How about that cover! Rags Morales is giving us some fantastic cover art (the last one was awesome, too). I love how the blood and the black surrounding it are in the shapes of bats -- a nice play on the fact that this is a “Batman RIP” tie-in and that the tagline for this NIGHTWING issue is called “Nightwing RIP?”.

In the last issue and first “RIP” tie-in of NIGHTWING, Two-Face contacted Nightwing, asking him to keep an eye on an old flame of his: Carol Bermingham. Carol’s in witness protection for having information on something big, but Harvey doesn’t exactly trust that the government will keep her safe. At the end of #147, Nightwing’s glider was shot down by an unknown shooter (in ROBIN #176 we find out this RPG launcher-wielding baddie is Swagman, a member of the Club of Villains), and Nightwing -- sustaining injuries -- started losing a lot of blood fast.

This issue (“The Great Leap” Part Two) is somewhat lacking. Art-wise, I love Morales’s covers, but his general art in this comic I’m not so crazy about. I kind of miss Don Kramer’s pencils.

Anyway, Nightwing works through the pain (and gunfire) and manages to glide Carol and himself to one of Bruce’s safe houses (which he locates through the use of an infrared scope). They land roughly on the rooftop, and Nightwing instructs her to stay in the hatch until he returns.

He passes out, but manages with the help of his glider to make it back to The Batcave. Man, what would they do without good ol’ Alfred? This scene during and after surgery, especially, is the most crucial scene in the comic. We get some good dialogue, but most importantly, for the first time we get Alfred’s perspective on what’s happening to Bruce in “Batman RIP.”

“He’s really gone this time,,,Isn’t he, Alfred?”

“Yes…I fear that he is.”

And what we see with Alfred immediately after is absolutely heartbreaking.

Later, Nightwing returns for Carol and takes her to a safe house in New York, where she receives a call from our favorite ex-District Attorney. Hmm, but what’s he up to on his end?

Harvey also asks with snarky humor how Nightwing enjoyed his stay in Arkham Asylum. For those of you who might be confused on the whole “Batman RIP” timeline, in the main BATMAN title, Nightwing is stuck in Arkham Asylum---and not for a casual visit. So obviously NIGHTWING occurs after the events in BATMAN. In ROBIN, we see the Swagman, and Tim Drake comments that he might be the reason Dick never made their rendezvous---and since Swagman is still busy interfering with Nightwing in his title, it seems that ROBIN is taking place a little after or possibly at the same time (way to multi-task, Swagman!). The continuity is still a little fuzzy, though.

So where were we? Right. Later Nightwing gets a call from Alfred, telling him that the bullets he removed from Dick’s body were traced with a certain chemical substance -- and a breach in the New York safe house catches Nightwing’s attention, but when he arrives he gets a rather unpleasant surprise. Is it his birthday? Because otherwise Dick Grayson just found himself in a bit of a villainous pickle. But I won’t spoil it for you.

See you next month for (hopefully) some major butt-kicking action! And just in case it IS Dick’s birthday, I’ll bring some cheesecake for the surprise party.