Writer: Ben Percy
Artist: Chris Mooneyham, Klaus Janson
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: August 1, 2018
Cover Price: $3.99
Dick Grayson may want to consider a new career in cyber-security, because the major tech upgrades coming to Blüdhaven mean deadly danger for everyone in the city. Nightwing battles the mysterious tech mogul Willem Cloke, who it turns out is just a front man for the real threat—the organization known only as the Dark Web! Time to change those passwords, Blüdhaven!
Nightwing is my favorite character, but if Ben Percy keeps writing him, I may have to reevaluate that. It's not that he is ruining the character, it's just I am waiting for him to show up. This tech gone bad story is not just bad, but it feels like the number one priority and little things like...say, Nightwing and Bludhaven not fitting in really don't matter to Percy. It's like Dick is caught in an awful movie, but still is being forced to run through his lines. Oh well, here we go with what claims to be the finale to the Bleeding Edge story.
We open with Dick using his "They Live" visor to see that he is being attacked, not by people, but by Terminals. Percy tells us what they smell like, but nothing important...like what they really are! In the end, it doesn't matter anyway. Dick just fights his way through them.
We then get the Russian Sisterhood, Batgirl, and Willem Cloke, but again, little information about the big picture. The Sisterhood gets thrown into a bit of Phantasm horror (that pretty much apes some big movie moments) until Cloke gets away and Babs and Dick chase after him.
We go to the subway where this story started and Cloke meets up with Phantasm and explains that the big score is Nightwing. It feels like Percy wants this to be the big "I will show you big moments of Dick Grayson's past to prove I know him moment", but being stuck in this bullshit story makes it all fall flat.
We finally get to see Dick and Barbara catch up to Cloke, but after a lame attempt to make the reader feel bad for a killer, he is taken away by...I don't want to spoil it because that would take away all the laughs and eye rolls that you will likely have. The best thing...we are told this is just the beginning! Now that is the true horror here!
You might have guessed that I wasn't too keen on this story and you'd be right. Actually, I hated it so much and really wonder why it went on this long. Percy set nothing up and then tries to cram so much background into this issue and it is just plain boring.
Every issue of this new run has looked worse than the last. What started as a cool old-school look has now turned into a mess. It's okay, it matches the story.
Bits and Pieces:
I'd say this is hardly a finale, but it's hardly a story at all. There is nothing in this run so far that even reminds me of Nightwing and if this is the story that got Ben Percy the gig, I may start looking for a new favorite character. Actually, I'll just look for a story that has a real beginning and end because I didn't see that here.
4.0/10
This Tron story needs go away. In fact this book just needs to go away. This is not Nightwing, but a Nightmare and I just want to wake up already to a proper Nightwing story. Art only made the story worse. This is what I expect from the Batgirl book not Nightwing. I completely agree Jim
ReplyDelete4/10
Took the words out of my mouth. This is such an ill fitting story for Nightwing and his character has been so off in this. Percy only cares about bringing his Dark Web novel into comics, and he doesn't care about whether or not it fits the character. This run is only five issues in and has already seen sales decline, so hopefully DC will either tell Percy to shape up or ship off of this title.
ReplyDeleteBUT...it starts twice monthly at $3.99 now and that is going to kill it more! Hopefully they don't just cancel it outright!
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