DCU Comic Book Reviews

NIGHTWING #148

The Great Leap, Part Two

November 2008

Written by Peter J. Tomasi

Pencils by Don Kramer

Inks by Jay Leisten

Cover by Rags Morales and Michael Bair

Synopsis

In Gotham City, Nightwing rescues Carol Bermingham from snipers hoping to keep her from testifying in court, but in the process gets himself shot.  Nightwing manages to get her to a safe house and then himself to Wayne Manor, where Alfred performs surgery to remove the bullet.  Afterwards, Nightwing returns to the safe house to pick up Carol and takes her back to New York City.  There, Carol learns it was Harvey Dent who asked Nightwing to take care of her.  Later, Alfred tells Nightwing the bullets had traces of the Scarecrow fear toxin.  Alfred suggests Nightwing return to Wayne Manor to see if any trace of the toxin had gotten into his system.  However, Nightwing receives warning that Carol’s safe house has been breached.  When he gets there, Nightwing finds himself surrounded by Harvey Dent and six other Batman rogues.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

There really isn’t much of a plot to this issue.  Like the first part of the story, Nightwing is still struggling to protect Carol from those trying to prevent her testimony in court.  But the enjoyment in this issue doesn’t come from the plot twists, but from the characterization and the interactions of the characters in the story, in this case between Alfred and Dick.  The surgery scene is a beautiful sequence, first with the humor hiding both their fear and their friendship followed by three pages of silent panels in which Morales’ art evokes Alfred’s feelings wonderfully.  In a short span, Alfred goes from being weary to being worried to being comforting.  It is a great scene and while it doesn’t do much to advance the plot, it does do a lot to show the relationship between butler and sidekick, yet again demonstrating that Tomasi is interested in writing about the character of Nightwing.  And since he seems to have a great handle on Dick Grayson, I am really enjoying this series.  This is damn good stuff. 

So, it looks as if the events in this story take place after Batman R.I.P., based on Dick’s question on the operating table and then the Arkham Asylum allusion.  The latter reference was trotted out and put away so quickly to the point where I think it was probably an editorial addition rather than something Tomasi wrote.  Regardless who put it there, it does make you wonder about the cliffhanger.  Granted, we don’t know the ending to Morrison’s story, but with the Joker playing a big role, you’ve got to wonder what he would be doing with the others surrounding Nightwing.  Or why Penguin and the others would even care about Nightwing and New York City when Batman has fled Gotham (or is dead or whatever is gonna happen). 

Having said that, I think the ending will be revealed to be a hallucination caused by the fear toxin in the bullets.  The opening pages of the next issue will show Carol hitting Nightwing with the taser, which will shock him back to reality. 

Well, at least we know Alfred makes it out alive.  Of course, the way Alfred talks about the surgery makes you wonder if he has some type of medical training.  Like Thomas Wayne.  And what was the deal with tossing his bloody gloves against the Robin case?  I would guess that is supposed to be Jason Todd’s uniform, but it does look like Dick’s old costume.

 

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