Graphic Novel Reviews: Li'l Gotham 002

The Story

In the first story Batman and Nightwing stop Mr Freeze from kidnapping a children's choir. In the second story Catwoman vows to turn over a new leaf for the new year. But a surprise visit from Harley and Ivy test her resolution.

The Review
The first thing that strikes me about this print version of the digital first Li'l Gotham is how well the pages are put together. In the digital release half a page of the printed edition is a full page in the digital chapters. I was afraid it wouldn't go well together when put into a full page, that there would be a clear line through the middle of each page. Fortunately the folks at DC are in fact professional picture people and know how to make this book look good.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 020

The Story
Dick arrives at his apartment, only to find that the previous tenant is still occupying it. After a brief misunderstanding he goes to get some rest in his other roommate's room. The police find alderman Laine, whose arm has been bitten off by the wolf. When Dick finally wakes up he gets a message from Johnny Spade. The mayor and Tony Zucco have a scene together, with Zucco coming across as more of a scared innocent than a hardened criminal.

Nightwing plays Spade in a game of cards for the information he wants. Spade tells him that while the other avenues were a dead end, the Prankster might know more. Nightwing interrupts Prankster during one of his ironic traps, but ends up with his HUD deactivated and trapped in a glass box where the only way to get out is to take off his mask so he can see.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 019

The Story
The issue starts with Nightwing chased by the Chicago police, gunned down and cornered; when he remembers what brought him to Chicago in the first place. Chasing down leads to find Tony Zucco, Dick moved into a new place, with a new roommate, and started looking for information. He finds an information broker being attacked by a clearly unstable woman who fights Nightwing and manages to escape. After giving the broker his assignment, Nightwing is cornered by the police. While Nightwing escapes, a police chopper hits a bilboard and starts to go down. Nightwing saves the officers, but with the city alerted to his presence his search for Zucco will become much more difficult.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 018

The Story

Dick deals with the grief of Damian's death, while facing the Dealer, who has stolen Dick's father's uniform. After coming to terms with his own decisions, Dick decides to start mending some of his bridges, starting with Sonia. In an effort to gain Dick's trust, Sonia reveals that her father is alive.

The Review
I think the portrayal of Dick's grief took up the proper amount of room in this issue. I liked how the video game mentioned last chapter was brought back as a device to force Dick to confront his grief again. Ultimately the issue of Dick's becoming a darker character was dealt with when the issue of the Dealer was resolved, though the reveal at the end of the issue has me in two minds.

One of the problems with characters that have been around for so long is that there will be some inevitable repetition of themes and events. After all, when certain major events contribute to the development of a character, then it stands to reason that said events will come back to haunt the character.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 017

The Story
In the aftermath of Death of the Family, Nightwing's world is falling to pieces. Two of his friends are dead, the surviving members of Haly's circus have lost faith in him, and with Amusement Mile destroyed by fire and the Joker's chemicals, Dick is destroyed financially as well. His inner turmoil causes him to act more rash, and violently. And while everyone seems to believe him when he says he is fine, Damian is the only one who doesn't buy it and calls Dick out on his behavior.

The Review
While Dick acts quite out of character in this issue, his behavior makes complete sense. Joker hit him hard. He both relied on a lot of people and had them rely on him. In a sense Joker was victorious as far as Dick is concerned. Kyle Higgins uses Death of the Family quite expertly to transition from the first part of Nightwing's story to the next.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 014-016

The Story

With the Joker back in town, Nightwing has to focus on hunting down Lady Shiva before she finds her target. He is able to drive her off, but only barely. Meanwhile, Dick has no time to rest as the Joker strikes him by attacking those close to Dick. When his friend Jimmy turns up dead, Nightwing tries to get the circus out of town. But Joker's trap is too deeply laid for anyone to escape. Nightwing finds himself surrounded by drugged members of Haley's circus and beaten into submission.

The Review
Out of the tie ins that I've read for the Death of the Family event I have to say that Nightwing scribe Kyle Higgins has handled it the best. From what I've heard Higgins and Snyder work pretty closely together, so there's an organic feel to their crossovers. Rather than have just an issue or two involved in the crossover itself, the events are tied into the main plot of the book.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 013

The Story

Nightwing's investigation on Lady Shiva leads him to discover that a small time gangster has hired a squad of men to murder the assassin upon arrival. Even though Shiva most certainly deserves death for the crimes she's commited, Nightwing goes to stop the attack, only to discover that she has arrived in Gotham, but not by the means everyone thought she would.

The Review
First off, if you've noticed that the plot summaries on these reviews have been somewhat short, that's because while I consider some kind of plot synopsis is necessary, I don't put that much weight on them. I like to keep the spoilers in more or less the same place so anyone that doesn't want to know what actually happens in the book doesn't have to watch out for spoilers during the review itself. And considering that I don't really feel like summarizing every little thing that happens, you end up with only a few lines. If you like your reviews with plot summaries, I apologize for the shortness of mine, but I probably won't be doing more than the most basic of summaries anytime soon.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 0

The Story

After Dick's parents are murdered, he is taken in by Bruce Wayne, while the police investigate Tony Zucco. While at the Wayne Care Center, Dick goes out at night to track Zucco down himself. He comes across Batman, who he recognizes as Bruce Wayne, and Bruce starts to train him.

