Nightwing #60 Review

Under Fire

Written By: Dan Jurgens

Art By: Chris Mooneyham, Nick Filardi, Andworld Design

Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May15, 2019

Off to Bludhaven we go to check in on Ric Grayson and the rest of the Nightwings as they try to tackle a living fire who's known as Burnback........ only by last issue's cover though.  The new villain hasn't said much beyond "Burn" or had time enough for introductions just yet.  With that, what better time to go into the history of Malcolm Hutch, Nightwing Red, the firefighter of the group and dive further into his backstory about why he never became a police officer like he originally intended to.  Let's jump into this issue and see how our heroes do and gleam a little more about our favorite axe-wielding Nightwing.  Let's check it out.

For this issue of Nightwing we dig into the mystery of who Backburn is and how it's connected to Sergeant Walter Stapleton, the commanding officer paired up with Hutch during Hutch's time in the police academy, who was injured on the job and has been in a coma ever since.  The reason our heroes are trying to find a connection here is because station houses have been targeted for arson all over the city and in the previous issue, Sergeant Stapleton's daughter, Melissa made comments about hoping that all the cops burn in hell.  So not being complete dummies the team decide that she's probably the best lead that they have, even if they don't know how this woman can be a giant fire monster.  

Having this connection though allows us to easily transition between the main story and Hutch's past, where previously I had thought that Hutch had accidentally shot Sergeant Stapleton, but in this issue it is made completely clear about what went down and why Hutch would go on to quit the academy because of it and also, make Melissa Stapleton hate everyone and everything involved with the police.

All in all, we don't get a lot of solo Ric Grayson in this issue as the story is focused more on the team dynamics of the new Nightwings, but does add a cool element to the storytelling, where we move from Ric's narration about what he's thinking into Sapienza's thoughts on the situation, including the newest part of this team and what he might be hiding.  It's just a cool new way to add to telling of this story and I really appreciated it, as well as letting Ric be Ric as we got to know a little more about the other Nightwings.  Chris Mooneyham's art continues to be a strong positive force for this story and not only gives it a gritty feel, but also makes one think back to the Nightwing series in the 90's......... at least it does for me...... and I'm a sucker for nostalgia.  With that, we get a interesting cliffhanger, but not much progression into understanding our villain of the story.

Bits and Pieces:

Nightwing's new status quo continues to be interesting as we're getting new villains and diving into the backstories of our new heroes. The art really works for the story and even though we're not getting a lot of Ric Grayson here, I think it works better for this title right now and what it's trying to do.

7/10