DCU Comic Book Reviews

NIGHTWING #145

Freefall, Part Six

August 2008

Written by Peter J. Tomasi

Pencils by Rags Morales

Inks by Michael Bair

Cover by Rags Morales and Michael Bair

Synopsis

In the East Village, Nightwing keeps watch over Deborah after Talia al Ghul threatens her.  In the Hudson Highlands, Talia visits Dr. Creighton Kendall for a progress report.  Although Nightwing disrupted their original plans, the army he is creating is still on schedule.  She tells him that she has Nightwing occupied so he will be able to work in peace.  After Talia leaves, Dr. Kendall sends his army of winged warriors to kill Nightwing; however, he manages to fight them off.  In Gotham City, Ra’s al Ghul escapes from Arkham Asylum.  At the Batcave, Nightwing along with Batman and Robin try to determine what Kendall and Talia are up to.  When news of Ra’s escape reaches them, Batman and Robin head over to Arkham while Nightwing has other plans.  Elsewhere, Talia learns about Nightwing beating up Kendall’s men and decides to kidnap Deborah, but Nightwing stops Talia’s men. He then lets her know he is watching her and he knows the location of Kendall’s laboratory.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Just when I was commending Tomasi for writing a character-based story, he turns around and decides to write a plot heavy, exposition-filled issue.  In between the bad guys discussing the plot and then the goody guys discussing the plot, there is a nifty action sequence which shows of Morales’ fantastic art, but mostly this issue is all about setting up the conclusion to the story.  Not this is a bad thing.  Tomasi still has a great handle on Nightwing and I love the way he incorporates Batman and Robin into the mix without down grading Nightwing (which writers will often do, writing Dick has being cowed in Batman’s presence).  And even though the material about Deborah seems a little forced, I like the resolution and the way Nightwing gets back at Talia.  So, overall it is still a good issue.

Whoa, there is a lot of dialogue in this issue and not only back and forth conversation between characters, but long orations of exposition (see last panel, page 3 or top panel page 4 or anything on page 5) by several characters.  In one sense it was needed because we finally get an explanation of what Kendall is doing, even if we are not quite sure of the why.  The answer to that question will probably come in the final issue when Nightwing defeats Kendall and saves the Mother of Champions.

Ra’s al Ghul’s escape from Arkham was a little surprising.  Well, okay, what DC has done with the character in the past year or so has been a little surprising.  First, they bring him back to life, then immediately put him out of commission.  This made little sense, why bring back a character and then not use said character.  Now, he’s back.  This either suggests that there is something more going on (connected to Batman R.I.P.?) and we’ll see more of Ra’s when this story is over or at the end of this story, Ra’s will be right back to where he was.

 

ïPREVIOUS	Main		Page	NEXTð

Home ●  Blog ● Who Are We? ● Site News
Alive and Well since April 16, 2006

 DC Universe Reviews.  All Rights Reserved
  Characters, trademarks, brands are property of DC Comics

For problems or questions regarding this website, please contact our kindly webmaster.
Last updated: 08/06/11.