Nightwing #73 Review

I Like Ric Better

Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artist: Ryan Benjamin
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 19, 2020

It's Joker War time, and that means all the Bat Books are joining in on all the clowning around!  I am not upset about that a bit, either, since this is the story that should finally give us back DICK GRAYSON!  To hell with that Ric nonsense forever!  So, do we see the light at the end of the tunnel and also get a good Joker War tie-in issue?  Let's find out...



We open with Batgirl tied up with no place to go, and for some reason, she doesn't seem to understand that Dick is not himself.  Sure, Ric wasn't a homicidal maniac, but he also had no memories of Babs, and it doesn't take a genius to put two and two together to figure out what's going on.  By the way, this isn't the only time that Dan Jurgens uses Barbara's lack of awareness to push the plot forward.

All of this is set up for the Gotham Fight Club, where Dick will fight Batgirl for all the marbles.  I say Dick, but since the Joker has convinced him that he's his daddy (but what does he do?), he goes by "Dicky-Boy"! Sincerely, I hope this is a joke to give him an even worse name than Ric!  I can imagine some editor telling Jurgens to provide him with a name so bad that fans will beg for him to be Dick Grayson again.  That ship has sailed, and now DC is just pouring copious amounts of salt in our gaping wound!

The issue chugs along with an extended fight with some real eye-rolling dialogue and Babs being an idiot that I mentioned above, before finally getting to something interesting.  The Joker has a plan to take down Batgirl, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake all at once.  Plus, it may also destroy the Alfred Pennyworth Children's Hospital.  That's a huge blow to Batman if it works and the reason why I am interested in the next issue and will be back to read it.

As far as this issue goes, though, I can't give it high marks.  We do get Dicky-Boy's new Jokerized origin, but not much else.  Does he have any memories jumbled in, or is this pure Joker?  Speaking of Joker, I did not like Dan Jurgen's version here that much.  The dialogue and lack of any sort of action or reaction felt off.  This book also felt more like a Batgirl issue for the first half and never got to the point of Dick (I will not keep calling him Dicky-Boy) being center stage, what with Punchline also running around.  I thought the art was okay.  It didn't ruin anything, but Ryan Benjamin's style was a bit pencil heavy for my tastes.

Bits and Pieces:

Nightwing jumps full into the Joker War, and while I will stick it out hoping to get Dick Grayson back at the end, I do not love it.  The focus and pacing felt off, and while we see what Dicky-Boy (you thought "Ric" sucked?!?) thinks his past is all about, we don't get much else.  The cliffhanger was cool, though, and I will be back next issue, but only because I have suffered through over two years of nonsense in this book and want to be there when things get back to normal.

6.0/10