Two new tales of Gotham’s next generation.
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando, Andrea Shea
Art: Neil Edwards, Tom Lyle, Scott Hanna
Colors: Jeremy Cox
Letterer: Troy Peteri
What They Say:
Story 1 – As a child, Dick Grayson saw his world come crashing down when his parents were killed by mobster Tony Zucco. Now Zucco’s son has been kidnapped by the Ventriloquist, and Nightwing is his only chance to make it home alive. Dick must make a choice: How far is he willing to go to save the son of the man he hates most? Story 2 – A kid from the Narrows, Duke Thomas, a.k.a. the SIGNAL, trained under Batman to become Gotham’s daytime protector. But his responsibilities as a superhero have vastly outweighed his responsibilities at home, and Duke becomes painfully aware of this fact when he realizes the member of the Xiqu gang who just stabbed him is none other than his childhood friend Danny Wong!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The latest installment of this series breaks us into two shorter tales with a pretty good creative here. The opening story from Steve Orlando pairs him with Tom Lyle, who sadly passed away last year after a lot of years of great comics work and teaching of illustration as well. The second story comes from Andrea Shea and she’s working with Neil Edwards and Scott Hanna as they dig into more of the material for Gotham that doesn’t involve Batman himself but those that he’s helped to train and prepare for dealing with what the city throws at them. I tend to like these kinds of stories more than Batman himself since he’s at the top of his game and his stories tend to go too big for my tastes whereas these are more grounded.
The first story is a pretty fun little Dick Grayson one as we see again how his past haunts him, which is a familiar trait for a lot of characters. Here, it’s related to the Zucco that was responsible for his parents death as he has to save Zucco’s son as he’s been kidnapped by the Ventriloquist. As Nightwing, Dick’s just struggling with it internally while doing the right thing because he doesn’t truly know if the apple has fallen far from the tree of what his father is. It’s a decent bit of close-quarters action that we get between him and the bad guys but the real focus is on him understanding what kind of person the son is and that the cycle has been broken. It’s not an easy thing for Dick to come to grips with because even though he has, in his own way, broken free from Batman and the shadow that he casts, he’s still always right there when Batman needs him and it’s hard to believe others can make that break.
The second tale focuses on Duke, a character I have almost no investment in as I’ve read almost next to nothing about the character. There’s no real intro to him here other than some kind of ward of Bruce’s that has his own stylized gold and black bat-like costume that he wears to help out in Gotham. Here, he’s focused on trying to help a friend of his from before he got caught up in all of this, Danny Wong, from being involved in the Xiqu gang. It was a moment where the two ended up fighting without Danny knowing who it was and he managed a good blow with a specialized knife. For Duke, he just wants to stop his friend from falling further in with this group but he’s got the whole savior angle going that just rubs Danny wrong since it feels like Duke left a year ago and just fell off the face of the Earth. While you do see Danny coming out just a little by the end, it’s one that has no easy answers but puts Duke on the path of actually asking questions.
In Summary:
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando, Andrea Shea
Art: Neil Edwards, Tom Lyle, Scott Hanna
Colors: Jeremy Cox
Letterer: Troy Peteri
What They Say:
Story 1 – As a child, Dick Grayson saw his world come crashing down when his parents were killed by mobster Tony Zucco. Now Zucco’s son has been kidnapped by the Ventriloquist, and Nightwing is his only chance to make it home alive. Dick must make a choice: How far is he willing to go to save the son of the man he hates most? Story 2 – A kid from the Narrows, Duke Thomas, a.k.a. the SIGNAL, trained under Batman to become Gotham’s daytime protector. But his responsibilities as a superhero have vastly outweighed his responsibilities at home, and Duke becomes painfully aware of this fact when he realizes the member of the Xiqu gang who just stabbed him is none other than his childhood friend Danny Wong!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The latest installment of this series breaks us into two shorter tales with a pretty good creative here. The opening story from Steve Orlando pairs him with Tom Lyle, who sadly passed away last year after a lot of years of great comics work and teaching of illustration as well. The second story comes from Andrea Shea and she’s working with Neil Edwards and Scott Hanna as they dig into more of the material for Gotham that doesn’t involve Batman himself but those that he’s helped to train and prepare for dealing with what the city throws at them. I tend to like these kinds of stories more than Batman himself since he’s at the top of his game and his stories tend to go too big for my tastes whereas these are more grounded.
The first story is a pretty fun little Dick Grayson one as we see again how his past haunts him, which is a familiar trait for a lot of characters. Here, it’s related to the Zucco that was responsible for his parents death as he has to save Zucco’s son as he’s been kidnapped by the Ventriloquist. As Nightwing, Dick’s just struggling with it internally while doing the right thing because he doesn’t truly know if the apple has fallen far from the tree of what his father is. It’s a decent bit of close-quarters action that we get between him and the bad guys but the real focus is on him understanding what kind of person the son is and that the cycle has been broken. It’s not an easy thing for Dick to come to grips with because even though he has, in his own way, broken free from Batman and the shadow that he casts, he’s still always right there when Batman needs him and it’s hard to believe others can make that break.
The second tale focuses on Duke, a character I have almost no investment in as I’ve read almost next to nothing about the character. There’s no real intro to him here other than some kind of ward of Bruce’s that has his own stylized gold and black bat-like costume that he wears to help out in Gotham. Here, he’s focused on trying to help a friend of his from before he got caught up in all of this, Danny Wong, from being involved in the Xiqu gang. It was a moment where the two ended up fighting without Danny knowing who it was and he managed a good blow with a specialized knife. For Duke, he just wants to stop his friend from falling further in with this group but he’s got the whole savior angle going that just rubs Danny wrong since it feels like Duke left a year ago and just fell off the face of the Earth. While you do see Danny coming out just a little by the end, it’s one that has no easy answers but puts Duke on the path of actually asking questions.
In Summary:
I’m definitely enjoying the turn that Batman: Gotham Nights has been doing in providing for a range of different stories, characters, and ideas without really getting caught up in longer storylines. The staple of the one-off Batman tale goes back decades and is a bit of a lost art that I’m enjoying seeing come to life here. This issue with its two tales presents something familiar with Nightwing and something unfamiliar with Duke but both play within the familiar and fertile ground of Gotham with solid creatives bringing it to life. It’s an enjoyable romp and one that’s easy to take in and just smile about when all is said and done.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology and Amazon Kindle
Release Date: June 9th, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology and Amazon Kindle
Release Date: June 9th, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
