Nightwing #24 Review and *SPOILERS*

Running Man

Written By: Tim Seeley

Art By: Miguel Mendonca, Diana Conesa, Chris Sotomayor, Carlos M. Mangual

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: July 5, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

I've really been loving this Blockbuster arc of Nightwing because where I was worried that it was just going to rehash what Chuck Dixon did in the 90's it instead used those characters and Tim Seeley made something that was purely his own in a fun and interesting way.  In the previous issue, we saw our hero using the information that Roland Desmond gave him about some crooked cops working for Tiger Shark in bringing the high tech guns from The Second Hand into Bludhaven, but what Nightwing didn't count on was a trap from the villain, who set him up to be used as a demonstration for all the villains that have come to Bludhaven looking for some new toys to continue their evil affairs.  Let's jump into this issue and see how Nightwing can stand against a shit load of villains that have been featured throughout Rebirth lately and if he finishes that off, a smart Blockbuster as well.  Let's check it out.  

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Nightwing getting a hold of Giz because he needs him to get some blue prints online for Tiger Shark's submarine, which our hero is making his way into to try and escape the hordes of villains that are on his tail.  Really though, he wants to find an escape pod and hopes that since Tiger Shark loves his sub/yacht so much, the rest of the villains will be wary of shooting at him inside.

From there though, it's just us knowing that Nightwing has done his homework on the villains from his time as Robin and that Batman taught him well because the majority of this issue is just Nightwing beating a villain or two in a specific area and then moving on to the next as he makes his way to the escape pod and I'm just left asking myself........... how the hell did the villains get in front of him when he was being chased by them?  While all of this is going on we see that Dick's talk with Shawn in the previous issue might have not been timed very well because it seems that Shawn's former mentor Pigeon is out on parole and has come to visit her former sidekick........ which Shawn seems to have arranged.  

In the end, Nightwing takes a hell of a beating, but takes down all the villains and actually makes it to the escape pod.  Too bad that Blockbuster was simply waiting for Nightwing to arrive and activates a self destruct on the sub, which he knows Dick will stay and try and disarm or try and get all of the fallen villains off of instead of stopping Blockbuster from taking the escape pod himself.  As our issue closes it seems that Blockbuster has won because Dick tries to tell Giz to tell Shawn that he loves her, but is cutoff from the sub/yacht exploding.

That's it for this issue of Nightwing and if you're all about an issue of our hero kicking ass and taking names, then this just might be for you, but to me....... it was a bit lackluster, especially since they called The Burned, the Underground Men.  Yeah, it's a minor nitpick, but this issue didn't do much for me because I've seen Nightwing kick ass before and seeing him do it here just seemed rushed and a way to pad out this arc a bit.  I'll admit that the cliffhanger was interesting and having Blockbuster set all these villains on Dick did seem like an homage to the 90's story Knightfall, where Bane tired out Batman by releasing all the villains in Arkham before he faced him and Blockbuster here is sort of like Nightwing's Bane in that he's both smart and a brute.  These things were cool aspects to me and I loved the art by Miguel Mendonca, who I consider the best artist on this title, but overall there wasn't much here and that was a bit of a disappointment.  

Bits and Pieces:

While on the surface, Nightwing taking out a shit load of villains sounds like a good time, here it felt like just a way to pad out this arc a bit because not a lot went down here besides for you understanding that our hero is competent.  The art though was fantastic and I liked the cliffhanger, but overall, not much went down in this issue but a ongoing fight scene.  

6/10