Writer: Kyle Higgins
Artist: Russell Dauterman
Colorist: Pete Pantazis
BUTTERFLY EFFECTS
Nightwing has his hands full fighting crime in Chicago. As if he weren’t busy enough Dick Grayson runs into several other problems in his civilian life. When it rains it pours.
The Ups: The issue has a great start that’s full of Nightwing’s special brand of action and flair. Past that we see a lot of Dick out of the costume and dealing with some very real problems. Presenting him with different obstacles for each of his personas and seeing Dick react to those obstacles differently really showcases how different Nightwing and Dick Grayson are. A couple relatively old plot lines of the series get picked up again and expanded upon, which helps keep Nightwing a very self centered book. The art team of Pantazis and Dauterman are very flexible in this issue. During fight scenes a wide pallet is used and Dauterman’s pencils are very animated and dynamic, but this team is also able to convey more subtle tones in their art when Dick is out of costume which gives the issue a wide emotional range.
The Downs: This issue is all over the place in terms of plot set-ups. Three or four different plot lines get advanced in this issue which makes it feel somewhat cluttered. This also makes the issue feel like a collection of beginnings to different story arcs as opposed to its own complete story.
Overall: This issue sets up quite a few plot lines for later use. Some are immediate pay off and some are long term pay off but this issue does do a lot of setup which can be good and bad. On one hand the issue itself is kind of scattered, on the other there’s great potential for future story-lines. The issue definitely did not lack action or excitement and it was entertaining to read, but from a narrative perspective it felt like it was trying to do too much.
Grade 3 of 5
ComicsRefueled 