Written by: Tom Taylor
Art by: Bruno Redondo, Caio Felipe
Colors by: Adriano Lucas
Letters by: Wes Abbott
Cover art by: Bruno Redondo
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: August 21, 2024
Nightwing #117, by DC Comics on 8/21/24, joins Dick Grayson as he undergoes therapy to overcome his fear of heights. Meanwhile, Nightwing 2 follows up on a lead to Heartless's identity.
Is Nightwing #117 Good?
Sheesh! The shortcuts continue in a big way as Tom Taylor scrambles to wrap up his tenure on the title, so hang on to your hats. Nightwing #117 finally makes the long-overdue journey to resolve the Heartless arc, but don't expect the trip to be particularly satisfying or worth the wait.
When last we left Nightwing in issue #116, Dick Grayson embarked on a road trip, working his way to Nanda Parbat. Dick was greeted by the mysteriously "resurrected" Deadman as the man best qualified to teach Dick to overcome his mysteriously acquired fear of leaping. Meanwhile, Heartless's bid to overtake the city comes to a head with a challenge to Nightwing to come out and play, prompting Bruce Wayne to don the domino mask.
In Nightwing #117, Dick Grayson, with Deadman's help, engages in exposure therapy, scented baths with candles, and gently probing questions from Deadman to figure out why he's still afraid of heights. The toxin in his system that caused the fear is long gone, but Deadman is convinced Dick is holding on to a deeply repressed secret that's causing his fear to continue.
As expected, Tom Taylor invents a black box mystery to explain why Nightwing lost his "leaping" ability to create an air of mystery. Dick is hiding something from himself that's creating performance problems in a ham-fisted series of dime-store psychology sessions, which could be interesting if it wasn't so superficial.
During a relaxing bath, Dick has the first of two breakthroughs. He figures out he got the toxin from a glass of water he was given by Shelton Lyle after the events of Nightwing #105. Dick contacts Oracle to begin investigating Shelton Lyle, which coincides with Bruce Wayne's, aka Nightwing 2, suspicions about Shelton Lyle.
It all comes down to this. After years (in real-time) of Heartless running around unchallenged with barely a scrap of effort from Nightwing to bring the killer to justice, Dick suddenly figures out Shelton is Nightwing because he drank a glass of water. If nothing else, Tom Taylor should be banished from DC for the utter laziness of this shortcut. There's no possible reason for Dick to conclude that a single glass of water offered weeks (months?) ago would be the source of the toxin. None at all.
With a renewed sense of urgency, Dick asks Deadman to put him into a situation where he has to overcome his fear. Deadman agrees and leaves Dick on a cliffside ledge with no way to comb up. During his forced time of introspection, Dick is forced to confront a guilty truth.
What is it? Well...
[SPOILERS AHEAD] The night of his parents' death, the Grayson routine was switched up at the last minute. In the originally planned routine, Dick was supposed to leap first, which means his parents were not the intended target. He was. Holy needless retcon, Batman! [END SPOILERS] With that retcon fully exposed, Nightwing is all better and races to get back home to help stop Heartless. The issue concludes with Bruce confirming what Nightwing suspected and a visit to the Mayor's home that leads to a confrontation with Tony Zucco. What's great about Nightwing #117? If nothing else, there's a passive sense of satisfaction that comes with making progress in the Heartless saga. Tom Taylor is making moves to bring the run to a close before he's removed, so give Taylor credit for putting in the effort to tie up all the loose ends before a new creative team takes over in October. What's not great about Nightwing #117? Oh, the sheer amount of laziness and shortcuts used to tie up those loose ends is heartbreaking. Nightwing held on to the loss of his leaping because of a long-repressed memory that didn't pose a problem until now? Heartless's identity suddenly comes to mind during a warm bath? The key to Heartless's identity is a simple glass of water, which could have happened in hundreds of other ways between then and now? Tom Taylor is rushing to tie up the plots with the cheapest of bargain-basement detective work and leaps (*heh*) in logic that the remaining page space will allow. It would be laughably funny if it wasn't so disappointing. How's the Art? If you love Bruno Redondo's art, this issue is quintessential Redondo. That said, the shortcuts Taylor takes in the script necessitate more than typical amounts of action, so Redondo gets a chance to show off action chops, and the net result is pretty good.
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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Final Thoughts
Nightwing #117 picks up the pace and energy to overcome Dick Grayson's fear of heights and make progress toward capturing Heartless before the creative team rolls off this Fall. That said, Tom Taylor employs a ridiculous number of shortcuts and leaps in logic to rush the readers from point A to B, so it's a sure bet you'll get to the end, but you won't be satisfied with the trip.
5/10
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I just love the fact how some people kept saying wait what if this whole scared of height fiasco will have a deeper meaning or a complex psychological aspect to it and etc etc and giving this run wayyyy higher scores than it deserved, to only now face what I and many like me have been saying for agessss: this whole thing was going to go nowhere and not only that, it was going to end in the most dissatisfying manner possible. Don't worry, a little more color and some catchphrases and a pet dog or two and some readers would still start saying "ok but maybe this time ..." and get exactly the level of writing they keep supporting and praising in their comics.
ReplyDeleteI said all this several times in previous reviews. But here we go again: the whole how he was poisoned was pointed out as ridiculous with how it wasn't caught by their tests but the when of that story is even more ridiculous. The fact that nightwing would just drink a glass of water cause he was thirsty after a fight is just not happening, the Bats are too paranoid for that to happen. Least of all cause he would be leaving prints on that glass (or did he take the glass with him???) and also cause if he was that thirsty he could have you know.... just stopped somewhere and drank. Did he have to accept one from an adversary???? This is nonsense so let's move on.
Bruce wayne acting as Nightwing and not even bothering to change his looks a bit is already pointed out as ridiculous but is the least of this issue's concerns. The fact that stilllll they can't find solid proof that Shelton is Heartless is just...non sense. Again. They keep stretching the plot with this character to get more issues.
I dislike Melinda, her entire storyline and why she exists, and every other reveal this run keeps throwing in Dick's past. It's funny to me how in the name of getting Nightwing to his roots, they keep bringing down his character (and other characters too) in terms of competence, emotional complexity and heroism and then get praise for it, the true achievement of this run in my opinion. Please please just let this run end.
2 out of 10, there is no enjoyment from the pacing or plot here cause they don't exist, events just happen all of sudden and we cut to several places suddenly while some other bits needlessly stretch ( several pages with needless Deadman cameo that doesn't achieve much while suddenly having Nightwing go from some temple back to apartment in Bludhaven magically without help while he is on the run from authorities, and all of it without at least any sense of narrative or dynamic timing for the readers to appreciate if it isn't going to make logical sense in that regard) plus the fact that this story is absurd. If you think moving stick figures on a page and some colors and the fact something happened, be it anything, warrants praise then so it does. ( I agree Spurrier and King's runs have been absolutely horrible and deserve the ratings they have gotten but how on earth has this run gotten higher scores than them???)