It’s the end of the line for Nightwing as he readies to take on the big cowl.
What They Say:
When the Dark Knight’s adversary Two-Face tries to take a bite out of the Big Apple, it’s up to Nightwing to pluck the city from the crazed madman’s grasp in this volume collecting NIGHTWING #147-153, the final issues of the series, tying into “Batman: R.I.P.”
The Review:
During the time when I got back into singles, one of the books I got into was Nightwing. He didn’t have a solo book when I left back in the 90’s but I always enjoyed the character from his Titans days and wanted to see what he was up to there, defining himself as a solo character. With this volume, it takes him to the end of the line for his own book as it leads into the changes in the Batman books themselves with Bruce being thought dead and Dick taking on the role of Batman himself as others work to help carry on his work and legacy. That’s only at the end here though and it is, sadly, kind of abrupt. The rest of the book though pretty much covers one rather extended storyline and it’s a bit too long for its own good, which is unfortunate as you’d really like to see Dick go out on his own for awhile in a good way.
The crux of the arc involves Nightwing being approached by Two-Face of all people in order to help protect someone. Back when Harvey was actually a good guy, pre disfigurement, there was another attorney he was close to being involved with. Things were going so far into that direction though that the woman, Carol, opted to just leave rather than become that kind of woman. But now she’s involved in a case where she’s a key witness and the thugs are out there trying to take her out, so Harvey wants to get Dick to protect her during all of it because he knows he’s the best one to do it. And with Dick enjoying New York City, he wants to help as much as possible on a very street level kind of way. There’s a lot of distrust when it comes to dealing with Harvey though and Dick has plenty of anger related to him that keeps him even more from trusting him even a little. But there’s truth to the matter and the woman definitely needs protection.
There’s a fair bit of back and forth as Nightwing works to protect her from those after her, and he gets hit pretty hard along the way. A resulting chapter where it’s all essentially a hallucination or something else has a lot of fun to it as we see him go against the big name rogues gallery Batman and he have faced over the years, but it’s so blatant from the start that it loses its impact. What does work overall is that the book focuses on the relationship Dick has with Harvey and the kinds of back and forth the two have had over the years, as well as Harvey’s own internal struggle over who he is and what he knows he’s capable of but doesn’t always want to partake in. I like the character, but I don’t think Tomasi quite gets him here in a way to make him compelling or truly dangerous. The right elements for it are here, but the pacing is just too off at time and it slows down in odd ways when it needs to be tighter and tenser.
The quiet times towards the end though, as we get the last couple of chapters dealing with Dick getting ready to take over as Batman, are well done though. There’s always been that belief that he would have to take over one day in full and that’s colored his approach some, especially when he went from Robin to Nightwing, so there’s a certain acceptance to it. But there’s also the dread and he has to spend time living a bit more before he dives into that world. There’s a good sense of closure about it but also the close knit bond between those truly in the know, as we see Dick, Tim and Alfred spend some very quiet time together as they cope in the way they’ve all done after being with Bruce for all this time. There’s some good contrast in that with the way Dick does the high altitude drop as well, showing his need to feel alive in a different way that goes back to his circus roots. But as much as he’s tried to be his own person, Batman has been a dominating force since a young age and that has made an impact.
In Summary:
I have a lot of affection for Nightwing and Dick Grayson but it’s a hard character to write because you don’t want to do Batman stories, but that’s where the character has been for so long. He’s a mixture of both Batman and Bruce in a way, with the lighter attitude, the more open spirit and the womanizing, but a lot of that is just the age difference as well and his not wanting to give in completely to the night. This volume has a decent storyline as its driving force, working with Two-Face, but it’s structured poorly and doesn’t come together well, either in single issue form as a whole. The epilogue material is where it works the best though and helps to salvage things because of where it’s leading into more than anything else. It’s not a great sendoff for the character unfortunately, and he definitely deserved more.
Grade: B-
Readers Rating: [ratings]
