Nightwing #104 // Review
Dick Grayson is flying like Superman. (Or maybe Green Lantern.) It's not an experience that he's all together used to. But he’s seen the action enough that he's able to do what he needs to do. What he needs to do involves going to save his friends, who are fighting for their lives in Themyscira. He’ll deal with the consequences later in Nightwing #104. Writer Tom Taylor continues a story that is shot across page and panel by artist Travis Moore. Color lends a little atmosphere to the page under the power of Adriano Lucas. Taylor’s tenure with Nightwing hits something of a high point in another satisfying issue.
Neron gave Nightwing powers that look a hell of a lot like something that Superman would be flying around with. The extra power suits him, and he IS going to need it as he faces Gorilla Grodd and a few others alongside his fellow Titans. It's a strange gift from a supervillain. He's only got two hours to use it. So, he will have to work quickly if he's going to figure out what kind of shifty plans Neron has in mind. He wouldn’t just...give away this sort of thing without reason...
Taylor gives Nightwing the opportunity to have the kind of power that's reserved for very few heroes. There are countless ways this sort of story could play out. Taylor seems to know exactly how to make this feel original, even though it's been told 1 million times before. That he can do it with a very, very tight and poetically humorous dialogue is a hint at just how clever a guy Taylor is. There is a scene between Dick and Clark above the world that could have been overwhelmingly cheesy were it not for the clever and delicate way that Taylor handled the dialogue.
There is action. There is drama. There is comedy. There are dramatic shifts in location. Moore holds it all together quite well. From Themyscira to Metropolis to low orbit over the Earth to snowcapped mountains in the middle of somewhere, Moore gives Nightwing a little tour of the world with massive power and the delicate drama of great sacrifice. It all feels immersive. Lucas’s colors lend a remarkable amount of atmosphere to the page with dark clouds over Themyscira, the precious aura of atmosphere around the Earth, and so much more.
Nightwing is that much more of a hero by the end of the issue than he had been going into it. That can’t be said of every issue of every comic book. It’s just the 104th issue. It’s not some big crossover event. It’s not some epic earth-shaking moment that will have repercussions that are meant to echo across the DC Universe. It’s just one guy, a great deal of power, and a selfless action. Taylor really manages to make it feel like a very, very big moment.
