Nightwing #118 is the first “One Year Later” issues for this title. So far, the Revolution has been very unimpressed with the other “One Year Later” issues that DC has put out. It seems to be a lot of hype about nothing. Can Nightwing #118 finally come through on all the hype? Grab a Goya fruit drink, sit down and let’s find out.
Creative Team
Writer: Bruce Jones
Penciller: Joe Dodd
Inker: Bit
Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 5.
Synopsis: The issue starts “One Year Later” and we see a little girl getting kidnapped. Nightwing swoops in and attacks the kidnappers. One of the kidnappers put a knife to the little girl’s neck. Nightwing takes him out. Takes the knife and slits his throat killing the kidnapper. Wow!! Nightwing grew some balls in that one year!
The next scene is Nightwing waking up in the morning after a long night of lots of S-E-X. Seriously, the girl is still panting! Dick Grayson has just come back to New York and already has bedded some ho. Then the “boyfriend” comes knocking on the door. Dick leaves saying he was just the plumber. Yeah, he did plenty of “plumbing” while he was there. The boyfriend then starts to smack around the woman who then displays some meta-human powers and blasts the guy.
We then go to Dick walking around the streets of NYC where he sees a newspaper with the story of Nightwing killing a criminal. He is shocked by the news. Clancy, an old character who is a female Asian doctor from Ireland, appears and hugs Dick and tells him the ho he bedded last night was Cheyenne Freemont and insanely rich fashion designer.
Dick then finds a nice large loft apartment to rent. He mopes a bit and appears to be having a conversation with a voice in his head. He tells this voice in his head that he doesn’t know who is dressing up like him and killing criminals, that he is ok, and that he is ready to do “this.” And that nothing could be worse than the past year. Hmmm, interesting.
We then cut to Clancy leaving work from her Hospital and she gets attacked by one of the crazy people she has treated. Nightwing shows up in the alley and saves Clancy. Nightwing then continues his patrol and comes across toy bug dudes in white suits beating up a guy. Nightwing crashes the party. These are the Pierce Brothers. Evidently, they are some big-time mobsters.
One of the Pierce Brothers squares off with Nightwing and takes out Nightwing. This Pierce Brother is a meta-human with the ability to change the density of his molecules. He then drops Nightwing off the roof of the building. But, Nightwing is then saved by Nightwing? Yup. The issue ends with Jason Todd as the second Nightwing holding Dick Grayson from going splat.
Comments: The Revolution takes out our pistolas and fires them into the air in celebration. Finally, a “One Year Later” issue that lives up to the hype. Nightwing #118 was fantastic! It would have gotten 5 Night Girls out of 5 if it had a little better art. At any rate, this issue was full of good stuff. We know now that Jason Todd did not die again over in Batman.
I love the idea of the two Robins squaring off for the mantle of Nightwing. They both trained at the Bat’s side, but they came away from it with two very different philosophies. Seeing Nightwing (Jason Todd) slit open the kidnapper’s throat was a big shocker! Then realizing it was Jason Todd made it even cooler.
Since the Revolution has already gone with our enjoyment of Jason Todd coming back from the dead, I’m glad to see that DC is finding a useful role for him within the DC universe. I think Jason Todd has plenty of potential and makes for a very interesting and complex character. He has the heart of a hero, but his death and his rebirth have really darkened his outlook on the world creating a conflicted hero.
I am intrigued by who Dick could have been talking to in his loft. Is he really going nuts or is there a voice in his head or a spirit that is following him around. An interesting plotline. I hope that DC goes through with their plans to make Dick Grayson an even more central and important character in the DC Universe. Devin Grayson logged a lot of time writing this title, but I think it was time to jumpstart Nightwing. This One Year Later gimmick will probably benefit Nightwing more than almost any other title.
Who knows what happened with Barbara Gordon. Dick and Babs were a serious item prior to this “One Year Later” storyline. Now, it is quite apparent that Dick has moved on. It also seems that there is a serious rift between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. Dick makes an allusion to a rather unhappy childhood and when talking to Ms. Freemont after he “plumbed” her, he mentions that he disowned himself from his father. I’m interested to see what happened between Dick and Bruce. This also means that now Bruce has failed with his first two protégé’s: Dick and Jason. That just leaves the current Robin with any connection to Batman and I never thought those two were ever as close as Bruce was with Dick or Jason.
I’m not overly thrilled with Dick being in New York. I think that New York already has enough heroes. I like it when comic companies get creative and realize there are actually other cities in America other than New York. I know, it is a shock. It would have been cool if he had relocated to Chicago, Boston, Philly or DC.
The art was solid. Dodd is a little inconsistent with his pencil work. Some panels look great and others below average. This seems to be a constant problem with Nightwing. It has rarely had a great artist and at certain points had some downright horrid artists. A really nice artist on this title could rocket Nightwing to the top of the DC titles that the Revolution reads.
Nightwing looks like it is really popping and the Revolution declares Nightwing as one of our hot titles and completely urges readers to hop onto this train.
