Dick Grayson continues to find himself in a difficult spot as his announcement to improve Bludhaven has been met with a lot of strong opposition. Namely Blockbuster, who is not happy that someone would try to get in on his territory no matter what their intentions may be. To stop Dick Grayson’s goals Blockbuster has continuously sent assassins against him, including KGBeast. Luckily for Dick Grayson he has a lot of good superhero friends to watch his back, as was shown with Wally West’s Flash saved him from his apartment being destroyed by an explosion. How will things go next for the former Boy Wonder? Let’s find out with Nightwing #91.
CREATIVE TEAM
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Geraldo Borges
Colorist: Adriano Lucas
SYNOPSIS
Flash pummels KGBeast, still angered over KGBeast’s attempt to kill his best friend (Batman #55), while Nightwing takes out the rest of KGBeast’s gang. KGBeast tries to get the heroes distracted by revealing there is a bomb set to go off somewhere in Gotham City. Nightwing quickly figures out the bomb is at Gohtma Library. While Flash quickly disarms the bomb Nightwing unlocks KGBeast’s phone so they can get information about who hired him.
Later, at the West Family home, Barbara Gordon isn’t able to find information on who hired KGBeast. Dick Grayson gets a text from his sister (Melinda Zucco) about someone named La Agente Funebre. Hearing this name Barbara remembers Batman saying that was a myth. Dick mentions that Damian Wayne swore La Agente Funebre is real. Barabra tracks KGBeast’s last call to somewhere in Costa Rica. Dick and Wally race off to find KGBeast.
After arriving somewhere in Costa Rica Flash mentions he has been keeping an eye on Nightwing ever since Dick made his big announcement to improve thins in Bludhaven.
Flash then goes to scope out the area but sets off a land mine. This alerts La Agente Funebre’s guards rush Nightwing and Flash. La Agente Funebre uses the fighting to escape in a helicopter. Flash runs to get to the helicopter but smashes hard into an invisible wall and is knocked out by the impact.
With Flash knocked out La Agente Funebre confidently confronts Nightwing. Nightwing and La Agente Funebre have a back-and-forth fight. Realizing how skilled his opponent is Nightwing lets La Agente Funebre stab him, confident his new suit will absorb the blow, to create an opening to knock out La Agente Funebre.
Still recovering from being knocked out Wally tells Dick that he and Barbara should stop fearing losing one another keep them from being a thing. As Dick tries to remind Wally why they can’t be a thing Wally talks about how Dick and Barabra already have a puppy together and deal with the same threats so they already have a shared life.
After fully recovering Nightwing and Flash discover La Agente Funebre’s full assassin network. Nightwing decides to use the information to send the assassins in La Agente Funebre’s network on jobs where Superman, Starfire, Donna Troy, Tempest, and other heroes can bring the world’s most wanted down in one superhero operation.
Sometime later Lady Shiva meets with Blockbuster. Lady Shiva reveals that no assassin will take Blockbuster’s job after the hit on Dick Grayson caused twenty of the world’s top assassins to be apprehended. Lady Shiva leaves Blockbuster with a warning to kill Dick Grayson himself. End of issue.
REVIEW
Nightwing #91 effectively ends the “Get Grayson” story arc in a way that gets us to the next stage of this series. In the process the spotlight is shined on how important the people around Dick Grayson are. It’s the friends and family that Dick Grayson has that makes him a better all-around character.
This team-up with Wally West was the best way to show how important the friends Dick Grayson has made are such a key part of his character. Taylor and Borges do a wonderful job using both the back-and-forth along with the action to showcase how strong of a friendship Dick and Wally have. In the action scenes we see how they effectively work as Nightwing and Flash without communicating. They know exactly what the other is doing so there is no wasted motion as they take down KGBeast and La Agente Funebre.
Then there are the scenes where they are simply talking to each other. There is natural flow to their conversation that Dick and Wally can go from Wally calling Dick out on his kids now wanting a dog because of Haley to talking about how the Flash’s transporting people while running never changing. The writing and expressions work effectively to tell the story of these two best friends. It makes it so when Wally brings up why Dick and Barbara continue to hesitate to make their relationship official that it comes from a genuine place of concern about your best friend.
Having this story of Dick and Wally’s friendship worked as a strong anchor for everything that happened in Nightwing #91. Their strong teamwork made it understandable that two top-tier assassins like KGBeast and La Agente Funebre would be taken down in one issue. These two assassins unexpectedly found themselves in a superhero team-up when they expected to take down the non-super power Nightwing alone.
At the same time, Taylor and Borges were able to effectively have La Agente Funebre live up to the shadow broker myth they were. Even with La Agente Funebre taken down in their first on-screen appearance the fight sequence with Nightwing showcased the top-tier skills that they had to be a dangerous foe. Nightwing even mentions that it is thanks to the new costume that Mr. Terrific and Flash provided him that he was able to win. That at least gives some props to La Agente Funebre skill level.
La Agente Funebre importance was also put over by the fact that it was their information network that put an end to the “Get Grayson” arc. More importantly Dick Grayson was able to use this information network to not only create one operation for the superheroes to take a number of top assassins into custody but also get Blockbuster off his back, for now. This is important as now Blockbuster can’t simply rely on hiring the best assassins in the world to kill Dick Grayson. And with the Titans having already warned him, Blockbuster will actually have to put thought into how he plans to try to maintain his control over Bludhaven.
FINAL THOUGHTS
As with the rest of the “Get Grayson” arc Nightwing #91 sets the example of how to tell great team-up stories. Tom Taylor and Geraldo Borges get over the strong chemistry Dick Grayson and Wally West share as best friends in and out of their lives as Nightwing and Flash. In the process there are a lot of intriguing developments with what is going on with Nightwing in Bludhaven. It all comes together for yet another can’t miss issue in what is one of the best comic books on the market.
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10