Nightwing #18 Review and *SPOILERS*

Getting Hurt

Written By: Tim Seeley

Art By: Javier Fernandez, Minkyu Jung, Chris Sotomayor, Carlos M. Mangual

Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: April 5, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

We're currently in France, where Nightwing and Robin have tracked Shawn Tsang to and after a fight with Dick's double, Deathwing and being saved by Damian's double, who simply goes as Robin, we find out that our foes were actually dollotrons created by Professor Pyg.  The one thing that I found odd about the previous issue, besides for Deathwing somehow getting to France before our heroes was the fact that both Deathwing and the dollotron Robin had both Dick and Damian's memories and maybe I'm just forgetting about what Professor Pyg knew about our heroes in the previous continuity, but this comes off odd as hell to me.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Tim Seeley goes and explains himself and hopefully see Shawn Tsang rescued by our hero.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Professor Pyg giving a speech about art as he has Shawn Tsang tied up behind him and while it does seems that there are regular people in attendance to our villain's new artistic premiere, we also see that he has a shit ton of dollotrons in the crowd as well, who get ready to take on our heroes as they come to crash the party.  Yeah, we get a shit ton of fighting in this issue as our heroes take on dollotrons and Pyg himself, but the real interesting part of this book is the flashback to the dollotron Robin, who actually gets Dick and Damian to stop their bickering about what needs to be done by telling them what they mean to each other from his dollotron-ed memories of what he thinks they should be like from their time as Batman and Robin............. Yeah, we're certainly getting a lot of that, but ultimately it gets them to calm down and they even invite the doppelganger Robin along.  Yeah, the weird kid doesn't get to join in on the ass kicking party, but he does get to watch over the tied up Deathwing, who tricks the kid into believing that he too remembers who he once was before Professor Pyg got a hold of them and even though he actually could remember, it seems that he doesn't care and is only about making himself better and apparently, he thinks this version of himself is way better than who he previously was.

In the end, Pyg is subdued and Shawn Tsang is saved, but Damian sees the Batmobile being taken through a broken window and goes out to stop what he believes to be his double from stealing his car, but is only faced with Deathwing, who distracts our Boy Wonder enough for someone to get the drop on him and shoot Damian in the back of the head............ or something that at least appears that way.  As our issue closes, Nightwing and Shawn leave the art museum with a tied up Professor Pyg, but are stopped when they find the body of the dollotron-ed Robin, which gets Pyg to start saying that he was working for someone else and that person we find out is................ Dr. Hurt, which actually would explain how the dollotrons would know the identities of Nightwing and Robin. 

That's it for this issue of Nightwing and goddamn does it seem that Tim Seeley wants to throw all the Grant Morrison he can throw at us with this arc.  First Professor Pyg, now Dr. Hurt....... Hopefully the series going forward is easier to understand than Batman R.I.P.   This was a pretty fast issue that consisted mostly of fighting in the museum and because of that the issue suffered because Javier Fernandez' art is still something that I can't get behind and I find just confusing at times, but things did turn around halfway through as Minkyu Jung stepped in and really brought this comic to life.  Yeah, there's still not much to this issue besides for the reveal of Dr. Hurt as the villain wanting to test Nightwing, but the change of art really got me to at least enjoy what I was reading more.  

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue won't wow you with its content, it still has Minkyu Jung stepping in halfway through the story to make you start paying attention........... because goddamn do I hate the art at the beginning of the issue.  Really though, we get a big fight and a decent cliffhanger that actually gets me a bit interested in this story, but besides that, there really isn't much to write home about.

6/10