I’d like to be the first to welcome Dan Watters and the rest of the creative team to Nightwing! Following Taylor’s long monopoly over the character, Watters begins his run on the series with another vicious power vacuum. As such, Dick Grayson does all he can to put an end to the gang war before it begins. Unfortunately, some dark new enemy aims to foil the hero’s intentions. Let’s christen this new era of The Boy Wonder below!
The Show Must Go On
During Tom Taylor’s run, Blüdhaven has undergone significant changes. Firstly, Dick Grayson establishes the Pennyworth Foundation to fund and restore the city piece by piece. This includes the creation of Haven and the backing of the mayor and his new half-sister Melinda Grayson. In addition, Taylor killed off Blüdhaven’s most influential mob boss Blockbuster and his temporary replacement Heartless. Not to mention, Nightwing’s pirate/agent/ex-girlfriend is an underworld ally as the leader of the Crew of The Crossed Keys. Most importantly, the city is now home to the Titans Tower among the greater Justice League satellite in the sky.
In light of the circumstances, the gangs of Gotham decide to unite and divvy up the city equally. Using this story device, Watters introduces many new gang’s and illicit cultures that will factor into future storytelling. Including Mama Bear’s Teddies, Boss Bludgeon’s Clean-Cut Crew, s0me freaky metahuman doctor, and the reformed Blockbuster Gang. Unexpectedly, Nightwing and a mysterious new player derails their entire scheme. What’s most insane is that Heartless murdered most of the second in commands already, and now the leaders are dead. Regardless, Nightwing employs a “nice guy” strategy allowing each gang to call him to handle rival gangs for them. As a result, he hopes to ultimately quell the gang war and hunt down this new baddie.
Bird In The Tent
The rest of the issue proceeds fairly predictably. Readers follow the perspective and thoughts of the newest antagonist agony over Nightwing’s loss of humor. Like every other generic enemy these days, this clown-like entity seemingly knows his identity. Additionally, Grayson instantly runs into an obvious new foil in the form of Olivia Pearce. Conspicuously, Mrs. Pearce just so happens to have Melinda’s permission to manufacture weapons for the police. Despite how indiscreet her involvement is, Mayor Grayson chooses to believe the police need upgrades for the evolving city. That, and she doesn’t want to loose Police support in the upcoming election. Among the upgrades, Pearce just so happens to include sonic weapons, nanotech, and totally-not-evil, Robocop style droids.
Dexter Soy illustrates Nightwing’s new aesthetic with dynamic but mildly inconsistent stylized artwork. Dexter’s interiors repeatedly utilize forced perspective, heavy shadow, and jagged, stylized forms. In some panels, Grayson looks like Jackie from Jackie Chan Adventures. His design for the creepy puppeteer behind the scenes seemingly borrows from old school images of Pagliacci or long-nosed court jesters. Furthermore, the character’s use of ominous circus aesthetic heavily reminds me of the now deceased Charles De Ghoul. Whether his Cirque Du Sin relates to the Cirque De La Morte or Le Cirque D’etrange is yet unknown. In any case, I like what I see so far, despite forcing a connection to Grayson’s life as a circus performer.
Recommended If…
- You’re looking for a fresh start to hop on to Nightwing.
- Already a fan of Dan Watter’s writing.
- You don’t care how basic your comic’s can be.
Overall
Watter’s Nightwing isn’t breaking new ground yet, but it has made the first of hopefully many good moves forward. Watters equally writes good dialogue like “Putting my foot down, don’t let it be on your neck” and cringe like “Anywho, time for jail.” Partwise, the artwork is sometimes fascinating and others wildly distorted. I like Watters letting Grayson get his hands dirty with the gangs and taking a different route from what Batman would have done. Although, I’m not buying the Joker-like “Nightwing is too serious” thesis the new antagonist is trying to sell. Overall, I think Nightwing #119 is a strong start with mixed dialogue, artwork, and generic plot details.
Score: 7/10
English (US) · 