By: Kyle Higgins (writer), Will Conrad & Cliff Richards (art), Pete Pantazis (colors)
The Story: Dick Grayson sneaks out to the movies, only to find himself in the middle of a thriller of his own.
The Review: At the start of The Black Mirror, Dick Grayson remembered how his father always marked upcoming shows with different colored pins on the calendar to represent how dangerous the tricks needed to be. They were marked red or blue, except for Gotham. A trip to Gotham meant that the audience demanded real danger. For his part in the Zero Year crossover, Kyle Higgins gives us a glimpse at one of those trips. It was properly marked.
That danger comes in two forms. The first is the Riddler’s power outage and the mob mentality that follows. Some of the best pages of the issue are those immediately following the blackout. The slow build towards chaos, the mundanity of it, Higgins hits beats that have been drilled into our collective unconscious over the past decade and a half with resounding clarity.
The other danger is our villain. Though he’s not likely to convince anyone to buy this comic when they otherwise wouldn’t, Amygdala’s appearance makes surprising sense in the context of Zero Year, even if his proximity to the future Robin seems a tad contrived. He also presents a clear danger for Dick, who would probably be capable of getting home. Unfortunately, Amygdala has never been a particularly chatty villain and he doesn’t bring much to the story beyond a sense of menace.
The story highlights Dick’s rather impressive talents, but it doesn’t say much for his taste in movies. The whole plot revolves around Dick sneaking out to go see Sword-Walkers, a vaguely defined sci-fi/action blockbuster with a healthy smattering of Ninja Turtles. Especially given Higgins’ film background, I found it surprising how simplistic the fictional film was. It’s quick and easy message about teamwork curses the issue to follow in its footsteps, and it does so without adding any complexity or real insight to the core issue.
As interesting as the dynamics between the three friends are, the parallels between them and the kids of Haley’s circus aren’t strong enough to justify the story. It seems a waste that Raya and Raymond reappear in this issue only to fade into the background for most of the story, certainly the same ideas could have been tackled with the actual trio, rather than their counterparts.
The art follows the same style as Will Conrad’s previous work on the title, but the credits inform me that Cliff Richards shared the art chores with him this go around. The issue does a fine job of hiding any transitions, I wasn’t even aware that Conrad had help until I checked the title page.
I’ve been kind of hard on Conrad ever since he joined Nightwing, but this issue is another in a series of improving efforts from him. The Dick Grayson we meet in this issue looks every bit as good, if not better than, his full-grown variant. The design just suits the character beautifully. From the expressions, to the facial structure, to the hair, it screams young Dick Grayson. None of the other characters are quite as well rendered as Master Richard, but his friends and traveling companions benefit from the realistic style, looking a lot more like actual teenagers than most you’ll find in comics.
Amygdala generally looks good, but I’m not a huge fan of his new look. It’s definitely a cleaner take than the last time I saw him, on a read of Knightfall, but the many readers unfamiliar with the obscure character might be left wondering what happened to him as he looks less like a psychiatric patient and more like the child of Nemesis and the Red Skull.
The Conclusion: Higgins has described this story as a “dark fairytale.” The basic structure, morality, and obstacles all support this, however the story also takes the genre’s supposed simplicity without adapting any of the archetypal resonance or essential horror that make them fascinating.
Will Conrad’s art continues to improve and seems better suited to the child protagonists and horror trappings of this tale than they have to the superhero adventures Nightwing has previously supplied him. Cliff Richards also turns in some strong work, assuming I’ve correctly sussed out who handled what, but his pages don’t give him the same opportunities that Conrad’s do.
Ultimately Nightwing #25 fails to tell us much about Dick Grayson. It’s a fun little story, but, especially since the New 52, there’s been a dearth of stories about Dick’s life before Nightwing, it’s a shame that this issue didn’t take the opportunity to fill in some of the teen wonder’s history.
Grade: C-
A Note
- Poor Amygdala. Am I the only one who feels bad for him? I mean, it’s not his fault. I hope somebody got him some help before the storm hit.