2018.036 Nightwing Vol 4: Blockbuster

Nightwing Vol 4: Blockbuster
Written by: Tim Seeley
Illustrated by: Javier Fernandez, Miguel Mendonca, Minkyu Jung, Vicente Cifuentes, Diana Egea
DC Comics

151 Nightwing Vol 3: Nightwing Must Die!

The Nightwing book is a shitload of fun.  This is the Dick Grayson I love to read.  Actually, the Dick Grayson I love to read hasn't gone away.  He's here, he was front and center in the Grayson series.  He's one of the brightest lights in the DCU and he's generally been treated well and fairly.

This series got off to a rocky start, I think.  Clearly the first volume of this was intended to be the sixth volume of Grayson, but Rebirth happened and it had to be retooled.  It's clear just from reading it.  The second volume was more what the first volume should have been.  New city, new supporting cast, new outlook.  This volume picks up from where the last volume left off, though I do think things are a little rushed here.  Dick has a new girlfriend and she may be pregnant.  Their relationship seems to have progressed too far too soon in my opinion.  But otherwise, the rest of this book rings true.  

We've got Dick and Damian back together again.  I love reading the two of them together.  They are brilliant together.  We have Professor Pyg back again.  We have Dick's girlfriend, a former adversary, teaming up with him.  This book is a giant win to me.  I never want Tim Seeley to stop writing Dick Grayson.  Ever.

Nightwing Vol 3: Nightwing Must Die!

Writer: Tim Seeley, Michael McMillian

Artist: Javier Fernandez, Minkyu Jung, Christian Duce

DC Comics

024 Nightwing Vol. 1: Better Than Batman

I read some back to back Grayson this weekend.  The last volume of Grayson followed by the first volume of Nightwing.  It's part of the DC Rebirth extravaganza.  The non-event where DC is trying desperately to fix the disaster they created called the New 52.  If you ask me, Dick Grayson wasn't broken, so they didn't really need to fix him.  I really enjoyed the Grayson series.  A lot.  But this puts him back into costume, back into the DC Universe proper where he belongs.  He's back in the black and blue version of the costume, which makes me happy.  The black and red one was a stupid move on DC's part to differentiate the New 52 version from the previous one.  Made no sense.  

This book was fun, but it was a little off.  It felt like DC mandated Dick Grayson back into costume before Tim Seeley was ready to do it because he still had Grayson stories loosely plotted out.  This felt like a rejiggered Grayson story, with some plot points changed to reflect that it's now a Nightwing story.  But it felt more like wrapping up loose ends than the end of Grayson did.  I can appreciate that.  What I was fearing is the story that took place in this volume was just the beginning of a long, drawn out 36 issue arc.  That would have bored me to tears.  Wrapping it up in six issues was perfect.

The Nightwing Rebirth issue is also represented here (as well as in the Grayson trade.)  That one issue did more in it's 20 pages than the whole previous trade paperback did.  It closed most of the loose ends from Grayson while laying out the groundwork for Nightwing.  I miss single issue stories that can fit so much in to 20 pages without ever feeling cramped.  I want more of those.

All in all, it's a good read and I'm looking forward to more.

Nightwing Vol. 1: Better Than Batman

Writer: Tim Seeley

Artist: Javier Fernandez, Yanick Paquette

DC Comics

023 Grayson Vol 5: Spiral's End

Grayson.  The final volume of his series.  One of the better series DC has put out.  And probably my least favorite volume of the book.  It was a fine story, but it felt a little rushed to me.  I'm guessing that Rebirth was in the full planning stages and the book was put on the cancelled list, so things needed to be wrapped up and wrapped up quickly.  And that's what we got.  A big, kind of off-feeling wrap up.  Tim Seeley and Tom King were only involved in the first chapter of this book, so maybe that contributed to it feeling off?  I don't know.  I'm assuming they plotted the whole thing out, but only worked on the first part.  

The series ends with an Annual, written by Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, the same team who wrote the rest of the series.  The Annual felt like such a waste of time.  There was really no point of it.  It wrapped up loose ends that were quickly created so they could do an annual.  Whatever.

This volume was okay, but not quite up to snuff if you ask me.

Grayson Vol 5: Spiral's End

Writer: Tim Seeley, Tom King, Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly

Artist: Roge Antonio, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Geraldo Borges, Natasha Alterici, Christian Duce, Flaviano, Javier Fernandez

DC Comics