Nightwing #30 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Spyral.

I immediately associated Spyral with "Batman Incorporated," and, in reading my previous reviews and its Wikipedia page, I realize that its mission has stayed the same in each incarnation.  Dr. Dedalus sent his daughter, Kathy Kane (the original Batwoman), to Gotham to learn Batman's identity, matching Spyral's mission of learning superheroes identities, as Batman states it in this issue.  I'm not sure what it plans on doing with those identities once it has them, but I guess that we'll get there in time.

(Interestingly, in re-reading my reviews of "Batman Incorporated" #4 and #5, it was only clear that Dr. Dedalus was recruiting Kane for some sort of mission, through Gaucho; Morrison never specified what the mission was.  I'm assuming the second run of "Batman Incorporated" added that it was finding out Batman's secret identity; it also seems that we learned that Kane currently leads Spyral.  Of course, it's possible that Morrison did actually mention Kane's mission in the original run, but it wasn't clear, given how chaotic Morrison's writing on "Batman Incorporated" was.)

Bruce decides to take advantage of Dick's death to send him into action as an agent of Spyral, to discover what it knows and why it does what it does.  It's classic Bruce, but I'm not entirely sure that it's that sounds of a plan.  Based on "Forever Evil" #7, four other people at the very least know that Dick is alive:  Catwoman, Cyborg, Lex Luthor, and Owlman.  Moreover, unless Dick ran from the room in the downed Watchtower just as they released the Justice League, it's likely that all of them -- Aquaman, Firestorm, Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Katana, Martian Manhunter, Shazam!, Stargirl, Superman, and Wonder Woman -- saw him alive.  OK, Catwoman, Lex, and Owlman probably aren't associated with Spyral, and it's not like Wonder Woman has drinks with Batgirl on a frequent basis where she would learn that Barbara thinks that Dick is dead.  But, it still seems like a lot of people know his secret, making it unclear how effective Dick will be as a mole within Spyral if his success is predicated on the world at large thinking that he's dead.  Moreover, the woman who approaches Dick at the end knows that he was Nightwing, so I'm not really sure why Dick would need to remain anonymous in the first place, since it's not like they're fooling Spyral.

On top of that, Dick's status, if you will, isn't the only murky problem to come from this issue.  Dick confirms that he was Bruce's ward here.  Although I'm glad to hear it, it really steps up the question of how anyone could possibly not know that Bruce is Batman.  DC is really just pushing the limits of our willful suspension of disbelief.  As I've previously said, you've got to take superhero comics at their face value if you're going to believe that Lois would've never guessed that Clark was Superman with glasses or Aunt May would never associated Spider-Man's voice with Peter's.  But, we're really pushing the boundaries with this one.  Plus, if Dick was Bruce's ward, it stands to reason that numerous people will recognize Dick in and of himself, again calling into question why he needs to appear to be dead to be successful in infiltrating Spyral.

All that said, I can't say that I'm not excited about this new start.  This series suffered from way too many changes of pace and locale, with Dick bouncing from career to career or raison d'être to raison d'être.  For the first time in a long time, he has a purpose that seems capable of fueling numerous issues without sputtering out unexpectedly.  He apparently only had to die to get one.

*** (three of five stars)

Nightwing #29 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

In this series' last moments, Higgins and Dauterman somehow manage to give it a coherence that it hasn't had as it unfolded.

By using Dick's conversation with Jen to review the details of Dick's life -- from the death of his parents, to becoming Robin and then Nightwing, to taking on Saiko, to averting his destiny as a Talon, and, finally, to the destruction of Haly's Circus -- they remind us that Dick's story is about survival.  He lacks the single-minded certainty of Batman, so he's driven to explore new personalities, trying to find something that makes the world where a boy watches his parents die make a little more sense.  Using Jen to elicit this reflection could've been a trite device, but Higgins really sells it.  (I teared up a bit when Dick talked about feeling grief every time anyone ordered his father's favorite pizza combination.)  If Bruce's grief is buried deep within him, Dick's is on the surface, allowing him to connect with a grieving girl in a way that Bruce never could.

