Art by: Daniele Di Nicuolo, Bruno Redondo (pp 20-21)
Colors by: Adriano Lucas
Letters by: Wes Abbott
Cover art by: Bruno Redondo
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: April 16, 2024
Nightwing #113 celebrates the landmark 300th Legacy issue wherein Dick accepts a key to the city for all the good he's done with the money he inherited from Alfred.
Is Nightwing #113 Good?
And that's it. Yep, that's it. Sure there's a brief hint that Heartless is still causing trouble and preparing to ramp up his violence to bring Bludhaven's favorite hero down, but the Heartless bits are nothing but teases. To mark the 300th issue, it's backslaps and high fives all around to appreciate how great Dick Grayson/Nightwing is for the city.
The issue begins with Nightwing, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne breaking up an illegal weapons shipment. They learn the ship was headed for Bludhaven. Later, Nightwing visits Bea Blud to find out if she knows who was the buyer of the weapons, leading to a clue that Heartless is gearing up for an urban war.
However, that's enough of that. Heartless can wait (as he has for the last 20+ issues). Today is Dick Grayson's birthday, and it's also the day he's meant to receive a key to the city for all his hard work spending Alfred's money.
As a bonus, pages 20 and 21 are written by Marv Wolfman, and he makes a cameo as the manager of the city's best pizza place.
What's great about Nightwing #113? If you need fan service that tells you why Nightwing is so great (which isn't much different than the entirety of Tom Taylor's run), this issue is the pinnacle of fan service. Issue #113 is a celebration of Dick Grayson as a man for all people.
What's not so great about Nightwing #113? In a series already floundering due to the lack of progress on any meaningful plot, especially capturing Heartless, this issue feels like more of the same wheel spinning and water treading. Yes, it's nice to mark the milestone issue with pleasantries, but the least Taylor could have done was deliver an issue with purpose.
How's the Art? Daniele Di Nicuolo's low fidelity, Manga-influenced, Webtoon-styled art isn't doing this issue any favors. If this were an indie book, Di Nicoulo's style would be perfectly acceptable. Here, it's just sub-par.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Bits and Pieces:
Nightwing #113 takes a break from doing nothing by delivering a celebration of Dick Grayson/Nightwing as the greatest person ever. If you're a fan of Nightwing and just want to feel good about how great he is, you're going to need a dentist from the sugary overload. For everyone else disappointed in this series' lack of direction, momentum, and purpose, this issue is the peak of disappointment.
5/10
You know what would have been an actual celebration of 300 issues of Nightwing stories? An issue which actually celebrated Nightwing by having a story. I hated this so much and how it tried to shield itself against criticism of its plot and awful character writing and dialogues (oof that second half) by including Wolfman or expository dialogue explaining to the audience the great things Grayson has done (which suspiciously enough are things that has mostly been done during Taylor's run as opposed to his whole history as Robin, Nightwing and Batman. All that talk about the spotlight then where was Haly's circus? Or maybe his police officer colleagues? Or that youth gym class/therapy center he briefly worked at? Or the people he mentored like Rose Wilson? His Titans Academy students? His spy friends? Could they not have a nod to that time where he heroically saved people from the radioactive wasteland of bludhaven to the point of collapse when they had a fourth wall break of that pizza place? Why wasn't Bruce and Damian more prominently featured? Who cares about Bea, Melinda and her mom that they get more screen time compared to Superman or that page of other heroes when they are characters that are not only newer than all this history but are also horribly written or seriously under developed? If he really wanted to do this kind of fanservice he should have had all these characters in the background or side roles for fans to see how many they recognise instead of whatever this was. Either write an actual plot or if you want to have it this way at least celebrate it properly. I will never understand how this run won an award or something but it certainly has taught me to trust my own analysis of these comics more than what other reviewers say out there, cause it has been that bad from the very start of Taylor's run). The backup story with the train was a more accurate representative of a 300th issue of Nightwing and if I am praising a Conrad story then imagine the awfulness of this issue. Just skip this issue or better yet this whole run of Nightwing and you would do yourself a huge favor.
ReplyDeleteIn fairness how much of those old Nightwing plots and stories are still in continuity? Pretty sure Bludhaven being destroyed in IC isn't canon anymore seeing as how the city is still around.
DeleteWhich is why I specifically said to reference it in that pizza place when they are literally breaking the 4th wall. And these kind of issues that are celebrating anniversary are usually meta anyway. Both Flash and other titles do this for that just one issue. Also the only thing not canon on that list mentioned is the bludhaven wasteland plot. The police officer era, the gym class, the spy era, titans academy, mentoring Rose Wilson are all canon and rebirth. I said it myself that I prefer this issue had a story and plot but if they are going with this sugary issue they should have respected the history of the character and made the reference to that. The 300th issue should not be about this run only unless Taylor thinks nobody was reading Nightwing before he came along
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