Last time our hero Dick Grayson found himself ambushed by a gang of Bat-villains on his way to save Carol Bermingham, an old love interest of Harvey Dent’s. Harvey told Nightwing she was in danger despite being in witness protection, and thus we have the storyline “The Great Leap.”

Were the baddies just planning a surprise birthday party for Nightwing? (And more importantly, should I bring cheesecake?)

Uh, yeah, definitely not a friendly gathering---especially considering the blood bath that Nightwing finds himself wading into.

Granted Nightwing was shot with bullets traced with Jonathan Crane’s infamous fear toxin (touché: contrary to what I thought before, it was NOT Swagman who was doing the sharpshooting) and the scene before him is very exaggerated, leaving the reader to question just how much of what we see is real. Neat.

The majority of this comic consists of a huge fight that shows Nightwing taking down each villain: Killer Croc, Penguin, Scarecrow, Poison Ivy, Mr. Freeze, the Joker … and lastly, Harvey Dent (more on that in a second). The battle was, both visually and textually, pretty friggin’ cool. It was interesting to see how Nightwing’s fear manifested itself in his reality---and Dick worked through his drug-induced state with considerable success. My favorite one-on-one was definitely with Mr. Freeze (and the colors were gorgeous).

So considering how awesome the fight is, you’d think the rest of the comic would be pretty good, too, right?

Wrong.

What in Gotham is this crap, writer Peter J. Tomasi? The twist of this issue was absolutely ridiculous. Yes, we all know how messed up Harvey Dent/Two-Face is, but seriously? I was practically laughing out loud, it was that bad.

Okay, what am I talking about? Are you sure you want to know? Ready?

Pretty much the other half of the comic consisted of this little scenario.

Harvey: “It’s me! I’m going to kill you, Carol! Now die!” BANG! “What? Carol’s dead?! No! Nightwing was supposed to protect her from me, I mean the other me, I mean …damn you, Nightwing! I will have my revenge!”

… Yeahhh.

Ahem. So, anyway....

I mean, Two-Face is one of my favorite villains. Really, he’s not this stupid. And the fact that he didn’t even know what he did to Carol -- are you kidding me?

What a dumb way to end a comic.

And what’s worse, this isn’t even the end of it. In NIGHTWING #150, Two-Face will actually be hunting down Nightwing to avenge Carol’s demise. Oh, come on, that just sounds lame.

Harvey and Tomasi are SO not getting any cheesecake.

Until next month … (*sigh*)