[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers.]
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Javier Fernandez
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Summary
Dick is tagging along with Tiger and other agents of Spyral to capture the Parliament of Owls in Sydney, Australia. It goes sideways as a KOBRA agent beats them to the punch. With this turn of events Dick figures out that Raptor betrayed him. Dick goes after Raptor, who continues to taunt him with references to his mother. Raptor gets the best of him by drugging him and promises to hurt Dick by hurting those he cares about.
Raptor pops up at a press conference in Gotham and kidnaps Bruce Wayne, and Bruce must let it happen so he doesn’t give away his secret identity. As the effects of the drugs wear off and Dick comes to, Damian comes over the com-link with a plan, but Dick calls Damian off, vowing to do it on his own so he can figure out the full story between his mother and Raptor.
Positives
It’s another great mystery for Nightwing as he’s got to not only figure out how to stop Raptor, but uncover something secret from his mother’s past. Raptor’s betrayal didn’t go unnoticed by Dick for long and this allowed this next arc to get going quickly. Learning more about Dick’s early life in the circus and his family should be a real treat.
Negatives
If there’s one thing the past couple years of Bat-Family titles has taught us, these guys need to work together and it usually goes poorly when one of them tries to go it alone and refuse help. It’s concerning that Dick needs to learn this lesson again. The heretofore untold connection between Mary (Lloyd) Grayson and Raptor is a bit concerning. I fear that it will be cliche and Raptor will turn out to be Dick’s biological father, or some spurned unrequited lover. I could accept Raptor being Dick’s uncle, Mary’s brother. However, I don’t feel sullying Mary Grayson’s reputation is necessary or entertaining.
Verdict
This arc is off to a great start. There’s some complexity to both the emotional and physical conflict that Dick will face as he attempts to rescue Bruce and take down Raptor all while learning about his mother’s life.
