Tag Nightwing

A Nightwing 2022 Annual Micro-Review – A Little Training…

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***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Nightwing 2022 Annual, cover, November 2022, Eduardo PansicaTITLE: Nightwing 2022 Annual
AUTHORS: Tom Taylor, Jay Kristoff, C.S. Pacat
ARTISTS: Eduardo Pansica, Inaki Miranda, Julio Ferreira (Inker), Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Wes Abbott (Letterer). Cover by Pansica, Ferreria, & Lucas.

RELEASED: November 29, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

In addition to an origin story for Heartless (shown on the cover), this issue gives us a really cute story about Haley/Bitewing. Quality stuff.

But my favorite of the three short stories we get in this Annual is about Nightwing doing a little training with Jon Kent. By and large, I think their friendship is a little bit forced. But C.S. Pacat, Inaki Miranda, and the creative team still manage to tell us an insightful story about Nightwing’s teaching methods compared to the one he grew up with under Batman.

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A Nightwing #98 Micro-Review – Oh, Thank God…

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***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Nightwing 98, variant cover, 2022, Brian StelfreezeTITLE: Nightwing #98
AUTHOR: Tom Taylor
ARTISTS: Daniele Di Nicuolo, Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Wes Abbott (Letterer). Variant cover by Brian Stelfreeze.

RELEASED: November 15, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Oh, thank God. They’re not actually going back to the Ric Grayson stuff, as the end of last issue suggested. It was a set-up for the introduction of Nite-Mite, Nightwing’s equivalent to Bat-Mite. (I might have gone with the name Mite-Wing. But Nite-Mite works too.)

Daniele Di Nicuolo has guest artist duties this month. He shows off his versatility by going suitably cartoony for the Nite-Mite stuff, and then also being able to depict scary demons straight from hell (literally). At the same time, Adriano Lucas offers a nice consistency. Great looking issue.

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A Nightwing #97 Micro-Review – The Return of [Redacted]

Rob Siebert 1 Comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TITLE: Nightwing #97
AUTHOR: Tom Taylor
ARTISTS: Bruno Redondo, Geraldo Borges, Caio Filipe (Co-Inker), Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Wes Abbott (Letterer)

RELEASED: October 18, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

The ending of this issue really surprised me. We see the return of a character from an era on this Nightwing title that I didn’t think we were going to touch on again. At least not so soon. I kind of thought we were all just going to pretend like it never happened.

On another note entirely, this issue sees Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon have intimate relations while a mobster sits in the next room. Kinda hot, though I doubt Batman would approve.

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A Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #5 Micro-Review – “We’re the Titans!”

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths 5, cover, 2022, Daniel Sampere, Alejandro SanchezTITLE: Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths #5
AUTHOR: Joshua Williamson
ARTISTS: Daniel Sampere, Alejandro Sanchez (Colorist), Tom Napolitano (Letterer)

RELEASED: October 4, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

The momentum from last issue continues here, as this finally starts to feel like a Crisis-level story with world-shattering implications. But it’s too little, too late at this point. If Dark Crisis had this level of tension and energy at the beginning, that would have been one thing…

This issue does include a really nice rallying moment for Nightwing and the Titans, though…

“You are not the Justice League!”

“We never were…we’re the Titans!”

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A Nightwing #96 Micro-Review – The Anti-Batman

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Nightwing 96, cover, 2022, Bruno RedondoTITLE: Nightwing #96
AUTHOR: Tom Taylor
ARTISTS: Bruno Redondo, Caio Filipe (Inker), Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Wes Abbott (Letterer)

RELEASED: September 20, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

This issue really encapsulates what I’ll call the “Anti-Batman” spirit Taylor, Redondo, and the gang have created with their run on Nightwing. Meaning Dick lives his live with hope, draws people together instead of shutting them out, etc. There’s even a line in this issue about Dick having to “fight a lot of Bruce’s more toxic programming.”

