preview of the upcoming Titans #11 about a young girl inspired by Donna Troy and Starfire (as that’s truly not integral to this issue in any way), I’m happy to write that with this first chapter of Fallen Grayson, the Nightwing book is right back on track to its former glory. This is in no small part owed to the return of the much-missed Bruno Redondo, who has been off the title for eleven months (his last issue – Nightwing #105 – has just been nominated for an Eisner). Make no mistake about this, Redondo is a top-tier comic book artist. Immediately with the flashback at Haley’s circus, we’re greeted with a wonderful layout of young Dick standing at the bottom of the circus stage, multiple panels detailing his ascent, which breaks up as he begins to lose himself, ending with a mirror image of him falling. Cut to the next page and we see and adult, bearded Dick laying down flat in the middle of the snow. It is truly terrific stuff, and helps make this run truly worthy of the praise it’s garnered over the past three years. This isn’t to suggest that the title has been beset with bad artists in the intervening issues, but I think Dick’s agoraphobia would be more of a sympathetic subplot if it were rendered in Redondo’s mastery of landscape design and spatial proximity. I’m thinking of the scene in Nightwing #109 when Dick was forced to confront his fear of heights to leap after Bea into the water. Stephen Byrne’s artwork was probably my least favorite of the last few months anyway, but that specific scene could’ve welcomed some visual enhancement by a maestro such as Redondo.
This is all to say, I’ve missed the man. Tom Taylor’s writing hasn’t changed much without his art partner, but with this issue one could argue that it drastically improves. The themes of the arc feel more alive, between Dick wanting to move his operations to Gotham and how it differs from Blüdhaven. There’s a scene transition that’s a bit awkward (Shelton Lyle approaches Dick and Babs, and the next page Bruce is giving a speech), but overall I’ve nothing but praise for this first part. Heartless is back and effectively returns as a real threat. The killing of the gangster in front of his daughter is exactly the kind of nastiness this book needs to sell the danger against Nightwing. I’ve read other Tom Taylor books, and he is not afraid to go dark in different circumstances (His Superman run had a fairly nasty What-If possible scenario where the DC heroes all died), so it’s good to know he doesn’t shut that door on this book. The niceties and kid-gloves that I’ve disliked in the past few arcs may prove to be worth stomaching if Fallen Grayson truly sticks the landing.
The biggest regret of this issue is that it ends too soon! Maybe the cliffhanger (such that it was) was intended to be sudden and quick, or maybe it was necessary for the Titans preview, but just as things were ramping up we get cut off. I loudly yelped in anguish, but that’s definitely a sign of successful writing when you was to see what happens next.
I don’t have much else to say that isn’t just more praise of Bruno Redondo. Cannot wait for issue Nightwing #115.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advance 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.
