DCU Comic Book Reviews

NIGHTWING #125

Targets, Part 1 

December 2006

Written by Marv Wolfman

Pencils by Dan Jurgens

Inks by Norm Rapmund

Cover by J. G. Jones

Synopsis

In New York City, Nightwing is on the trail of the Raptor, who is wanted for several felonies, including murder.  During the fight, they end up at Biotech Pharmaceuticals, where Dick finds a dead body that was burnt.  Unfortunately, the Raptor is able to get away.  Later, Dick is returning to his apartment when bumps into two women who live in his building.  One of them, Ryan, offers to massage his aches and pains.  After a shower, Dick goes job hunting, eventually deciding to drive a cab, but that does not last long.  Meanwhile, Ryan takes Dick to the massage parlor to give him a complete rundown.  While relaxed, Dick realizes that Raptor was in the Biotech offices looking for something.  Dick goes to the office and learns that Biotech was a subsidiary of LexCorp and also finds the names of several ex-employees, one of whom Raptor is accused of killing.  Nightwing goes to the address of the last name of the list and finds Raptor.  After a brief scuttle, Raptor gets away.  Later, while sleeping at home a shadowy figure stops by and tells Dick he was supposed to die, which a situation that will need to be corrected.  

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“Dick Grayson...you were supposed to die in the crisis, but somehow you survived.  That will have to be corrected.”

I would like to be able to say that this issue is a hundred times better than anything published since the One Year Later, but pretty much anything at this point would be better than what he had been getting.  To say this issue is better is damning it with faint praise.  However, it is much, much better.  This is the Nightwing that jives with my assessment of who is (or is not).  He does not brood, does not doubt, and he does not have a crisis of conscience that requires a shrink to talk about it.  Keep this in mind:  Nightwing should be upbeat and positive; he is the one who kept the dark, shadowy Batman from sinking into his own brooding.  Plus, in this issue his skills as a fighter and a detective are on display here.  While he may get beat by Raptor, remember that his opponent is not fighting, just trying to get away and he is wearing thick armor. 

Now, let’s get to the big albatross sitting in the middle of the room:  the initial decision by DC editorial to kill Nightwing during Infinite Crisis and then the decision to let him live.  Things, I am sure, happen like this a lot, but it is rare when an editorial decision has now become the centerpiece of that character.  Is this DC attempting to capitalize on an honest reversal of direction or was the “news” of Nightwing’s death staged to set up the next big moment in the DCU.  The cynic in me says the former, but I think it would be great if it were the latter.  Regardless of the reason, it is interesting that his non-death is now the focus; it will be interesting to see where this leads. 

I do think the moment when the Raptor reveals his scarred and charred body to the reader was a bit of a mistake.  I think the Raptor worked better when we weren’t sure about his intentions.  One the one hand, his actions are similar to a villains, but on the other hand he seems to be wanting to help in some fashion.  Now we know he wants to himself, and even though he is not to blame for his condition, he is to blame for his actions. 

The part where the police were nice to Nightwing was a little odd, since the previous issues had gone to great lengths to show the police were after Nightwing, due to the actions by Jason Todd when he was playing dress up as Nightwing.  It is as if that previous story was completely forgotten, which is frankly not a really bad thing.  But if that is the case, it would be nice to get some sort of confirmation, like maybe waking up to a bad dream.  Since this current storyline seems to be setting up the (lack of) death during the Crisis, perhaps a retroactive Superboy Prime punch is in order.

 

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