Dick Grayson’s allegiances shift again as the Mad Hatter makes an appearance in Chicago, in an entertaining, albeit standard, issue of “Nightwing”.
Written by Kyle Higgins
Illustrated by Will Conrad with Cliff RichardsNightwing’s being visited by an old friend from Gotham — the Mad Hatter! Desperate to protect Chicago, Nightwing’s been forced into an uneasy alliance with the mysterious Marionette. But who’s really pulling the strings?
After nearly a year in the Windy City, Dick Grayson has firmly entrenched himself in both his personal and superhero life. He has taken on city politics, an angry public, and dealt with annoying roommates. Now after investigating the theft of a powerful new drug, he finds himself in an uneasy alliance with the Marionette, the same thief he was pursuing.
Picking up from the last panel of the previous issue, the Mad Hatter has made a surprise appearance in Chicago. The sight of a familiar foe from Gotham City is jarring to Nightwing, but has soon as the henchmen start firing machine guns, he slips right into standard superhero mode. Nightwing and Marionette both seem to be the targets of Hatter’s rampage, thrusting the two into an unexpected alliance. They escape from Hatter’s trap, before Marionette reveals her surprising backstory, recasting her as tragic victim instead of thrill-seeking cat-burglar. Nightwing agrees to help her track down the Hatter, hoping to repair her fractured psyche. But since this is Dick Grayson, everything goes wrong almost immediately and his trusting nature sends him through the emotional ringer. At the same time, civilian Dick has to deal with another challenging enemy: a roommate who has no concept of personal space.
Kyle Higgins has Dick Grayson’s personality down to a science by this point. He always looks for the good in everyone, and trusts everyone easily, and as a result gets taken advantage of on a monthly basis. If he wasn’t possibly the most agile non-superpowered hero in the DC Universe, his borderline naiveté would have proven deadly dozen of times by now. With the reveal that Marionette was once Mad Hatter’s very own Alice (or one of many Alices), Nightwing would of course immediately resolve to help her. Dick never seems to predict that some people only seek to act in their own self-interest, and are even remotely as altruistic as he is. Even though, surprise surprise, Marionette betrays Nightwing and cracks him over the head, he is still determined to prevent her from killing Mad Hatter, saving her from herself.
The story involving Dick’s personal life is an attempt to give Dick “Spider-Man problems”. Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, or Hal Jordan never have to worry about paying rent or labeling their food in the shared fridge. Higgins has recast Nightwing as the most street-level of street-level heroes, with all the problems of a struggling twenty-something. Unfortunately this plot comes across as a rather trite episode of Friends. It starts out with relatable conflict, but the tearful hug-fest that wraps up the issue feels unearned and forced. This is still the middle of the story, so Higgins hopefully has a larger arc in mind for the roommate conflict, but right now it just seems like filler.
Will Conrad and Cliff Richards team-up again on art duties for “Nightwing” #27 and, just as in the last issue, the credits don’t give any indication as to who drew which pages. Conrad has been the regular artist on “Nightwing” for several issues now, and he has a firm grasp on how to illustrate the characters trademark aerobatic fight scenes. The issue opens with the Mad Hatter unleashing his gun-toting goons on Nightwing and Marionette, and the pages explode into action. There are so many panels that it borders on an overload, but it’s restrained just enough to make the scenes work. The images are very busy to be sure, but the panels are used to created a neat mirrored effect as the unlikely duo fight the bad guys.
There are two out-of-costumed scenes towards the beginning and end of the issue, and this is when two different art styles become apparent. Both feature Dick in his usual beefcake-y appearance, but the first scene is very line heavy, with everything ending in a pointed edge. The second scene is less busy and more rounded. It’s not thay one is better than the other, it’s just that when the mask comes off Dick, he looks like two different people.
“Nightwing” is in the middle of its current story arc, and the introductions of a well known Bat-villain combined with a new (sorta) anti-hero in the character of Marionette hint at the larger story at play. Kyle Higgins has a firm grasp on Nightwing’s personality, and the character’s choices require no explanation, allowing the focus to shift to other parts of the story. Conrad and Richard are both skilled artist, and in the previous issue they work well together, it’s just unfortunate that one scene at the end of the issue makes their different styles blatantly obvious. Everything else looks very good, especially the opening fight, but the awkward last pages leave a strange final impression.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Far from the best issue of Higgins’ run on “Nightwing”, but to be fair, it’s clear that there is still a larger story about to be played out.
