Nightwing #2
Written by Kyle Higgins
Drawn by Eddy Barrows
Review by Brad Jones
I made no bones last month about my unabashed love for both the character of Dick Grayson/Nightwing and the premier issue in this New 52. I’m happy to report that Issue #2 is another really fun, thoughtful, character-driven work and one of my favorites of this DC re-launch. We get a name to the blade-wielding baddie introduced at the end of the first issue, Saiko, and he has a personal vendetta against Dick for reasons we still have yet to understand. After a very cool opening battle/the close of the last issue, Saiko escapes. What I’m digging most about this bad guy is the reckless abandon he fights Nightwing with. His is a very personal vendetta against Dick and is a ferocious in his fight with the former Boy Wonder.
Also in this issue, Dick is summoned to Atlantic City to parlay with the owner of the Haly’s Circus, Mr. Haly, himself. We discover that Haly is dying and would have passed the circus onto Dick’s parents, were they still alive. Instead, he wishes Dick to take over the business. This adds a level of complexity to the back story of Dick – what we always have been told was a warm, loving family unit actually extended beyond the Grayson family and included the whole of Haly’s Circus. This added information lends an extra layer to the tragedy of Dick’s childhood: not only did Dick lose his whole family, but an entire extended family…and his consolation is an accelerated adolescence of crime fighting with everyone’s favorite caped crusader. Heavy stuff!
What I also loved about Mr. Haly is that he’s intelligent enough a character to know that the kid flying around Gotham in those classic red-and-green’s was the child he watched grow up in his circus. Unfortunately for Dick, it seems Saiko is also a figure from his past and also knows of his mask-wearing double-life. He lures Nightwing into a second brawl, this one even more emotionally charged than the earlier battle, and the results are heartbreaking given all of these new bits of info.
VERDICT
Buy It- Emotional, action-packed and enlightening, this series is a must-read. And did I mention Dick gets lucky?? Buy, buy, buy!
