Comic Book Review: Nightwing #149

Peter Tomasi has made Nightwing one of the favorites in the Bunker. He has portrayed him as a cross between James Bond and Batman. Nightwing shows that he is similar to Batman but is still his own person. Where Batman is a creature of the night and likes to work alone, Nightwing is more of a circus performer with a heart of for the average person. Tomasi manages to effortlessly blend his training by Batman, his past as a circus performer, and the person he has grown to be.

Creative Team
Writer: Peter Tomasi
Pencils: Don Kramer
Inks: Jay Leisten

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: As Nightwing jumps through the safehouse window, he can smell the villains before he sees them. After all these years he knows the smell of each of them. Joker, Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, the Penguin, Poison Ivy, and Two-Face are waiting for him. Due to Scarecrow’s venom, Nightwing knows that all is not as it appears to be.

Two-Face says he hopes Nightwing does not mind that they started without him. The villains are standing in a pool of blood. Each of them is holding Two-Face’s former love-Carol. Nightwing was recruited by Two-Face to protect her. At times like this, he misses being Robin and standing by Batman’s side as he signaled who to hit first. He leaps and tears into the gang.

Killer Croc bites Carol. Carol says that Nightwing lied when he said he would protect her. As Nightwing jumps into action, he thinks that he needs to stay focused on who is after Carol. As he takes out Croc, Penguin hits him from behind. Next he disposes of Penguin.

As images of his enemies swirl around him, Scarecrow steps up holding Carol. With an innocent life on the line, Nightwing lashes out. He holds Scarecrow’s head under the pool of blood.

Poison Ivy gets him from behind. She traps Nightwing. She wants him to breath deep. Smell her flowers. Nightwing says he likes the smell of cut grass. She gets mad and slams him into the ceiling. She wants him to apologize. He cuts his way free. Next, he tasers her.

Ice forms all around him as Mr. Freeze attacks. During the fight, he shatters Freeze’s helmet. He shoots Freeze with his own freeze gun. The Joker starts hitting Nightwing with a crowbar while reminiscing about killing Jason Todd. Joker says it was a bad day to be a Robin. Nightwing grabs the crowbar and hits Joker. He says it is always a bad day to be the Joker.

Two-Face is impressed with the way Nightwing went through his “hired help”. He should have put more of Crane’s fear serum in the bullets he shot Nightwing with. But with the price he was charging, he couldn’t afford more of the serum.

Nightwing can’t believe that Two-Face shot him after asking him to protect Carol. Two-Face took sharpshooter lessons from Deathstroke. Always learn from the best. Two-Face has a gun pointed at Carol’s head. Nightwing wants to know what he is doing. Two-Face is honoring a contract. He says if Nightwing had kept his bargain and protected Carol, they would not be in this position.

Nightwing calls him Harvey. Two-Face says Harvey is not here. Two-Face can tell by the way Nightwing is moving that he is still feeling the effects of the serum. Nightwing says that Two-Face doesn’t want to kill Carol. He has a choice. Two-Face flips his coin to see what to do. The coin hits Nightwing and he feels an explosion. He thinks his parents are falling with him.

Carol is talking with Two-Face. She thought he was her guardian angel. He says if she wants to see angels he can take care of that. She wants Harvey to fight Two-Face. She slaps him. Two-Face shoots her.

Nightwing imagines he saves his parents. He knows it is his imagination but it still feels good.

Carol askes Two-Face if he is just going to stand there and watch her die. He says of course not. He will walk out slowly so he doesn’t slip in her blood. He is going for a drink.

Nightwing gets to Carol. He tries to revive her but it is too late.

Nightwing watches the funeral from outside the church.

Two-Face is speaking to someone in a limo. The man thanks Two-Face for killing Carol. He mutters that Nightwing was supposed to save her. He snaps and blasts the man with both of his guns.

Comments
The Good: Peter Tomasi was born to write this book. He has made this a must read book. This is very possibly the best writing Nightwing has had. He continues to work in Nightwing’s history into each story. The segment where he imagines he saved his parents lives was a good addition to take the story up a notch. I liked how the Joker described killing Jason Todd to Nightwing while he was beating on him with a crowbar.

Tomasi includes little sarcastic comments to break the tension. I loved Nightwing’s comment to Poison Ivy about liking the smell of grass after a lawn mower cuts it. It added a touch of humor and served to distract her. Another great remark was the one about it always being a bad day to be the Joker.

Nightwing knew that he was suffering from the effects of the fear toxin but kept fighting through it to get to the real person behind it.

It makes sense that someone like Two-Face would hire Deathstroke to teach him to be a sharpshooter. Little touches like this add to the story.

Don Kramer and Jay Leisten rose to the occasion with their art this month. Rumor has it that Don is now the regular artist. This is good news. Don raised his art to a new level with this issue. You can see the insanity in Two-Face’s face on the final page.

Tomasi shows that Two-Face and Harvey Dent are 2 separate personalities. This is not how it has always been portrayed. It does make sense that Two-Face has 2 different personalities. If you have the chance watch the BBC show “Jekyll”. I see a lot of similarities between the way Jackman/Hyde and Harvey/Two-Face are shown. In the show, Hide is a completely different person. He even changes physically. This shows what a split personality is like when one of them is violent.

The Bad: I didn’t see anything bad this time. If you want the hero to always win, then you won’t like the death of Carol. In this respect, Nightwing failed. I think this is realistic. The good guys don’t always win.

Overall: Another great issue in a great series. Next issue should be even better as we see Two-Face go after Nightwing.

I don’t see the connection between this story and R.I.P.