Moreover, Dauterman is a find; his Dick could use some work, since he looks a little Neanderthal at times, but, generally, he has a certain fluidity to his work that not only works for Dick but also for an issue where you're covering a lot of space and time.

Best of all, Higgins doesn't offer an answer to the question of which Dick wins.  Dick still hasn't found what he's looking to find, but, in texting Sonia, Higgins reminds us that Dick is as enduring of a character that he is because he's still out there looking.  I'm intrigued to see where we go with Dick, particularly after the events of "Forever Evil" #6, but I'll say that Higgins really managed to wrap up this uneven series in a way that makes you forget the troubled parts and remember what you liked about it in the first place.

**** (four of five stars)

Nightwing #28 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I found myself muttering, "Oh, no, no, no" to myself when Joey said that the person who killed Jen's parents cuts himself for every victim.  Turning the page and seeing Mr. Zsasz, I realized what an amazing job Higgins had done setting up that ending, since I totally didn't see it coming.

I've spent the last few issues waiting for the events of "Forever Evil" to appear here and I thought that this issue would finally bring the big reveal.  After all, Higgins seems to be wrapping up the title, bringing back Sonia Branch to settle the score with her father and make her peace with Dick.  (Along those lines, I thought Higgins did a great job in having Dick acknowledge that he never considered how his pursuit of Zucco would impact Sonia.  It sparks some real soul-searching on Dick's part, making him wonder about the unintended consequences of his actions, particularly after his destructive fight with Shapeshifter at the start of the issue.)  The surprise that I thought that we were going to get at the end of this issue was Nightwing going home after a pretty easy fight to find Superwoman at his doorstep.

Instead, Higgins takes us in an entirely different direction.  Dick came to Chicago to bring Tony Zucco to justice for killing her parents, but, throughout that story, Higgins hasn't really focused too much on Dick's emotional response to seeing Zucco alive.  In that way, the events at the end of this issue serve as a coda to that story, with the haunting image of Dick sitting in a similar way to Jen after finding himself in a stranger's house in the wake of his parents' murder.  Higgins even makes sure that we meet Jen's parents so that the emotional impact is all the more shocking, making you realize how quickly a life can change.  After finally bringing Zucco to justice, Dick is forced to realize that it doesn't do anything to free him from the grief that he still feels.

**** (four of five stars)

Nightwing #27 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Basically, every issue, I keep waiting for the events of "Forever Evil" to intrude into Dick's life, revealing his identity.  Instead, Higgins almost seems to be planning a back door unique to this series, sort of like how Bruce Wayne seemed to have died at the end of "Batman R.I.P." but really died at the end of "Final Crisis."  Here, Dick's roommate's cousin (I think?) discovers his identity, something that she presumably will reveal next issue, in time for the events of "Forever Evil" to coincide with the revelation.  At this point, though, it's sort of awkward that his identity was revealed four months ago everywhere else but not in his own title.

All that said, this issue isn't any less confusing when it comes to the plot itself.  We're left unsure if Marionette made up the stories about the Hatter abusing her to trick Dick into helping her swipe the kanium or if they were real.  Either way, though, the kanium was her goal.  I'm OK with that sort of ambiguity, but, to be honest, Higgins doesn't make it all that intersting.  She's essentially just a drug addict looking for more drugs, despite the questions about her motivations.  Let's just move to the new status quo and stop stalling.

** (two of five stars)

Nightwing #26 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Another issue, another change to a new status quo.  Dick is a bartender at a cop bar now, the perfect place for him to pick up leads.  The problem, of course, is that we're just waiting for the events that took place in "Forever Evil" to lead us to yet another status quo when everyone in Chicago discovers his identity.  I mean, this issue itself is fine, but it doesn't makes sense to get attached to anything happening here since it's all going to be differnt by issue #30 at the latest.

