DCU Comic Book Reviews

NIGHTWING #132

Bride and Groom, Part 4:  Til Death Do Us Part

July 2007

Written by Marv Wolfman

Pencils by Paco Díaz

Inks by Paco Díaz

Cover by Jamal Igle and Keith Champagne

Synopsis

On the trail of Violet and Thomas (the Bride and Groom killers), Nightwing recruits a bunch of low-grade villains who are thirsty for revenge after the duo killed their friends.  Eventually they track them to a small cabin in the woods.  Thomas uses mind control to make the villains attack Nightwing.  When Thomas starts to lose control, he orders Violet to kill one of the villains, which she does by setting Calcutta on fire.  Angered at Calcutta’s death, Powerpunch attacks Thomas with the intent to kill.  Nightwing stops Powerpunch from doing so, but this allows Violet and Thomas to get away.  Powerpunch follows with Nightwing and Charge closely behind.  Powerpunch finds them first inside a cave.  However, Powerpunch falls victim to Violet’s life-energy draining touch.  Nightwing and Charge arrive shortly thereafter.  Thomas tries to mind control Nightwing, but Nightwing resists by recalling the names of the dead, making him angry enough to override Thomas control.  This gives Nightwing enough to defeat Thomas and Violet.  However, while taking care of Powerpunch, Violet brings down the cave.  Nightwing and the others get out, but Violet and Thomas are sealed in, alive til death do they part. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

This issue just feels like a lot happened off panel and that bothers me.  At the end of the last issue, Violet was in the process of burning down the bar.  Since then, several low-grade villains died, Violet got married, Nightwing felt anger at the loss of life cause by Violet, he recruits a bunch of villains, and they begin the search.  That is a lot of stuff to bypass; in fact, it seems to me that all of that stuff could easily fill an entire issue. 

The most important part that Wolfman seems to gloss over is Nightwing’s fascination with the list of the dead.  Yes, I think he would remember Lorens’ death, but what exactly about the Bride and Groom makes these victims so special?  Is this sheer number of people?  Is it simply his state of mind because he knew some of them?  Actually, either answer would work.  The problem is that I don’t think Wolfman decided to explore exactly why.  Instead, it was added to the story because it helps with the plot, with the way to defeat the villains, rather than meaning anything to Nightwing as a character. 

I still don’t think Wolfman answered the question on exactly why it was so important for Thomas to marry Violet.  I am guessing that marriage gives him additional powers, like the mind control he performed in this issue, but it was not really clear. 

 

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