Nightwing #124 is written by Dan Watters and published by DC. Artwork is by Dexter Soy, colours by Veronica Gandini and letters by Wes Abbott. Main cover art (left) is by Soy.
Nightwing #124 is available from today, in print and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your digital copy from Amazon Comixology UK right here.
Synopsis
To save the lives of one of Blüdhaven’s gangs, Nightwing must stage a heist on Spheric Solutions. But revelations of the corporation’s true sinister nature threaten to shatter his very reality.
Review
When last we caught up with Dick Grayson he had uncovered a bunker filled with some of Blüdhaven’s least fortunate gang members. But with lives on the line and chaos on the streets, Dan Watters has a lot of ground to cover as Nightwing moves to setup the next chapter in the story of the Cirque du Sin.
Watters’ first arc on Nightwing has moved at an incredibly brisk pace. In just five short months the gangs of Blüdhaven have been fleshed out. Giving each their own identity and place on the map. We’ve met Olivia Pearce and Spheric Solutions. Setting up their ploy to take over the Blüdhaven PD’s war on the gangs, bringing Mayor Grayson along for the ride. Then there’s the introduction of Zanni, the puppetmaster-cum-ringmaster who have been watching over everything.
Nightwing #124 pitches itself as a finale of sorts in the “On With the Show” arc. But in reality this issue is more of a transitionary moment. If this were a play or a movie then this issue sees us moving in to the final act of the story. Based on the reveals and the manoeuvring then Watters is setting up Nightwing to face his demons head on.
A key part of Watters’ moving Nightwing on from the era of Tom Taylor has been developing the Blüdhaven subcultures. In particular that level of storytelling has been really successful over the past five months. But what I hadn’t anticipated was the turn it potentially takes at the end of Nightwing #124. I don’t want to pile too much pressure on Watters or the book. But depending on how we pick up on the cliffhanger ending then this could be Dick’s Detective Comics #38 moment. There’s not enough here to call it for sure but it’s certainly an exciting and well earned development for our hero.
What’s equally great to see is how all of the various elements in play work well in thrusting Nightwing forwards. Zanni’s ability to break the fourth wall adds an interesting new dynamic. Particularly when he challenges all of us in the audience for believing he may simply be another villain for Nightwing to punch. It makes us question who is in charge of the story. But also sets up some potentially supernatural or multiversal elements to the story moving forwards. The only slightly tenuous element is Olivia/Columbina. We’ve seen through flashback that she has a connection to young Dick Grayson. But it doesn’t feel like their interactions quite carried enough weight that she would still bear a grudge decades later. That being said we have a fun reveal coming with her hopefully next issue.
The various different elements in play give artist Dexter Soy and colourist Veronica Gandini plenty to contend with. This latest arc of the book continues to feel more gritty than on Taylor’s watch. Soy and Gandini are a tight team. They’ve worked hard to give Nightwing a new and different identity and this is the first issue where I wasn’t aware of it because they have now embedded themselves as Team Nightwing. Every location in Blüdhaven feels alive and dynamic. It’s different neighbourhoods have their own identities and that helps it to feel like a real entity within the story. Likewise, interior locations bring different colour schemes and diversify the story, particularly during more action-heavy beats in the story.
Verdict
Dan Watters latest issue of Nightwing pulls together the threads and leaves our hero pointed directly at the Cirque du Sin. It feels like the story is building towards a huge crescendo. Finally revealing several of the key players but leaving plenty of road left to travel.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