*** (three of five stars)

Nightwing #25 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

This story might as well be sub-titled, "In which Dick Grayson learns the value of friendship (though unfortunately those friends will eventually try to kill him)."  It's a pretty forgettable story, in no small part because his relationship with Raymond and Reya has already been extensively covered in the first few issues of this series.  But, at least it wasn't an assault on his origin, as I was expecting.  I should give thanks for small blessings, I guess.

Nightwing #24 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

OK, so, Dick's roommate isn't Prankster.  Instead, he's a kid looking for revenge.  But, the cop who might have a vendetta against Nightwing is a former hero and Tony Zucco is a good guy for a minute but becomes a bad guy again.  [Sigh.]

First things first, I really don't follow the Prankster story as Higgins has told it.  So, the Mayor and his brother convinced the city to build a train line through their old neighborhood.  But, why is that a bad thing?  Was it some sort of corrupt deal?  Did they make a lot of money from it?  It's not like they owned the neighborhood, so I'm not sure how they would've benefited from the line going through it.  But, whatever, fine, I can use my imagination.  But, why did the electrical engineer on the project (Prankster's father) die?  Was he murdered?  He looks murdered from the way Conrad portrays him, with cuts all over his head.  Plus, young Prankster found him in his Halloween costume seemingly outside their house, so it doesn't seem like he died on the job from an accident.  Did the Mayor's brother kill him?  If not, why did he "take the fall" for the death?  All that would make sense, except for the fact that the Mayor claims that it was an accident.  If it was, then why would someone have to take the fall?  I can't believe that Higgins doesn't answer these questions, given how central that they are to the plot.  But, I re-read this issue and they really aren't there.

Moreover, no one guessed who Prankster was, other than Tony Zucco?  The Mayor's brother goes to jail for killing young Prankster's father, young Prankster mails him his Halloween mask as a souvenir (a mask that looks identical to the one that he later wears as Prankster), and not a single person beyond Zucco makes that connection?  Moreover, Zucco only decides to make that revelation now, when Prankster's imminently going to destroy the South Side?  When Prankster first arrived on the scene, Zucco couldn't tell that he'd be gunning for the Mayor at some point?

Plus, I'm not really sure what Prankster's plan was.  He releases the Mayor with the switch to disable the bomb that he planted under the train line, but the Mayor has to make it through a gauntlet of his own citizens to get there.  What did Prankster want to happen?  For the mob to kill the Mayor and then the South Side to be destroyed?  Why destroy the South Side if you just wanted revenge against the Mayor?  Why not just put him on the street for the mob to kill him?  I mean, what happened to Prankster as avenging hero, going after sex traffickers?  Isn't blowing up the South Side just for a fun a little bloody for a guy who saw himself as a hero righting wrongs?

I thought that the Prankster story was going to end similarly to the Batman/Wrath one from "Detective Comics," with Prankster being a version of Dick through the glass, darkly.  Moreover, unlike Wrath, Prankster seemed to have staying potential as an anti-hero, using his anger at the establishment (represented by men like Mayor Cole) as a way to avenge the common people.  It would've been an even more nuanced take than the Batman/Wrath duality, exploring the real fine line between hero and anti-hero (and not the thicker line between hero and villain).  But, Higgins unfortunately ditches all subtlety here by making Prankster into a sociopath with revenge as his only goal.  Wrath wanted revenge on the entire GCPD, hence the scale of his operations.  Prankster wants revenge only against the Mayor, but is willing to kill virtually everyone in Chicago to get it.  Again, we're not talking about the guy that I thought that we were going to see, a guy motivated by revenge, but with a larger vision of the world that he wants to see implemented to right that original wrong; we're talking about a homicidal maniac on the same level as Joker, regardless of his motivation.

