Author: Chris Clow
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

From DC COMICS: "A new, vicious villain enters the picture! Raptor has been murdered, but Nightwing has been buried in his grave. Is this the Infinite Crisis claiming one of its lost victims, or can Dick Grayson find his way to freedom?"

EDITOR'S NOTE: This review contains some SPOILERS.

Part 3 of "Targets."

What better way to start an issue than with our hero getting bashed over the head and thrown into a casket? This month's issue of NIGHTWING takes a departure from the action packed tone to a more introverted psychological thriller.

This issue works retroactively in the sense that we start at Nightwing's burial, and we see how he got in this precarious position over the course of reading it. The man responsible for sending Dick six feet under is the man last month's issue ended with: shadowed face, and listening to an iPod. It seems like a new villain, just because his dialogue is very fixed on the concept of music, saying things like, "good music to kill by," or, "Death is a soundtrack composed for parasites and compost."

An interesting edge I've never seen explored before, so it'll be interesting to see if this is someone new, or someone old trying something new.

Anyways, Nightwing is busy investigating exactly who this Raptor guy was: an old employee for Lexcorp, Jace Lorens, who stole the Raptor body armor. That's the reason he was killed. When Nightwing investigates further after talking to acquaintances and family, he goes to Jace's grave. The body is missing. He's blind sided, and starts being buried.

That's pretty much it for the main story, the rest of the issue is all about Grayson's mind. His thoughts, his training from a certain Dark Knight, the women he's been involved in, but most of all it's about his resolve -- something that makes Nightwing a true super hero.

The cemetery where Lorens was buried is close to a cliff. Nightwing tries to figure out how he should attempt his escape. Go up and dig six feet vertically? No, people are probably waiting for him and expecting that. After a quick thought of where he is on the grounds, he deduces that the cliff is about 25-30 feet to the north of where he is.

He begins digging -- digging so hard that his nails start to come off and his hands start to bleed (brought back memories of Jason Todd digging himself out of his grave in ANNUAL #25).

Dick has a hard time maintaining his cool. He's never been buried alive before. His thoughts start to run into each other, and become a little slurred to an extent. All through his digging, he thinks of one lesson Batman taught him: "Your mind is your greatest weapon. Don't ever forget that." Dick, getting more and more panicked, just keeps thinking, "He's never wrong."

His light then dies and he starts freaking out. He can't see, all he can do is dig. He begins hyperventilating, something he heard in the past plays over and over in his head: "You were supposed to die in the Crisis, Grayson, but now will do."

' He keeps digging until he finally bursts through the side of the cliff, exhausted, saying that he's going to live. Then elsewhere, we see the body of Lorens lying in a lab prodded with sensors.

This isn't over.

Wow. I was really impressed with Wolfman's writing ability with this one. With that I'm sure some of the older readers are saying "Silly Clow, you should know better than to doubt Marv Wolfman!" If anything made me learn my lesson, it was this issue. I genuinely found myself getting worried for him. The rational thought saying, "You dumb ass, you saw that there's gonna be another book next month in the solicitations!" was overwritten by the thought of, "Keep digging! Don't die!"

Cheesy I know, but that's why I read comic books. They're escapism in it's purest form. And just like the recent issue of DETECTIVE, NIGHTWING has easily become one of my favorite books simply because of Wolfman. On the art side of things, Jurgens delivers in his unique style of complicated simplicity, something many artists have not had the chance to capture. If you're not reading this book, I still highly recommend it. Any doubters, who thought Dick Grayson couldn't kick ass without a Bat over his shoulder, are seriously mistaken and should go get committed immediately.