DeFalco continues to make amends for his "Superboy" run, giving us another "Nightwing" issue that successfully operates on several levels.
First, he reveals that Sophia Branch's connection to Lady Shiva wasn't a collegial one. The Penguin brought in Shiva to assassinate a government official (last issue) and attempt to assassinate Branch all so that the S.E.C. would postpone a hearing that affected his business interests. Here, DeFalco adds a tick in the "good guy" column for the mysterious Branch, since she became a target for the Penguin due to her planned testimony at the S.E.C. hearing. DeFalco does his best work with the Penguin, though. Lately, the Penguin has veered from emotionally unstable to irrationally incompetent across the Bat-titles, but he's a tactical genius here. The Penguin tipped off Nightwing to Shiva's planned hit on Branch since, if Nightwing stopped her, he wouldn't have to pay Shiva's commission and, if Shiva killed Nightwing, well, he wouldn't have to deal with Nightwing. Moreover, he didn't really need Branch dead; he knew that the attempted assassination on Branch, combined with the actual assassination of the official, would be enough to secure a postponement of the hearing. After the erratic Penguin in "Detective Comics" #13, this Penguin was a welcome relief.
The only negative here was the somewhat odd conversation between Nightwing and Shiva while they fought. I'm not really sure why Dick would gush over how talented Shiva was. It felt really odd, like he was sparring with Batgirl and not an assassin trying to kill him.
However, I'm still cautiously optimistic where this title is going. I feel like it's missing a spark and we still have weird conversations like the one that Dick had with Shiva. But, at least we're getting more reliably good stories under DeFalco. Hopefully, they continue.
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