I had a second read and I’m going to stand by my grade on the writing. I didn’t have any trouble (even looking for it on the second read) with Daniels’ dialogue, and in fact, most of the characters had distinct voices (word usage, tone, cadence, etc), which is the mark of someone who is paying attention. On the plotting side, Daniels has us smack in the middle of Act 2 and so he’s making things crappy for Dick. Only on the character side do I have some worries. I didn’t totally buy Dick’s sudden guilty interest in Baby D last issue, but I sucked it up with suspension of disbelief. Dick’s musings on Baby D and the scholarship got a bit saccharine, but again, that was only one page. In the meantime, I loved watching Dick outsmart Damian and the overt (Oracle) and subsurface (Huntress) tension he had with the bat-ladies.

All that being said, I am eager to learn and totally willing to be convinced to a different point of view, so let me know what parts of the Daniels’ writing didn’t work for you!

DS

I vacillated between giving this a B- and a C+. I’ll reread the issue today and get back to you. Stay tuned and thanks for the comment!

DS

I think you’re being a touch too soft on this. This issue was so bad I wondered if English was Tony Daniel’s second language. I NEVER do this, but I might just skip buying this book until Daniels stops writing it.