Once the dust was settled Forever Evil left an impact on a number of characters. Arguably the character that was impacted the most was Dick Grayson. His entire life was taken from him as the Crime Syndicate forced Dick Grayson to reveal his identity as Nightwing to the world and was declared dead shortly thereafter. With his life in ruins, it is time for Dick Grayson to enter a new phase in his life. What will this new phase be? Hopefully, Nightwing #30, the final issue of this series, will give us some insight into this before the launch of Grayson #1 in July.
Creative Team
Writers: Tim Seely and Tom King
Artists: Javier Garron, Jorge Lucas and Mikel Janin
Inker: Guillermo Ortego
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Story Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: In the Democratic Republic of Congo a gang calling themselves Fist of Cain, who are followers of philosopher Christian Fleischer teachings, randomly attack a refugee camp. They begin their attack by entering the medical tent Dr. Leslie Thompkins is helping some sick children in. Dr. Jean tells Leslie to escape with the sick child. The Fist of Cain member with the face paint kills Jean by slashing him with a sword.
Leslie and the kid make it outside to see the Fist of Cain killing everyone in the camp. Leslie and the kid make it into the forest where they are confronted by the female member of Fist of Cain. Before the woman can kill Leslie another female appears, who kills the Fist of Cain member with her crossbow. The unknown woman tells Leslie that she is there for her. She proceeds to fly away with the kid Leslie is protecting.
Sometime later, Leslie is sitting in one of Spyral’s secret bases where she gets interrogated by the woman that saved her and a man with a distorted face. The man compliments Leslie on her compassion and wonders where it came from. Leslie begins to think back to the night Bruce Wayne’s parents died.
That night she was the doctor who attended to Bruce while Officer Jim Gordon investigated the crime scene. While attending Bruce she noticed the pain in the boy’s eyes. This inspired her to dedicate her life to helping children around the world. That is all she can remember before waking up in a Nairobi hospital a few weeks later. She then says that all she could see when she closed her eyes after that was a symbol of an eye in a spider’s web.
Two months later, Leslie is in her office telling Batman this entire story and how she told Spyral that the boy she saved that one day grew up to become a hero she began treating for injuries. She breaks down further and tells Batman, as he is leaving, that she may have told Spyral that the boy became Batman.
One month later, Alfred Pennyworth opens the secret door in Wayne Manor leading to the Batcave in order to give Bruce his dinner. As he is getting inside the elevator Alfred begins to break down when he thinks about how short of a time it feels from when Dick Grayson became part of the family. The elevator suddenly stops working and Alfred contacts Bruce about it. Bruce tells Alfred that there is a problem in the cave he is fixing and that Alfred should head back inside the mansion. Alfred, with tears in his eyes, asks Bruce if everything is ok after Dick’s, who Alfred calls a “boy,” recent passing. Bruce responds by saying Dick wasn’t a “boy.”
In the Batcave, Dick begins taping up his hands and puts on his domino mask while Bruce explains to him that what they are doing is not just another sparring match. They are about to fight and it is a fight that only has one rule: Dick must win. They begin to fight on the platform holding the giant T-Rex, with Bruce quickly getting the upper hand. Bruce berates Dick for letting the Crime Syndicate reveal his secrets to the world and killing him, only to be saved by Lex Luthor. Dick tells Bruce he was trying to save people but Bruce doesn’t want to hear it. Bruce says he trained Dick to live not to die.
Dick asks Bruce what they are really doing. Bruce tells Dick that he has a mission for him and proceeds to kick him off the platform and into the glass case holding Dick’s old Robin costume. Bruce says that he needs Dick to remain dead in the public eye, which will, in turn, hurt Dick’s friends and family. Dick refuses and begins to get the upper hand by using his Robin cape.
Bruce and Dick continue to fight throughout the Batcave while Bruce explains that the mission involves going undercover in the Spyral organization. Dick continues to refuse, mentioning every member of the Batfamily as one reason why he won’t do it. Bruce tells Dick that Spyral wants knows all of the Batfamily’s secrets and that they are now looking for Dick because everyone thinks he is dead. Dick says that he is not dead and that he won’t lie to everyone.
Dick tackles Bruce of another platform, sending both of them crashing on top of one of the Batmobiles. Dick begins to pummel Bruce with a barrage of punches saying that he won’t do it. Bruce kicks Dick off him and says that he needs Dick to be his inside source in Spyral. They continue to fight back-and-forth with Bruce asking Dick, as his son, what he will do after being pushed around by the Crime Syndicate. Enraged by everything Bruce has said, Dick tells Bruce he is not Bruce’s son and knocks Bruce down with a hard punch to the face.
Bruce takes off his Batman cowl and says that he’s had enough. Dick sits down next to Bruce and says that it’ll never be enough, which Bruce is glad to hear.
A little later, Alfred walks into the Batcave shocked to sees a heavily injured Bruce working in front of the Batcomputer with the Spyral logo on it.
