Seeley and King do what they needed to do here, introducing us to Dick's new life without giving away too much information about where we're going. It's a fun, fast-paced story where we learn what we need to know as we go. It doesn't try to subvert obvious spy-story tropes (sexy Russian agent! terrible blond wigs!), but it also manages not to feel formulaic. In other words, it's a good start.
First, Dick sounds and looks like Dick. He's handsome, charming, and effective, impressing both Helena Bertinelli and Midnighter. (To be fair, he seems to mostly impress them in that order, but I'm sure that they'll come to appreciate his effectiveness more sooner or later. I feel bad for Midnighter that only Helena got to see him shirtless, though I'm also interested to know what his mission was.) Second, the story is intriguing. Spyral is collecting super-powered organs related to something called the Paragon Protocol; Dick and Helena's mission in this issue was bringing in a guy smuggling such an organ inside him before its powers caused him to 'splode. This effort presumably has something to do with Spyral's overall goal of discovering the secret identities of superheroes, though it's still unclear what the connection would be. We obviously need a lot more information, but it all definitely feels "spy-y."
As I said, it's a solid start. It's nice to see Dick with an actual mission after he spent most of "Nightwing" drifting from one modus operandi to another. Hopefully, DC really lets him -- and Seeley and King -- spread their wings here.
*** (three of five stars)
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