The latest arc in Nightwing, “Blockbuster,” has had it’s fair share of ups and downs. The personal struggle that Dick Grayson is going through as he tries to balance his life with Shawn Tseng and the call to be Nightwing 24/7 has been intriguing. Unfortunately the new version of Blockbuster has left some things to be desired as the character isn’t getting over as he should. There is still time to change that and Nightwing #24 can be that turnaround that Blockbuster needs. Let’s find out if that is the case with Nightwing #24.
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Miguel Mendonca
Inker: Diana Conesa
Colorist: Chris Sotomayor
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: While working on new weapons Giz gets a call from Nightwing, who asks Giz for blueprints on a luxury submarine yacht.
As Giz looks up the blueprints Tiger Shark offers a group of villains a year supply of free weapons for whoever captures Nightwing.
At the Haven Community Center, Shawn and Mouse talk about their respective love life. Shawn then brings up how the politicians are cutting all of the Haven’s funding.
Pigeon suddenly shows up and Mouse finds out Shawn invited her to talk.
Back inside the luxury yacht, Nightwing quickly takes out a Avery Martell and Skyhook in the yacht’s bar.
Giz finally gets the blueprints to the yacht to Nightwing. Nightwing faces off against Count Vertigo and Skyhook in a hallway. Nightwing is able to use Count Vertigo’s powers to take out Skyhook and then proceeds to knock out Count Vertigo.
Continuing down the yacht Nightwing is cornered by the Underground Men, China White, Strato and Snakepit. Nightwing uses the narrow corridor that he is in with all the villains to use his agility to knock out each villain one-by-one.
Giz gives Nightwing information on where the yacht’s escape pod. As he runs to the location Nightwing runs into Clock King, who quickly runs away.
Before Nightwing can give chase he is confronted by Shado. Nightwing uses his agility to close the gap between Shado and himself. He then headbutts Shado, knocking her out.
Magog suddenly shows up and starts throwing Nightwing around the room. Nightwing is able to get close to Magog and stabs him in the eye, while also taking his staff away.
Kid Amazo shows up and tries to take advantage of a tired Nightwing. Not wasting any time, Nightwing uses Magog’s staff to take Kid Amazo out.
Nightwing picks himself up and is able to limp to the yacht’s escape pod. Before he can enter it Blockbuster shows up and activates a bomb inside the yacht. Blockbuster then takes the yacht’s escape pod while leaving Nightwing behind to stop the bomb.
Nightwing calls Giz and tries to tell him to give Shawn a message. Before Nightwing can give Giz the message for Shawn the bomb blows up. End of issue.
The Good: While Dick Grayson left the Batman cape and cowl behind at the beginning of the New 52 it did not mean he left behind what he learned. Since returning to the Nightwing identity, and even when he was secret agent Grayson for a period, we have seen Dick become more like his mentor, Bruce Wayne, at times. And with Nightwing #24 we see exactly how Dick has incorporated much more of Bruce’s teachings as he takes down a bunch of DC villains from other franchises.
Something we don’t see often is how much Nightwing prepares going into a fight. Out of the entire Batman family, Nightwing’s fighting style is more improvisational as he relies on his natural speed and agility. That is something that is on full display throughout Nightwing #24 as Dick takes full advantage of his speed to keep pushing forward.
At the same time, we see Tim Seeley calling back to Nightwing’s training under Batman’s tutelage while he was Robin. Framing the narrative of Nightwing’s fight with Batman instilling in his proteges how they must continuously study the growing number of villains showing up every day elevated the intrigue of the fight. The fact that Nightwing had all of this knowledge on villains like Shado and Magog added to the intrigue of how exactly he would overcome all the odds. Nightwing still employing some improv along with the knowledge he had help give the entire sequence a certain flow that kept the entire issue moving forward.
Nightwing having to go through an exhaustive gauntlet of villain made the confrontation with Blockbuster that closed the issue stronger. Up until this point we haven’t seen Blockbuster at his full evil ways. He has just been sneakingly putting things in place so that he can use Nightwing for his own gain. That moment finally happened with Nightwing #24’s ending as he left our hero little time to stop a bomb while he got away. The lack of caring as he returned to his normal form and escaped did more for Blockbuster as a villain than the previous two issues of this arc.
While this issue was very action heavy, Seeley did a good job finding some time to add to the drama around the series pertaining Dick’s relationship with Shawn. After the false pregnancy it is clear that Dick is at a point that he needs to decide, like his mentor, who he wants to be, Nightwing the hero or Dick Grayson the person that has a life beyond being a superhero.
Seeing Shawn break down with Mouse as things continue to mount for her Seeley puts into question where things will end up. The surprise of Pigeon making her first present day appearance adds to the unknown nature of where things will go between Dick and Shawn. That wildcard nature should provide plenty of weight to how Pigeon helps Shawn sort things out with her personal life.
As an action heavy issue, Miguel Mendonca had plenty of opportunity to show of his skill in Nightwing #24. With Nightwing fighting a wave of villains from all corners of the DC Universe, Mendonca was able to show off how a wide variety of powers work. The tight space of the luxury yacht setting help Mendonca keep the issue moving forward as Nightwing used his speed and agility to get past each villain he came across.
The Bad: Though he was the one to light fire for all the villains to go after Nightwing, Tiger Shark has not been the best secondary villain in this arc. Not having enough time to develop what Tiger Shark is plotting in Bludhaven has made him look like a weak villain that we don’t have to worry about. A little more screen time, would help get us to better understand what Tiger Shark’s motivation is.
And as much as the action is enjoyable there should’ve been at least a page or two dedicated to how Tiger Shark and Blockbuster’s relationship works. Especially with Blockbuster blowing up Tiger Shark’s luxury yacht, seeing the two interact with one another would’ve added to whatever Blockbuster is plotting. But since we haven’t really gotten that since Nightwing #23, we haven’t been given a clear idea of the power struggle for Bludhaven’s underworld like we should in this arc.
Overall: Nightwing #24 is an energetic story that Dick Grayson fans will love. Seeing Nightwing go up against and overcome a wide variety of villains from all corners of the DC Universe was a site to see. The “Blockbuster” arc still suffers from not enough development for the main villains of the story but the action in Nightwing #24 more than makes up for that as we enter the big anniversary issue of this series.