One of the comics that I have been looking forward to reading during the Forever Evil Month break has been Nightwing #24. This is the final issue of the Prankster arc with Nightwing trying to save the Mayor of Chicago from the Prankster’s clutches. What will be interesting to see is what role Tony Zucco plays in this issue since the previous issue left off with Zucco appearing to offer Nightwing some help. Let’s find out how things turn out with Nightwing #24.
Creative Team
Writer: Kyle Higgins
Artist: Will Conrad
Colorist: Pete Pantazis
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: With Chicago on lockdown, Nightwing races through the city on his motorcycle with Tony Zucco tied up in order to save Mayor Cole from the Prankster’s clutches. While Nightwing takes out various thugs that are working for the Prankster Tony tells Nightwing about the history Mayor Cole has with the Prankster.
Tony explains that one of the reasons Wallace Cole became the Mayor because he and his brother William convinced city hall to build a train line through their old neighborhood. The other reason was that William took the blame when Prankster’s father, Harold Loomis an electrical engineer, died during the train line’s construction. He goes on to say that because of this the Prankster blames the Cole family for the death of his father, something Tony learned about when he shared a prison cell with William.
Once he finishes his story, Tony says that the reason Prankster is doing all this on Halloween night is because that is when his father died. Tony then says that Nightwing must let accept his help in order to stop Prankster because if not people will die which in turn will make Nightwing just as bad as Prankster.
In an alleyway Mayor Cole is trying to tell Prankster that he is clean and that he can check his accounts to verify what he is saying. Prankster reveals that he already knows that but because of Mayor Cole’s role in the death of his father he took away the one thing he loved: the city’s trust. Prankster goes on to say that with the rail lines shutdown his men were able to fill Pilsen Station with enough explosive to collapse the entire south side. Prankster throws Mayor Cole into the middle of a neighborhood and throws him the control to stop the explosives.
Before Mayor Cole can hit the switch Prankster fires a gun into the air in order to get everyone in the neighborhood to come out of their homes. The citizens see Mayor Cole and begin to beat him up since they believed that he lied to them. Before the citizens can cripple Mayor Cole Nightwing arrives, with Tony untied, and saves Mayor Cole. After hearing about the control to stop the explosives from Mayor Cole inform Nightwing tries to find it but Prankster reaches it first and destroys the control. Nightwing tells Mayor Cole and Tony to leave on his motorcycle.
Nightwing is able to make quick work of the Prankster but has to let him go in order to reach the train line before it explodes. After looking at the train line map Nightwing turns the train line on and uses the little time he has to drive the train towards a river. Nightwing destroys the train line in order to force the train to crash into the river right before it explodes. (Someone was watching Batman Begins recently.)
Right when Nightwing gets to shore the Prankster attacks him from behind and tries to choke him to death. Tony saves Nightwing by shooting Prankster in the shoulder. Tony then hands the gun, which he started holding when Nightwing came to town, to Nightwing. After Nightwing leaves the cops arrive to arrive to arrest Tony and the Prankster.
The next day Dick Grayson returns to his apartment where Joey happily hugs him, since she and Michael thought he was dead. Dick then confirms with Joey that he originally came to Chicago because of Tony Zucco but now that Tony is in jail he still wants to stay, though now he is going to be the one sleeping on the couch.
Inside an interrogation room Tony’s lawyer tells him that many of his old friends want him to succeed and that his employer will help resolve the Flying Grayson issue if he wants them to, all the while calling Tony by his alias Billy. Tony says that he wants to own up to what he did to teach his son right from wrong. The lawyer hands Tony divorce papers from his wife that say he’ll never see their son again. Tony freaks out and the lawyer asks about what they should do next. Tony says that he isn’t Billy, he’s Tony Zucco.
Later that night Michael is on the phone with his friend, Maxwell, talking about his changing opinion on superheroes since Nightwing arrived. Maxwell says that there are no heroes and they have to make sure they keep it that way. Maxwell then goes into the back of his closet where the Ghostwalker costume is hanging. End of issue.
Commentary
The Good: With everything that is happening to Nightwing in Forever Evil it is good to see that he is not going into it without some sort of momentum. Kyle Higgins does not shy away from continuously testing Nightwing throughout Nightwing #24 and showing us how Nightwing is able to quickly find a way to save the day.
In many ways, Nightwing #24 is exactly the type of issue that the character needs while his role in Forever Evil develops. The truth is Nightwing has had to overcome a lot over last two years. Even when Nightwing has been able to gain a victory it has always been taken away from him through some sort of personal loss.
Going into this issue I fully expected the Prankster arc to end with another depressing ending for Nightwing. Instead, Higgins uses what we have seen happen to Nightwing’s life in the last two years to show us what makes Nightwing different from other heroes, especially those within the Batman Family. While Nightwing does take a methodical approach to his actions he does not close himself off to having to be flexible when things don’t go perfectly. From having to accept Tony Zucco’s help to figuring out a different way to disarm the train filled with explosives we saw how Nightwing is able to quickly asses a situation and adjust his plans accordingly.
What makes this ending better is that it gives Nightwing a victory while leaving the door open for various sub-plots to be explored even further. The mask hunters’ sub-plot had a good twist as it looks as though not everything is what it appears to be on the surface. Seeing the costume of Ghostwalker in Maxwell’s closet brings up many questions as to the direction of this sub-plot. With Nightwing’s presence changing Chicago’s attitude towards superheroes it makes this sub-plot even more intriguing since it could end up going multiple ways, especially if the events of Forever Evil are worked into the story.
Similarly, we also have Tony Zucco morphing back into the Tony Zucco of old as he has given up the new life he built now that his wife has filed divorce papers. What made this transformation entertaining was that it was triggered by an outside force who used Tony Zucco’s vulnerability to get them do what they want. Since we don’t know who the lawyer that manipulated Tony Zucco works for it’ll be interesting to see where this character goes moving foward
Will Conrad delivered some best artwork we have had during this arc. The art is clean and pops out of the page. Conrad is able to show how wicked and desperate of a character Prankster is through his varying facial expressions. He also does a great job bringing the tension to the scene where Nightwing leads the train towards the river. The time clock was perfectly placed to bring up how much time was left for Nightwing to act.
The Bad: If there is one thing that I wish this issue did a better job of is giving Dick Grayson a good reason to stick around in Chicago after putting Tony Zucco and Prankster away. Higgins spent a lot of time telling us that the Tony Zucco case was the reason for Dick move to Chicago but never showed him building a strong connection with the new supporting cast or the city. The scene with Joey could have been used much more effectively to establish why Dick isn’t returning to Gotham City after closing out this case. Unfortunately, we are going to have to wait two months for a reason to be given since Nightwing #25 will tie into the events of Zero Year.
Overall: Kyle Higgins has continuously shown himself to be one of the best rising talents that DC Comics has and Nightwing #24 reaffirms this fact. This issue properly ended the Prankster arc with Nightwing being able show how he can overcome any problem thrown his way. Nightwing’s victory over Prankster also propels the whole mask hunters sub-plot to become the next obstacle for Nightwing to face off against. At the same time Higgins is able to put together an unexpected end to Nightwing’s hunt for Tony Zucco that leaves the door for a bigger story down the line. If you have not been reading Kyle Higgins’ Nightwing then I highly recommend picking this series up in trade paperback.