I also don't know what to say about Tony Zucco suddenly going from killer to family man to killer so quickly.  His wife allegedly divorces him and moves her kid somewhere else and he decides to unlearn everything that he's learned since coming to Chicago and become Tony Zucco again?  Really?  Given that Higgins never really sold me on Zucco-as-family-man, his immediate reversion makes everything that Higgins has done with him feel overly convenient, a plot device to move forward the story that he wanted to tell.  Now that Higgins no longer needs him as a family man, he can resume being a bad guy?  It might've even been better had Higgins killed of Zucco's wife and kid, since Tony's return to the dark side would be more understandable.

Finally, I'm not really sure what to do with the revelation that Billy's cop mentor is Ghostwalker.  Why does he think that Chicago needs to be hero-free?  He seems to feel it deeply, so I hope Higgins gets us there at some point.  But, to be honest, his appearances have felt so shoe-horned into this series that I really have problems remembering anything about him.

Man, this issue gave us a disappointing conclusion to this arc.  It makes me wonder why I'm still getting this series, particularly when the status quo is going to be upended again due to events in "Forever Evil."

* (one of five stars)

New-ish Comics (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Batgirl #23:  Ugh.  My heart dropped at the last page.  I'm not really sure where we go from here.  Barbara killed James, Jr. and Commissioner Gordon killed Ricky.  They're both taking people from each other, but it's even more complicated than that.  Simone leaves us with two questions that will drive the rest of this story.

First, did Commissioner Gordon kill Ricky not in self-defense but because he didn't want Barbara to be with him?  (Gordon had discovered a photo of Ricky and Barbara in Ricky's apartment and, I have to say, I think that it's probably unrealistic that Ricky had such a photo given that they had been on one date.  But, I'm willing to give Simone a pass, since time has to pass quickly in comics; otherwise, a several month relationship would take a decade.)  Gordon seemed to be a little bit more disturbed by shooting Ricky than a cop with his experience would otherwise be.  Plus, Ricky wasn't exactly aiming at him; the gun was pointed to the ground.

Second, does Gordon's badge really give him the authority to kill a suspect not directly threatening him, whereas Batgirl isn't allowed to save someone's life from a murderer if it means killing the murder?  After all, Barbara killed James, Jr. to save her mother.  Even McKenna raises the possibility that she might not have had a choice in the matter.

Simone's making it clear that Gordon's blinded by his emotions to these questions and it makes you wonder if we're really heading to a confrontation where he discovers Barbara's identity.  It seems like that confrontation would be the only thing to make him confront the answers to those questions, though I imagine everything'll go to Hell in a hand basket from there.

Batman and Robin #23:  My love-hate relationship with Tomasi goes back several years at this point and, on some level, I feel bad dropping a book that produced two issues that I consider candidates for "Issue of the Year" this year.  But, I've felt like these five issues depicting Bruce's grief over Damian's loss have been a real low for this series, an unorganized tour of some of Bruce's worst traits.  They contributed little to my understanding of the character or his emotions, despite the fact that they were clearly intended to do just that.  Moreover, this contemplation of Damian's loss made the title feel increasingly marginalized from the Bat-family continuity, with Damian already having faded to a distant memory in "Batman" and "Detective Comics" (after having been barely mentioned in "Batgirl" and "Nightwing").  It seems a good time to make my break, particularly since I'm not really sure how Tomasi's going to keep going when half the duo that gave its name to this title is no longer with us.  So, thanks, Tomasi, for some really spectacular issues that got to the heart of Bruce Wayne in a way that few other authors have managed to accomplish. 

Batman #23:  You know, I'm not really sure why Snyder decided that he had to change the nature of Bruce deciding to become Batman.  But, if he was going to do it, he could've at least had it make sense.  I don't really understand what happens here.  The gem that Bruce opens seems to magically transform a room of the Manor into a cave.  Is Bruce seeing things because of his concussion(s)?  If so, Snyder probably needed to make that a bit more clear.  Otherwise, we're left to believe that Thomas willed him a gem that magically transforms rooms into caves.  I'm guessing that's not the case.  That said, I did appreciate the idea that Joker was inspired by Bruce's parents' death, since it made him realize how random and violent the world was.  It fits, particularly in keeping with the theme that Batman and Joker are flip-sides of the same coin, both children of Gotham who learned the opposite (though violent) lessons from the Waynes' death:  Bruce tries to force some order onto Gotham, Joker embraces the chaos that clearly rules Gotham.  I can't say that "Year Zero" is setting my world on fire, but I think it would be getting closer if Snyder spent more time providing original insights like the one just mentioned and not focusing on changing the details of the established story to leave his mark. 

