Nightwing has steadily gotten worse and worse with each passing issue. I know that DC was put behind the eight ball because Dan “Death Count” Didio, in his infinite wisdom thought that Dick Grayson should be killed because he was a redundant character. Then the genius realized that might not be a great idea, so at the last minute they keep Dick Grayson and don’t push Jason Todd into Dick’s spot as Nightwing. That left Bruce Jones in the lurch having to change his storylines to accommodate Dick Grayson. I understand all that. But, that still does not excuse the absolute garbage that DC has been packaging up and selling as a Nightwing comic book. I’m sure that Nightwing #122 will probably be ever worse than the last issue.
Creative Team
Writer: Bruce Jones
Penciler: Paco Diaz
Inker: Bit
Art Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: This issue starts with the Pierce brothers engaged in fisticuffs with Nightwing and Cheyenne. Cheyenne gets one Barry Pierce, who is a metahuman that can contract his molecular structure to make him as hard as stone and super strong, to swing at her and she ducks at the last minute. Barry ends up smashing open the “egg” that Jason Todd was trapped inside.
Nightwing and Cheyenne continue to brawl with the Pierce brothers. The fight spills to the street outside of the Pierce brothers’ night club. The Pierce brothers keep ranting that they are going to make what happened in Cleveland look like a minor event. Nightwing is struggling against Barry Pierce, when suddenly Jason Todd transforms into a monster just like the one that swallowed him in the last issue. (Oh boy, it just keeps getting better and better.) Jason says he doesn’t think he was inside the egg for long enough to stay monster-shaped forever, but it will be long enough to try and digest Barry. With that, Jason sucks down Barry into his gullet. Nightwing tells Jason to spit Barry out. That Barry is going to concentrate all of his molecules inward and implode and take Jason with him. So, Jason barfs up Barry onto his brother Buddy Pierce. Since Barry is weakened, Nightwing is able to knock him out cold. Buddy then starts expanding and yells that he is going to make Cleveland look like a weenie roast. Jason grabs Buddy Pierce with one of his tentacles and the two start wrestling each other. Nightwing grabs Cheyenne and tells her that they have to clear the area. Cheyenne asks what about Jason? Dick responds that Jason will have to take care of himself this time. Nightwing then tells a police officer who has just arrived on the scene to clear the area. Nightwing then tells Cheyenne that Barry can contract his atoms and that Buddy can expand his molecules. But, what happens if he splits one? Suddenly, there is a huge explosion that takes out the entire night club.
We then cut to the next day. Dick is at his apartment watching the news. A reporter is interviewing the Pierce brothers about the explosion that destroyed their nightclub building. The reporter says it mirrors an event that occurred in Cleveland a couple of years ago. The Pierce brother respond that they run a clean business and have never been to Cleveland before.
Cheyenne then enters Dick’s apartment. (Hey, I just noticed that Dick is actually clothed for a change. He usually walks around his apartment half naked.) Cheyenne reads Dick a not from Jason. Jason tells him that he survived and is back to normal. No more monster morphing for him. Jason says that he is leaving town in order to find his own way. Jason thanked Dick for coming to save him. Jason also said that even though they don’t agree on much that he just wanted to believe that they could be a family again. The issue then ends with a really corny joke between Dick and Cheyenne. (It was so bad.) End of issue.
Comments
The Good: Man, the Revolution’s rule of always saying something positive about every issue is going to be tough to satisfy with this issue. Let’s see. What did I enjoy about this story? Hmmm. Well, they didn’t kill of Jason Todd. I actually liked his character before Bruce Jones got his hooks into him. I hope that DC can find a purpose for Jason now that Dick Grayson wasn’t foolishly killed off.
Mi hermano, Diaz cranks out some nice artwork on this title. Diaz and Bit’s art is pretty much the only thing that I have enjoyed on Nightwing.
The Bad: Nightwing #122 was a pathetic ending to a rather lame story arc. I wasn’t too impressed with Nightwing prior to Infinite Crisis. But, I think that Bruce Jones has been even worse. Jones run on Nightwing has been practically unreadable. As a matter of fact, I get the comic book because it is like a terrible car accident that you can’t stop staring at. I just keep wondering if the story can get worse with each issue. And sadly enough, it has.
This issue was basically getting Jason Todd freed and then having a long boring fight with the Pierce brothers that ends with them blowing up their own Nightclub and Jason leaving New York. Yeah, that’s it. Talk about an extremely uninteresting and anti-climactic ending to a story arc.
Jones has not crafted a single plot that even remotely interests me. I could care less about the Pierce brothers. They are arguable two of the most generic and least charismatic villains around. I have practically no interest at all in Cheyenne. Jones has done nothing to get me to feel anything for her character other than slap her in a slinky outfit.
Jones practically ruined Jason Todd for me. I thought that Winick did a great job with Jason Todd over in Batman as the Red Hood. Todd’s character has such potential. Plenty of depth and complexity. Jones got rid of all that and gave us a very one dimensional psychotic Jason Todd that was so boring to read.
I have no idea where Jones is headed with this story. It appears headed for a cliff with a very steep drop. Thankfully, Marv Wolfman is taking over the writing duties for this title with issue #125. That means I only need to hold my nose and slog through two more issue with Jones at the helm. I hope that Wolfman can breathe some life back into Nightwing. Dick Grayson is too good of a character to deserve this type of treatment.
Overall: Nightwing #122 is another terrible issue in a long line of lousy issues. All any Dick Grayson fan can hope for is that Wolfman can help save this title from the depths that it has sunk. I wouldn’t recommend that anyone purchase Nightwing. It definitely is not worth your money.