That quote comes from a pretty great scene between Dick and Barbara. This Taylor/Redondo run has done more for them as a couple than any other story in more than a decade.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

A Nightwing #95 Micro-Review – Calling in Favors

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Nightwing 95, cover, 2022, Bruno RedondoTITLE: Nightwing #95
AUTHOR: Tom Taylor
ARTISTS: Bruno Redondo, Caio Filipe (Inker), Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Wes Abbott (Letterer)
RELEASED: August 16, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Dick calls in some favors in this issue. As such, Redondo and Lucas get to (albeit briefly) show us a whole bunch of DC heroes together. That’s pretty damn cool.

Batwoman also has a decent-sized role in this issue, which is fun.

The plot thickens as it relates to Dick and Blockbuster…

Have we reached the point yet where we can formally acknowledge that Taylor, Redondo, and this team are turning in one of the all-time great Nightwing runs? I say we have.

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A Batman #126 Micro-Review – More Robots

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

TITLE: Batman #126
AUTHOR: Chip Zdarsky
ARTIST: Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey (Colorist), Clayton Cowles (Letterer)
RELEASED: August 2, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Batman fights a new robotic villain called Failsafe in this issue, and gets a lot of help from his extended “family.” The combination of those two elements, plus the fact that Jimenez and Morey are still on Batman, made this issue feel like an extension of James Tynion IV’s “Fear State.” After all that, I’d kind of had my fill of Batman fighting robots for awhile. So hopefully we don’t spend an immense amount of time doing that again.

On the flip side I find the Executor, a robotic character we meet in Zdarsky’s Catwoman back-up, utterly charming.

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A Nightwing #94 Micro-Review – Corruption and Catharsis

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Nightwing 94, cover, 2022, Bruno RedondoTITLE: Nightwing #94
AUTHOR: Tom Taylor
ARTISTS: Geraldo Borges, Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Wes Abbott (Letterer). Cover by Bruno Redondo.

RELEASE DATE: July 19, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

Geraldo Borges tags in for Bruno Redondo on interior pencils and inks here. I’d call the transition pretty smooth, aided by colorist Adriano Lucas.

It feels like Tom Taylor is getting a measure of catharsis in writing Nightwing taking down corrupt cops and public officials. Not that I blame him.

This issue introduces a couple of Metropolis characters into the series. Their inclusion could dial up the intrigue, so I’m curious to see what Taylor does with them moving forward.

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.

A Dark Crisis #2 Micro-Review – Conflict De-Escalation

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Dark Crisis 2, cover, 2022, Daniel SampereTITLE: Dark Crisis #2
AUTHOR: Joshua Williamson
ARTISTS: Daniel Sampere, Alejandro Sanchez (Colorist), Tom Napolitano (Letterer)

RELEASED: July 5, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

The idea with an event comic is that the threat continues to escalate throughout the story, right? And you build to the big climax toward the end. Dark Crisis #2, on the other hand, seems to de-escalate the conflict and end on a premature note of hope for the heroes. That’s an odd choice for a book like this.

I appreciate the incorporation of the Teen Titans Academy into the proceedings. I maintain that book was cancelled way too soon.

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A Nightwing #93 Micro-Review – Corrupt Cops and a Stupid Villain

Rob Siebert Leave a comment

***This is where we keep it nice and simple. Comic book reviews in 100 words or less. Straight, concise, and to the point.***

Nightwing 93, Pride variant cover, Nick RoblesTITLE: Nightwing #93
AUTHOR: Tom Taylor
ARTISTS: Bruno Redondo, Wade Von Grawbadger (Inker), Adriano Lucas (Colorist), Wes Abbott (Letterer). Variant cover by Nick Robles.

RELEASED: June 21, 2022

By Rob Siebert
Fanboy Wonder

This is something of a feel-good issue. Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon take on corrupt Bludhaven cops. One of those parties gets their comeuppance. I’ll let you guess which one.

Heartless, a new villain for Nightwing that was introduced at the beginning of the Taylor/Redondo run, makes a really stupid mistake in this issue: He underestimates Blockbuster. Like, it’s so stupid that it’s almost out of character. Though I can’t officially say that, as we don’t know who’s under that mask yet…

Email Rob at primaryignition@yahoo.com, or check us out on Twitter.