Grayson: Futures End #1 – Review

By: Tom King & Tim Seely (story), Stephen Mooney (art), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: Dick tries his hand at political assassination and finds it doesn’t suit him.

The Review: As my first serving of the Futures End crossover, Action Comics left a bad taste in my mouth and a deep dread of what the rest of the month would bring. With its poor use of the five-year jump, its distant connection to the Event itself, its tenuous handling of the Superman mythos, the issue checked off every trademark of a forced tie-in. You could just as easily throw it away and it would make no difference to any storyline anywhere.

Thank goodness I read Grayson second. It’s not a cleverly finessed tie-in the way Daredevil‘s tie-in with Original Scene is, but at least it does everything Action Comics does not. And it starts with King-Seely’s decision to tell its story backward, a risky move that pays off by tying Dick’s (potential) future with his famous past. Tying it all together is the motif of a rope; it’s the visual that starts off the issue and upon which the issue ends, the beginning of Dick’s life as we know it as well as its conclusion. It’s a fitting symbol for a hero who’s always placed himself on the line.

Grayson #2 – Review

By: Tim Seeley (writer), Tim Seeley and Tom King (plot), Mikel Janin; Guillermo Ortega; and Juan Castro (art), Jeromy Cox (colorist)

The Story: Agent 27’s first mission with Spyral was a big success. Dick Grayson is playing the spy game now and you can’t deny that he has the skills for it. The question now is does he have the stomach for it.

…If you’ve read the issue you’ll know why I’m sorry about that last statement.

The Review: Apparently Spyral is operating out of St. Hadrian’s Finishing School and has taken over Leviathan’s task of teaching the next generation of young women to be prim, proper assassins. While the comic says Grayson on the cover, it’s clearly Matron Bertinelli who runs this school.

After running interference last time, Helena gets some time in the limelight this issue. In some ways she’s limited by the confines of her role, there’s a right way to do her job after all, but Tim Seeley does an admirable job of demonstrating Bertinelli’s competence and outlook on the job.

It does feel this month that Dick Grayson is a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of ideas in his title. Dick is a fine point of reference and allows Seeley to introduce some welcome levity into the story. Dick’s quips occasionally feel a little generic, like they would fit any character so inclined rather than being tuned to Dick’s personality, but at times it seems as though that’s intentional. In fact, the one great element of this issue that features Dick is the very real sense of Dick’s identity being challenged. Perhaps indicative of Tom King’s influence, Grayson #2 shows Dick’s sense of isolation beautifully. The final scene can read a little flat if you’re not in the mood to empathize, but in the right space it’s rather touching.

We also get a new character, if one whose personality is somewhat sublimated to the plot, as well as appearances from nearly all of the supporting characters from issue #1. Most interesting of these is Midnighter, who is apparently going to be a recurring antagonist for Agent 27 now that he’s fallen in with an organization called the God Garden.

It’s also very worth noting that your experience of this issue will likely differ dramatically based on your interest in the areas of the DCU King and Seeley are exploring. Those longing for more of the weird and wonderful present in Batman Incorporated will be happy to find that Seeley can’t hide his enthusiasm for it, but if you’re getting sick of unelaborated-upon organizations and awkward backronyms, I’m not sure that this will bring you around.

Grayson #1 – Review

By: Tim Seeley & Tom King (story), Mikel Janín (art), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: Grayson—Dick Grayson.

The Review: I’m no comic book history expert, so I can’t tell you about the actual origin of superheroes according to such niceties as facts. But I like to believe that among their closest ancestors is the spy. The idea of a person meting justice while living an apparently normal life is such an integral part of both that it’s not hard to think of them as arising from a common nucleus. So if one decides costumed vigilantism isn’t one’s thing, spywork seems like a natural alternative.

It’s thus not entirely surprising to find Dick muttering into earpieces and adopting codenames now that his public outing has made being Nightwing impossible. Besides, playing secret agent seems right up his alley. Not only is he more than qualified, skill-wise, he’s got the daredevil charm that’s so essential to the modern spy. As he dons a blond wig,* tries out his Russian, and acts out the douchey American tourist to perfection, you can tell that he’s thoroughly enjoying himself, so maybe you should, too.

Nightwing #30 – Review

By: Tim Seeley & Tom King (writers); Javier Garrón, Jorge Lucas, & Mikel Janin (pencils); Javier Garrón, Jorge Lucas, & Guillermo Ortego (inks); Jeromy Cox (colors)

When the New 52 was announced a lot of people were disappointed; the world they had come to love was being washed away. It was a tough pill to swallow but there were lights in the dark of the unknown: Scott Snyder would continue to work in Gotham, previously dormant characters and genres would receive ongoing books once again, for all the predictable decisions DC was trying new things. But, for me, there was one above all others: we were getting Nightwing back.

