DCU Comic Book Reviews

NIGHTWING #131

Bride and Groom, Part 3:  The Engagement

June 2007

Written by Marv Wolfman

Pencils by Jamal Igle

Inks by Keith Champagne

Cover by Jamal Igle and Keith Champagne

Synopsis

In 1689, Violet is born.  In 1692, Violet’s mother accepts punishment for practicing witchcraft.  Now...In Staten Island, Nightwing is looking for the murderers who killed the Lorens, but he is having very little success.  Meanwhile, Violet tells Thomas that she will only marry him once Nightwing has been destroyed.  A search of the newspaper leads them to the Dark Side Bar, one of the spots Nightwing searched for them.  It does not take long for Nightwing to return.  Feeling pain from Nightwing’s aura, Thomas wants to kill him.  In the fight, Thomas’ neck is sliced open and he is bleeding to death.  In her anger, Violet then sets the bar on fire with the flames surrounding an unconscious Nightwing.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

What seems to be working, for me, in the Wolfman issues are less the main villains or the plots, but the little moments in which Dick gets a chance to be himself.  The small little moment with him and the punching bag talking to the ex-marine was a nice little moment.  I wish I could say the same for the rest of the issue.  The bride and groom have no longer captured my interest.  Part of the problem is the reality that the villain and the hero, until the issue, were disconnected from each other.  The villains were doing their thing (sucking energy from people), the hero his thing (moping about who he is) until a really big coincidence (the Lorens’ death) brought them together.  Part of the rooting against the villain thing that we all love to do is because they are doing what they can to defeat the good guy.  You know, doing things to make hell for our leading man.  In this book the only one doing giving hell to our hero is Nightwing.  That does not make a good book.  Showing the Bride and Groom randomly killing innocent bystanders shows they are evil but it doesn’t really show them as being effective antagonist against the hero.  Even this month’s fight fails to really deliver since the Groom gets his neck sliced open wide and the Bride’s big decision is to run away.  For as bad as the fight gets, it is even worse, because we know that next issue is the conclusion and I am pretty sure we know how the story is going to end.  Even the cliffhanger lacks much suspense since we know Nightwing will wake up in time to save himself and then defeat the Bride and Groom. 

 

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