At first Dick works only as support, working the computer and providing inteligence for Batman. But when Batman runs afoul Lady Shiva, Dick dons the costume and goes out as Robin for the first time.

The Review
The main thing I took away from this issue is that DC seems to be doing their best to PC their characters up. One of the running jokes about Batman in the fandom is that he's kind of a horrible human being for training a kid to fight crime. However, in this version of Dick's origina story, Batman initially does not take him out to fight crime. Rather he trains him to help him protect himself, and then uses him as support staff to keep him out of the fight. Essentially, Dick was going out and getting into fights on his own, Batman is just doing what's necessary to protect him. It almost feels like the central message of The Princess and the Frog, where Disney backtracks on their "Wish upon a star" philosophy. Except that DC never encouraged child endangerment, so it feels more like clarification upon a misunderstood point.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 012

The Story

While the cops investigate the murder scene of the Republic members, Nightwing is attacked by Paragon. The two fight in the sewers, and end up being washed out into the bay, where Nie and his cops are waiting.

After getting home, Dick decides to fund the construction of Amusement Mile mostly from from his own pocket. He later apologizes to Sonia for the way he behaved, who tells him that she'd turned down the loan with the bank because she didn't want to be reminded about her father, and being around Dick reminds her of him.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 011

The Story

Nightwing's fight against Paragon ends when the latter drops a clockfron on the street below. Nightwing is able to break it apart with explosives before anyone is injured. He later confronts Detective Nie, who he thinks is framing him. After his loan with the bank is denied, he goes to the batcave to work on the Strayhorn murder. A conversation with Damian helps him realize what he was missing, at the same time Detective Nie reveals to Gordon that he and Patrolman Stark, one of the cops murdered in issue one, had been in love. The issue ends with Nie being contronted by Paragon.

The Review
I don't intend for this to be part of the marriage equality debate, or the gay rights debate. I just want to make an observation about this issue, in relation to the reveal that Alan Scott, the Earth 2 Green Lanter, is gay.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 010

The Story

As Nightwing investigates the Strayhorn appartment, he is attacked by SWAT. He escapes, and gets a call from Lucius, discussing a business proposition. His plan is to reinvigorate the Amusement Mile themepark.

While investigating the murder of the Strayhorn brothers, he is attacked by armored vigilantes. He finds their base of operations, where he finds a group of the paramilitary vigilantes training. Their Leader, Paragon, notices him there and attacks him, declaring that "The future of this city hinges on your death."

The Review
Is it just me, or is this the way the Haly's circus storyline started? Someone declaring that Nightwing/Dick had to die? Oh well, easy way to create tension early on I guess.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 009

The Story
Nightwing faces off against his ancestor, as their fight takes them across Gotham and into the subway, where conveniently placed pipe coolant takes care of the Talon.

Most of the issue covers William Cobb's past, from losing his lover and unborn child to society's pressure, to being scouted and trained as the new Talon. It also answers how the Grayson name came to be, and how his descendants went from being in a rich family, under a different name, to circus performers that were being groomed as assassins.

The Review
While I enjoyed the latest issue of Catwoman for the Talon's backstory, I have to admit that I'm a bit more invested in William Cobb's story. It helps that he's been built up over more than one issue. His story is one of the strong points of the Court of Owls events, as we get to see his rise and fall, helping us round him out as a character.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 008

This issue is interspersed with the story of a young boy that made it big as a circus performer, and Nightwing investigating one of his weapons in a police evidence locker. He gets the call from Alfred, and goes to city hall to fight off an attack by the Talons. The story switches between the two narratives, leading up to the final pages of the issue, where the two combine quite elegantly.

This is the first of the non-Batman books to dive into the Court of Owls storyline. And it's a fair treat. It's always nice when a writer whose recent work has been satisfactory at best manages to really capture your attention. And the way the two stories are tied together shows that Kyle Higgins knows what he's doing. Since previously I'd been ambivalent towards the Nightwing series, I'm pleased to see how this crossover is breathing new life into the series.

Graphic Novel Reviews: Nightwing 001-007

Nightwing is one of those books that aggravates my sense that nothing makes sense in the DC universe anymore. According to this series Dick was Batman for a while. So that happened. So Final Crisis happened. That just makes things more confusing! Are we ignoring everything that came before, or just a few things!?

When Dick returns to being Nightwing, he decides he needs to get out of Gotham for a while. A chance for this provides itself when the owner of Dick's childhood circus home dies, leaving the circus to Dick. At the same time he finds himself hounded by an assasssin named Saiko, who claims that Nightwing is a murderer. What follows is a series that doesn't really go anywhere until the very end, where it connects with the Court of Owls story in the Batman book.