Now, in the wake of “Forever Evil”, that time is over and, like Dick Grayson, we have a choice: we can mourn or we can move forward.

From the first image that bounces off of your retinas you’ll recognize Tim Seeley’s unique sensibility in this book. It seems strangely natural for a writer with Seeley’s appreciation for the weird and the absurd to be picking up the threads of Grant Morrison’s Batman Inc.

Many interviewers, myself included, have asked Seeley whether to expect a spy series or a superhero comic. Seeley has staunchly insisted that it will be both and neither. “It’s a superhero book influenced by spy books,” he told me at C2E2. Despite the presence of Tom King, a former CIA Counterterrorism Officer, a fact of which much has been made and much has been assumed, this issue is unafraid to step into the weird and the fantastic. It occurs to me that Seeley’s comparisons to the original Ra’s al Ghul stories may not have been as blind to the bizarre and mystical elements of the character as I thought.

The first section of the book revolves around longtime Batfamily ally Dr. Leslie Thompkins, unsurprisingly de-aged a bit for the New 52. Despite her facelift, Thompkins is handled well. She’s not as stridently pacifistic as she has been in some interpretations, but that’s kind of to be expected when a giant Bat isn’t going to swoop in and save you by default. Thompkins has always been a very different character in Batman’s world and Seeley writes her with respect, respect not only for her beliefs but for her normalcy. Not everyone becomes a hero in times of danger, but even if she doesn’t become the new Nightwing she reacts with honest heroism in the face of a situation far beyond her control.

Javier Garrón handles the art for this chapter and seems to enjoy the extremity of Seeley’s story. The stranger the character and the more dynamic the angles the more into it he seems. Admittedly his figures occasionally feel stretched out as a result but this points to a problem with consistency more than anatomy. Certain panels, notably those involving Spyral, can be pretty wonderful and the thick lines give the segment an undeniable pop, but it feels like Garrón doesn’t say quite enough about what he’s drawing except that he can make it attractive.

C2E2 Report: Tim Seeley – Matters of Life and Death

Tim Seeley has been making waves for a long time with creator owned series like Hack/Slash and Revival but recently he’s begun commuting to Gotham City to write Batman: Eternal and Grayson for DC. A skilled writer and a talented illustrator, Seeley is a prolific creator, drawing covers for numerous companies and penning clever, often unsettling, scripts month after month.

With so many interesting projects on his plate, I knew it would be worth my while to seek Seeley out at C2E2, in his hometown of Chicago. Tim was kind enough to speak to me during his live sketching session, the results of which you can see in this article. Read on to hear about Seeley’s process, his thoughts on death and horror, and comics like Revival/Chew, “The Body”, and Grayson.

C2E2 Report: DC Comics – Batman

Saturday was a big day for this year’s C2E2, with a lot of DC and Marvel’s biggest panels taking place. Besides entry in the morning, the longest line I saw all weekend was for this panel. Hundreds of fans filed through the doors of the convention’s largest panel space, and with good reason.

As things got started, John Cunningham, DC’s Marketing VP, introduced us to our panelists: James Tynion IV, former writer of Red Hood and the Outlaws and Talon and an architect of Batman: Eternal; Scott Snyder, writer for Batman, lead writer for Batman: Eternal, and all-around Batman superfan; Jason Fabok and Dustin Nguyen, the two artists for Batman: Eternal; Patrick Gleason and Peter Tomasi, the artist and writer, respectively, on Batman and _____; and Jim Chadwick, an editor with DC’s digital division who works on Batman ‘66, among others.

Cunningham started by reminding us that this year is the 75^th anniversary of Batman and promised a slew of celebration, most clearly embodied in a “Batman Day” sometime this July. He also mentioned the two animated shorts commissioned for the anniversary and, as a thank you, revealed that we’d be screening them before the panel began.

Unfortunately there was some technical trouble, kicking off a friendly rivalry between Cunningham and the people running the projector.

Unable to resolve the problem immediately, we turned to the comics.

The first book mentioned was Grayson, which received a warm reception, but just as quickly as it was brought up, Cunningham informed us that he couldn’t talk about it yet. Instead Scott Snyder took the opportunity to enlist the audience in a campaign to make sure that DC used the slogan that he and the other writers had come to love, “You think you know Nightwing, but you don’t know Dick.” It seemed to take off with the fans. DC had actually published the line in the Grayson #1 solicit a few days earlier, but after this panel I’m sure they were pleased that they went ahead with it.

Next on the docket was Batman and Scott Snyder’s “Zero Year” storyline, which has just entered its final phase, “Savage City”. Snyder, ever eager to share with the fans had thrown in a couple of extra slides into the presentation as a thank you. “You guys are our bosses,” he said, quoting a sentiment that drives he and Greg Capullo’s work on the title.