Sometime later, in Tokyo, St. Petersburg and Kampala, Dick stops various members of Fist of Cain from committing further crimes. As he stops each crime from happening he thinks about who he previously was as a Flying Grayson, Batman’s partner, Nightwing, and Batman. He tells himself that while he would like to go back to that life he can’t.
Just as he stops the crime in Kampala he jumps off a car before it explodes and grabs onto a helicopter. The helicopter lands on the roof of a building. A woman walks out and offers Dick membership in Spyral. He takes it and flies off with the woman in her helicopter. End of issue.
Commentary
The Good: Nightwing #30 is an example of a comic book that has a good premise but lacks the proper execution to reach the next level. There are points in this issue where it looks as though Tim Seely and Tom King are going to shine with their writing. But just as that is about to happen something happens that causes the story to stumble over itself before it can reach its potential.
The new world that Seely and King set-up for Dick Grayson to be a part of is one that is very different from what we have seen for the character to be a part of. The addition of Dr. Leslie Thompkins to the story makes the transition a bit easier to believe because she is the one thing we can instantly grab on to. Even when given an odd sequence involving new characters in the form of Spyral and Fist of Cain the presence of Leslie Thompkins keeps things as grounded as they can be. The way Seely and King tie her into the entire conflict also gives us a greater idea of Bruce’s motivations for finally putting Spyral as a priority to deal with immediately.
Speaking of set-up, I did like how Seely and King were able to use the entire fight between Bruce and Dick as a way for both characters to release their frustrations following the events of Forever Evil. The way the fight went down allowed both characters to get things out on the table while explaining what Dick’s mission will be. Making the fight a bit more enjoyable is that it wasn’t just a one-sided affair. Instead, we got to see a real back-and-forth with each character using their anger to get the upper hand at certain points. And as brutal as the fight got Seely and King did a good job showing us how Bruce and Dick were holding back.
The Bad: At no point in Nightwing #30 did it feel as though I was reading the concluding chapter of Dick Grayson’s life as Nightwing. There was no closure given to fans, myself included, who have been reading this series from the beginning to help ease the transition in the status quo. Instead what we got was an issue that was essentially Grayson #0, a prelude to the series starring Dick Grayson in July.
This lack of closure hurts the overall tone of the issue because without involving a reaction to the fate of Dick Grayson in Forever Evil we aren’t able to gauge the importance of the new status quo. Throughout the issue, Seely and King spend their time assuming readers know that the world is mourning Dick’s presumed demise. By assuming this Seely and King ignore an aspect to the whole Forever Evil saga that would’ve made this story an important part of DC’s current direction: the Batman Family.
It’s this assumption that causes the fight between Bruce and Dick to not carry the impact it should’ve. Instead of the scene is about establishing the weight of the mission Bruce is having Dick take on it is mostly just a fight between two people that outstays its welcome. It’s at these points where the fight begins to drag that would’ve been the perfect time to cut in some reaction scenes of Barbara Gordon, Tim Drake or any of Dick’s supporting cast during this volume of Nightwing. These types of scenes would’ve help breathe some life into the argument that Bruce and Dick were having during their fight.
It also doesn’t help that by the end of the fight when Dick accepts his mission from Bruce that we instantly go to Dick globetrotting adventures. The problem with shifting straight to Dick doing his best to get Spyral’s attention is that we don’t get an idea of how Dick will be able to maintain his cover of being a dead man. There is no change to his appearance outside of hearing a hoody. If Seely and King want us to believe in this new cover they will need to make some sort of change in design or give Dick a costume where he won’t stand out. Otherwise, Dick will be instantly recognized by anyone since the Crime Syndicate publicly broadcast to the entire world Dick’s identity, making him the most recognizable face in the DC Universe.
Then there is the problem with the tone Seely and King hint at the Grayson series having. I’m all for Dick Grayson assuming James Bond-type role in the DC Universe but what I don’t want to see is him being involved in just another superhero story. That is not the direction the upcoming series should be taking because then it just turns into yet another dark DC Comic that has no clear identity. Unfortunately, that is the feeling I got by seeing the Fist of Cain being a gang of random crazy people wearing face paint. If Seely and King want us to believe that what Dick is going to be doing in Grayson will be something completely different from his time as Robin, Nightwing or Batman than they will have to go away from these types of Batman villain characters.
Not helping this issue’s case for why I should read Grayson #1 is the muddy artwork. At no point did the art team elevate the dialogue between characters. Instead, the artwork often distracts from what the characters are saying by having designs that are so poor that I wanted to stop reading because it started to become hard to look at. The poor design in the artwork only puts a bigger spotlight on the writing since the dialogue turns out to be no better than the bad artwork.
Overall: Instead of living up to the potential of telling a compelling story that shows us the impact Forever Evil had on Dick Grayson and those closest to him what we got was essentially Grayson #0. This, in turn, leads to an issue with a stretched out fight sequences that outstays its welcome and dialogue that lacks the weight it should’ve had given the outcome of DC’s recent big event. It doesn’t help that the artwork’s poor quality only helps to highlight the weakness in the story. Moving forward I will give Seely and King a proper chance when Grayson #1 is released but they did not put their best foot forward with the work they published in Nightwing #30.