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.