Saturday, April 14, 2012

Decisions: Nightwing and RedHood


More "Bat" storylines. I never would have thought I'd be following so many.

Warning: Most likely contains spoilers.

Issue #2
Nightwing
Issues #2 and #3

Re-cap:  Nightwing is still fighting Saiko who is bound to kill Dick Grayson for being the most ruthless killer in Gotham. In an effort to help his old gal pal, Raya, he flies to Atlantic Aity to meet the dying owner of the circus, Mr. Haly, who turns over the circus to Dick.  But after Dick leaves, Saiko shows up and slaughters Mr. Haly who dies to protect the secrets of the circus and Dick's secret, one he doesn't even know himself.  In Chicago, Nightwing tracks down former friend Zane to get information on who contracted Saiko to kill him.  It seems Zane has gotten himself some RF superpowers lately, but  they are only a temporary setback for Nightwing.  Eventually we learn, they both want the contract killer dead.
Issue #3

What Soars: I like the way the writers and illustrators handle concepts like flashback and internal struggle.  The artistic style is so distinctive for each, that you never question exactly where you are or what's going on.

What Crashes:  If I had to pick something, it would be that the story seems to jump, geographically too far and too quickly.  One minute we're in Gotham, then in AC, then Gotham, then Chicago, then Philly.  I'm feeling a little whiplashed.  It doesn't detract from the story itself, but it does make it slightly hard to track in the brain.

Decision: I'm going to keep reading Nightwing, if only to figure out the mystery of this story.  But that's not why.  The writing and the art are wonderful. There's something about the artistic style, of characters flying through the lanscape as ghost trails, that really appeals to me.



Issue #2 
Red Hood and the Outlaws
Issues #2 and #3

Re-cap:  The "team" is on a quest through the Chamber of All to avenge the slaughtered All-Caste.  To enter, they must give up their most sacred memories as collateral to S'aru the Proctor the being guarding the vault of the All Caste.  Entering the Escher-like maze of stairways, they find the vault has been pillaged and the Untitled have left something behind, but before they get it, they must defeat a hideous beast. Starfire gets swallowed by the monster but then uses herself as a bomb to blow it up from the inside.  They recover this treasure, the one with the secrets to everything: A Colorado snow globe.  Huh?  Surprised they survived, the little buddha gatekeeper returns their memories, but Jason doesn't want his back.
Issue #3

What Soars: Exposition and understanding the backstory of these characters is key and the writers do a good job of weaving those tales into the story.

What Crashes:  The art is a little rough sometimes, but it doesn't detract.  In fact, sometimes it's as if the artist is completely different for Kori than the rest of the characters.  I'm starting to think I might need to add Starfire to my arm.  Yowza!

Decision: This story is a fun adventure and while I like the humor and the rugged, renegade, non-hero characters (and love me some Starfire), I'm not sure how long I can stick with this title. I'll give it a few more issues to WOW me, but if it doesn't, it may have to slip by the wayside.

All images copyright DC Comics and used under the guidelines of Fair Use.

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