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msteasam 's review for:
Nightwing: Brothers in Blood
by Bit, Paco Díaz, Robert Teranishi, Joe Dodd, Nathan Massengill, Bruce Jones, Wes Craig
Using this to review Bruce Jones’ Nightwing run (issues #118-124).
This was atrocious. This was so much worse than Devin Grayson’s run, even without (most of) the really offensive stuff.
Dick’s engagement to Barbara is immediately dropped with no explanation and this run opens with him in bed with some random woman who’s name he doesn’t know, when he has explicitly stated in the past that he isn’t comfortable with casual relationships with women. There could be some reasoning for this (his break up with Barbara and his trauma from Catalina) but this is never explored or explained so it just comes across as out of character.
Speaking of out of character, Dick actually wishes that Jason was still dead and seriously considers leaving him to die. Putting aside their personal relationship, this takes place immediately AFTER the comic run where he spends dozens of issues agonising about not stopping Blockbuster’s death to the point he tries to get himself killed. This is exhausting. I want to throw up.
This was atrocious. This was so much worse than Devin Grayson’s run, even without (most of) the really offensive stuff.
Dick’s engagement to Barbara is immediately dropped with no explanation and this run opens with him in bed with some random woman who’s name he doesn’t know, when he has explicitly stated in the past that he isn’t comfortable with casual relationships with women. There could be some reasoning for this (his break up with Barbara and his trauma from Catalina) but this is never explored or explained so it just comes across as out of character.
Speaking of out of character, Dick actually wishes that Jason was still dead and seriously considers leaving him to die. Putting aside their personal relationship, this takes place immediately AFTER the comic run where he spends dozens of issues agonising about not stopping Blockbuster’s death to the point he tries to get himself killed. This is exhausting. I want to throw up.
Because Blüdhaven was destroyed, this run is set in NYC so it immediately feels generic with nothing to distinguish it. The art is incredibly ugly and either very rushed or just lazy - there are panels with newspapers IN THE FOREGROUND with gibberish lettering, repeating lines and empty grey boxes instead of images. These are also full of typos i.e. “Mell’s Gets “Hithced”. People are in each other’s “sites” not “sights”, and wait “on line” not “in line” for things. NYC is described as having a “burgeoning tourist trade”. The writing is just careless and lazy overall.
The narrative is so disjointed at times that I actually couldn’t follow what was going on, with random non-sequiturs, characters teleporting between panels, and dialogue that did not make any sense. Like, I just couldn’t parse what the characters were trying to say to each other. Reading this was incredibly frustrating, parts of it were just incomprehensible. Dick says things like “s’gonna get majorly fearful.” He just does not speak like this, I don’t understand what is happening!
The worst villains of any Nightwing comic so far are also introduced here. I actually don’t know what they were doing or why they were considered to be bad. There’s no stakes. I didn’t really care at all.
Dick has to model the Nightwing suit on the runway. There is no fashion twist on it, it’s literally just his suit. Why. Jason turns into a giant insect tentacle monster and eats somebody. Why. Dick’s casual fling moves in with him, gets a sexy female Nightwing outfit, and fights crime for a bit. Why. Dick is racist towards Roy. Why.
This comic also furthers the erasure of Dick and Kory’s romantic relationship. He says there’s only really been one woman for him (Barbara). I think that DC editorial needs to grow up and acknowledge that you can love more than one person in your life. Dick and Kory were deeply in love and committed to each other. She was his first real adult relationship. Erasing their relationship in favour of Barbara and trying to paint Dick and Barbara as childhood sweethearts does not make that relationship more special or legitimate. It’s childish and disrespects Dick and Kory as characters, treats Kory like a sex object, and disregards the New Teen Titans run where they were in a monogamous relationship for like 10 years.
This whole run is completely incompetent and rushed.