Nightwing #23:  OK, color me intrigued.  Zucco seems to know who the Prankster is and that knowledge leads him to believe that things are going to get even worse for Chicago.  It definitely deepens the mystery, making you wonder what exactly Mayor Cole did to the Prankster to make "him" hate Cole so much that "he" wants to take down the city.  I have to say, I'm excited to see how it all comes to a head.

Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #2:  Man, I forgot how beautiful Checchetto's work is.  Truthfully, the various "Scarlet Spider" pencilers rarely depict Kaine as a brawnier version of Peter; if you didn't know he was Peter's clone, I don't think that you'd read an issue of "Scarlet Spider" and think, "Hey, he looks a lot like Peter Parker."  But, Checchetto manages to achieve that "brawnier version of Peter" effect here.  Moreover, he does an amazing job with conveying emotions through facial expressions, such as Kaine's look of confused pain as "Peter" unexpectedly attacks him in his apartment.  With twice the handsome and twice the feeling, this issue is really all about Checchetto.

I say that, because Yost is surprisingly a little thin on the plot.  It's unclear why Kaine comes to visit Peter.  We're left to assume that it's to see what's gotten into him, but Yost doesn't actually make that point.  (I recall from one of the Spider-Man titles a flash of Kaine watching coverage of the newly aggressive Spider-Man, but nothing more than that.)  We also don't know how Jackal knows that Kaine's in town, why he decided to attack the Spider-Men when he did, or why he's re-activated the Stacy clones.  Has he been tracking Kaine and waiting to bring the Stacy clones on him and Peter for when they're together?  We never really discover the plan here.

But, perhaps most importantly, this Otto is more reckless than he's been, even lately.  He forgets completely that he's not Otto when he's seized with the need for revenge against the man that killed him.  It's only seeing Kaine's face and hearing his voice that remind him that he's Peter now.  We're left to wonder if his behavior is going to lead Kaine to realize that he's not dealing with Peter, adding to the choir of voices (Carlie, MJ, etc.) who suspect something is amiss.  But, we have to wait for confirmation of that next issue.  It's entirely possible that Kaine will just leave disappointed in his frayed (if not ruined) relationship with Peter, something too sad to contemplate.

Scarlet Spider #20:  As opposed to "Nightwing," color me concerned.  This title is at its best when it serves as a meditation on a man seeking redemption.  It's why the most poignant part of this issue is the last page, when Kaine reels not only from Peter's unexplained loss of faith in him but also from the return of his degenerative disorder.  It seems to be proof to him that he can't escape his past, throwing into doubt the progress that he's made so far.  The good news is that this title generally uses Kaine's supporting cast to help remind him of that progress and to stay on the path to redemption.  Yost seems to be setting up a story that'll give them a real run for their money.

However, this title is at its worst when it wallows too much in the details of that past.  Using the return of the degenerative disorder is one thing, particularly since it's essentially a visual gimmick that underlines how Kaine views himself.  Bringing back the Jackal, Carrion, the Gwen Stacy clone, and "Spidercide 2.0," all at the same time?  It's just too much.  (I'm not even going to mention the whole Other/"I've already got a monster living in my head" debacle.)  Kaine has done nothing but mediate on his past for this entire title.  Even if you didn't read the "Clone Saga," you know the basic contours of Kaine's past at this point.  We really, really don't need to relive the 1990s for Yost to make the point.  I just don't see how throwing the entire kitchen sink at us, particularly this early in the run, is going to leave us with any interesting insights into Kaine that we already haven't been given not only in this title already but also ad nauseum in the "Clone Saga" itself.  Let him remember who he was to understand where he is now; don't make us relive it all again.  We get it.  We've gotten it for 20 years.

