Art by: Sami Basri, Vicente Cifuentes
Colors by: Adriano Lucas
Letters by: Wes Abbott
Cover art by: Bruno Redondo
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: March 19, 2024
Is Nightwing #112 Good?
File Nightwing #112 under the heading of "Predictable Filler." With six issues left on Nightwing and the promise of a final resolution to Hearless's reign of terror, readers are treated to the finale of a two-parter that has nothing to do with Heartless and concludes a mystery that could have been solved by a C-tier detective. Admittedly, it's nice to see Nightwing take action for once (a rarity in Taylor's run), but this adventure feels like a waste for one of DC's premier characters. When last we left Nightwing, a young boy, Iko, lost his life in what appeared on the surface to be another Heartless attack. Later, Nightwing deduces that the finer details of the murder don't quite match Heartless's M.O., and the audience gets a strong hint that the boy's uncle, Loc, orchestrated the murder to frame Heartless, while the uncle claims the boy's inherited fortune for himself.
Now, the murder-for-money scheme is confirmed when Loc flees back to Vietnam with his nephew. Nightwing teams up with Batman and borrows Cyborg's T-Jet to beat the Loc's plane to Ho Chi Minh, where the one-Dynamic Duo makes quick work of the corporate security team to arrest Loc and get Iko to safety. Along the way, Batman asks Nightwing questions about his mysterious fear of leaping, and Nightwing remembers what it was like growing up without his parents. And that's it. No Heartless, no above-average adventures, and no cliffhangers or tie-ins to what comes next. This issue caps a two-parter about a basic kidnapping that Slap Bradley could have figured out while on an all-night drinking binge. What's great about Nightwing #112? Saints be praised! Nightwing actually punched a bad guy! I can't say I thought I'd ever see that happen on Tom Taylor's run, so maybe there's hope for DC yet. What's not so great about Nightwing #112? No Heartless, no big heroics, and a whole lot of filler. That pretty much describes this issue, this two-parter, and a majority of Taylor's tenure on this title. How's the art? It's fine. Basri and Cifuentes give readers a solid set of visuals. There's not much to do with the art since there's not much to do with the story, but what we get looks good.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Bits and Pieces:
Nightwing #112 ends a two-part mystery with some heart, no Heartless, and a lot of filler. To be fair, Nightwing actually punches a bad guy, but this mystery is more predictable filler than anything else.
Part 1: This issue was worse for me. The first few pages of flashback were nice but then we got back to present time and it quickly got very annoying. Why? Because of how Taylor writes Batman. Look we get it, Batman really loves his son and is proud of him, but this constant need for him to affirm every little action Nightwing does and every breath he takes as positive when sometimes it's just normal stuff, makes the series come off as insecure about how it thinks it actually *shows* nightwing being great as opposed to just constantly have other characters tell us and besides, that's not how a normal person, let alone Batman would think while going through what happens in this issue , he would reminisce on the past once and twice and then, the rest of the issue would be Batman actually responding to the plot of the issue (they are trying to save a child) rather than praising every move Nightwing made or makes. It doesn't sound like Bruce and I said it before and will say it again, the more the writers keep having these super emotional moments in every issue from Batman because they can't write an interesting enough story in their own and know this fan favourite moments are a shield from criticism, the less special these moments get from Batman. For example that one moment from way back when Batman rescued Nightwing from the radioactive Bludhaven and talked to him in the cave was way more impactful than all of these issues combined because it had impact. I know Batman cares even when he doesn't say it over and over, that's the son he raised after all, there's no need to keep saying it in every panel and it doesn't make sense that he barely responds to the important case they are investigating and commenting on that. Also can Nightwing stop acting like it's a crAzY thing that Bruce wants a sample of his blood to analyse to see what's wrong? They have done this as a normal check up for everyone, especially in this supernatural world, billions of times. People even do it in our world since it's just a normal routine. Can we stop with lol Batman does not show he cares like normal people lolll. Just give the blood sample already! I hate how he writes these characters as novices on their first day of work.
