DCU Comic Book Reviews

NIGHTWING #123

Fire Down Below

October 2006

Written by Bruce Jones

Pencils by Robert Teranishi

Inks by Wes Craig

Cover by Jock

Synopsis

As Nightwing begins his nightly rounds, Cheyenne Freemont is in her office reeling from the realization that without help from the Pierce Brothers she is broke.  Suddenly, a fire breaks out in her office.  Nightwing races to the rescue, but Cheyenne is able to reach safety.  Nightwing, however, is able to track down the man responsible for starting the fire.  Unfortunately, the police find Nightwing at that exact moment as well, allowing the arsonist to escape.  Nightwing gets away from the police and follows.  The next day, Cheyenne shows up at Dick’s apartment; she is moving in.  Elsewhere, the arsonist wants his money from the Pierce Brothers.  Meanwhile, Nightwing goes to visit Clancy.  While Barry Pierce goes to dinner with the police commissioner, Buddy remains behind at the brother’s construction site, where Fireball comes to visit.  Fireball is angry he hasn’t been paid.  He attacks Buddy, who is saved by Nightwing.  However, at that moment, the New York SWAT team arrives and have Nightwing surrounded. 

Review

This was a decent, average issue, which makes it a giant step from previous issues.  I think a lot of what made this readable was that it was not trying so hard.  At this point, I think a lot of people are just biding time until the new creative takes over in a couple of months (with issue #125).  After the entire fiasco with Jason Todd, most have lost interest in whatever story Bruce Jones is telling or even how he will eventually tie up all the loose ends.  My curiosity is to see what the new creative team will do with the various loose ends that Jones may leave behind, whatever they may be. 

The new creative team aside, there are still this issue and the next, both of which are without Jason Todd.  The story itself is not that bad; the problem I had with this issue is actually with the art.  Guest artist (I think) Robert Teranishi is not very crisp and clear.  His images of the Pierce Brothers were not all similar to previous issues and it took me a little bit to determine that indeed these were supposed to be the brothers.  In addition, there were several points that I had to stop and pour over just to make certain I understood what was going on.  And I don’t think there was ever a clear drawing of Fireball, although that may have bee done on purpose. 

It was nice to see Jones address the situation with Oracle, even though she wasn’t mentioned specifically by name.  I know several Birds of Prey fans and Nightwing fans we were extremely upset that Dick’s marriage proposal pre-One Year Later has been forgotten.  Hopefully this will be addressed at some point.  And soon.-- MRB

 

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