Review: Nightwing #81
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artist: Bruno Redondo
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letters: Wes Abbott
Reviewer: Tony Farina
Summary
Dick Grayson trades out his escrima sticks for a magnifying glass and a sleuth hat to investigate Blüdhaven’s new mayor, Melinda Zucco, and find out how the daughter of the man who murdered Dick’s parents came to power in Nightwing’s city. But his investigative adventure is cut short when he comes face to face with the most horrendous villain in the history of Blüdhaven-HEARTLESS.
Positives
Nightwing #81 is beautifully drawn. It is funny. It has love, adventure, action, it is essentially The Princess Bride in comic book form. OK, not really. Still, it got you thinking right? I like the mystery of it all. I love that Tim and Babs are along for the ride. This is just the perfect dream team. The characters belong together. The art team belongs together. Everything is just spot on. If I didn’t want to wrinkle the pages, I would hug this book.
I like Heartless as a baddie. While we all know in a book called Nightwing, where Dick was literally shot in the head a few years back and survived, we don’t really have to worry about the stakes. However, there is still something dangerous about this bad guy. We love it when our heroes are challenged. It is easy to say, “well, everything comes easy for Dick Grayson” but that would be the wrong thing to say about this book so far. When my hero gets kicked a bit, I am more excited when he gets back up.
Negatives
This issue suffers only because it is the only Nightwing title that comes out this month. While it know it was too expensive to keep up when DC decided to have the books come out twice a month, but honestly, I would be totally fine with this book being a twice a month release. Take my money please.
Verdict
Nightwing #81 continues the tradition of this news creative team of being awesome. If you are not reading Nightwing, then you are not practicing self-care. This is like spending time with the best people you know. I love it. This is the book that will make long standing comics fans hearken back to the days when they were children and for new comics fans to realize what it means to be a hero. The best heroes in comics do it without powers.