ReplyDeletePart 2 Now the awful parts of the issue(yes I haven't even mentioned those, this issue was horrible): first, tell me you don't understand the Justice League or Titans without telling me you don't understand them. Saying that JL are just a group of colleagues as opposed to Titans who are friends is so inaccurate and insulting that it only shows that they themselves know that they have failed at explaining why titans are better than JL and should replace them and what good they actually have done better than JL since taking over so they have to lie to us instead. As it stands Titans are a joke mostly. Second, you remember how when Hulk goes berserk and makes life hard for Bruce Banner we want him to get back up and be happy but also understand why people are afraid of him ? Well none of that here! Sure, Gar did get mind controlled into a huge beast who took possesion of people and turned them into mindless beasts who ate people and hurt their loved ones and were hunted down by government on a global scale, a lot of lives were lost or put in danger or scarred, sure! But have you considered that Gar really feels put out by the fact that people aren't his fan anymore? Have you? Those blind blind bigots who simply can't understand that he is a hero who saved the world!(by turning into a beast who took over the world and turned alot of people into cannibalistic beats shhhhhh). Sarcasm aside, they nullify any interest garnered by Beast World in what happens to Gar by having others constantly putting the fear people have down as something irrational and stupid, so instead of a tale of how Gar clears his image and gets back up and proves that he was innocent in this, instead of him feeling for people being scared of him (children even) and proving he is a hero and who was really to blame, we get him whining about the unfairness of his situation and other heroes constantly affirming how great he is and how "manufactured" the pushback against him is. Infuriating stuff. This arc has been done before multiple times in superhero stories so we know when a poorly done version of it comes along
DeleteThe only highlight for me in this issue was the fight scene with Batman and Nightwing (his thoughts were done well there and was actually cool) and the flashback scene.
Two well written reviews.
ReplyDeleteI would like to think Taylor has *shown* the Titans cannot fulfill the role of the JL as part of a long story arc (despite they story telling us how great they are.) But I don't see that skill level being demonstrated. Many of characters have already been part of the JL and succeeded, in runs with more stakes and characterization.
Taylor can write. He is talented and is capable. I wish he had an editor that could help him hone his craft and who challenged him to move beyond fan service moments improve his skill, which would give his work depth and weight.
I've written before that I loathe Taylor's Dick Grayson, and I do. My favorite comic character is Dick Grayson. Dick, when well written, is the most complex character in the DC universe. A multi divisional character that reflecrs the full range of human experience-anger to joy, confidence to reticence, dark to light. I feel that character depth, which exceeds Batman's range, is the "top" character for ao many fans. It's also why Dick can be adapted into a wide range of stories.
But Taylor's Dick Grayson is essentially a cardboard cut out. A pretty boy pasted unto a pretty picture. All light and no dark for a character that shines in the darkness.
The result is a cute run with sweet moments and it pretty pictures that relies on telling and gimmicks (which Mary Pemberton aside, sucks.)
Thank you for your kind reply. And of course! Titans as they were, not what they are in this era have proven over and over that they are more than capable of being successors to JL. That's why this idea had so much potential and why many people wanted the legacy characters to be more prominent during Didio's editorship. The problem here is with the writers not exerting the effort to write that idea and instead just banking on the readers' enthusiasm to carry it forward which is why it makes it shallow.
DeleteI wouldn't necessarily agree with the fact that Nightwing has more range than Batman or depth but it is a known fact that he is a very popular character that has potential and definitely one of the best batfamily characters in terms of stories he has gotten and character etc etc. Again the problem here is with the writer and you are completely right about it just being a picture. Maybe this is controversial but the only moments I thought were done well and added something during Taylor's whole run was that one talk in issue 100 with Batman, the there is a child scene and flashback last issue and the flashback and fight scene here. Everything else has been a disappointment sadly. I don't know what it really is with Taylor's writing but I think he does better when doing events or limited short maybe 12 or so runs ( I also liked his one shot about father's day). He's not a favourite writer of mine by any miles but I know he can write better than this.