In terms of Spider-Man, this issue is also troubling, because Otto continues to be a total nutjob.  Yost does a good job of reminding us that Otto no longer has Pete's memories, but it's hard to believe that Kaine could leave this encounter with Peter and not be seriously worried about his mental health.  After all, Otto kept screaming about getting revenge for what Kaine did to him.  Since Kaine never really did anything to Peter, he never really once stopped to think, "WTF is Peter talking about?"  I just wonder how long I'm going to be asked to believe that Peter could be this obviously unhinged and NO ONE, other than possibly Carlie, is going to wonder why.  However long it is, I can tell you already that it's been too long.

Nightwing #22 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I actually don’t have a lot to say about this issue.  Higgins continues to let the story unfurl at its own pace, so we get small developments on several fronts but no enormous leap.  The biggest events are Nightwing putting the mayor on notice that he’s after Zucco and Prankster stepping up his war on corruption by going a little more Joker than Dick probably thought that he would.  All in all, it's mostly a bridge issue, with Higgins slowly building up the tension.

Speaking of the “he” pronoun there, I’m increasingly convinced that Prankster is going to wind up being Dick’s new female roommate, Joey.  I’m hoping that “he’s” not, because the coincidence factor would definitely reduce the impact of the story.  But, the physical resemblance is there enough to make me worry.  Continuing on Prankster, “his” motives are, at this point, still unknown.  Sure, “he’s” against corruption, but most anti-corruption crusaders don’t go around killing civilians and cops to improve their city’s finances.  Higgins is possibly constructing a parallel narrative, that Prankster has a similar beef with Mayor Cole as Dick has with Zucco.  Did Cole's criminal brother kill someone close to Prankster?  If Higgins goes that route, it could result in an interesting story, similar to the one that Layman is pursuing with the Batman/Wrath duality in “Detective Comics.”  Time will tell, I guess.

Nightwing #21 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Dick's move to Chicago has really injected some energy into this series.  Although I'm still skeptical about the decision to resurrect Tony Zucco, Higgins does a good job here of showing that Zucco is, in a way, little more than a MacGuffin.

As Dick's narration implies at the end of this issue, the real point of the decision to bring back Zucco is to show the moral dilemma that Dick faces as he breaks all sorts of rules in his quest for justice.  His moral quandary deepens when he discovers that Zucco has reinvented himself -- possibly legitimately -- as a family man.  Does he go after a guy who possibly turned around his life?  Then again, maybe everything isn't exactly what it seems.  Higgins starts to fill in details of Zucco's missing years, but enough questions remain -- like why the Mayor of Chicago would hire his brother's former cell mate as his driver -- to keep it interesting.  Although I think it might have been possible to pull off a story exploring the same themes without resurrecting Zucco, Higgins does make a good case for the fact that few others besides Zucco could motivate Dick to break the rules that he does.

Moreover, we get some more insight into why Chicago doesn't have any "capes" -- namely, because someone murdered all of them.  To me, the most brilliant part of that revelation is that it turns one of the more essential aspects of comics reading -- the willful suspension of disbelief that costumed heroes could so often escape perilous situations with their lives -- on its head.  I've got to give Higgins some serious props for that.  Overall, it's actually just nice to see this title finally humming along smoothly.

Nightwing #20 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

So far, Higgins is showing why moving Dick to Chicago was a good idea, since this series has an energy that we haven't seen in a while (if ever).  Rather than the constantly shifting cast of supporting characters with muddled motivations, Higgins has begun to develop the type of supporting characters that Dick should have -- the wacky roommate, the Jimmy Olsen, the crooked mayor, the wily villian, etc.  Although Dick's past is at the center of this current arc, he's also paradoxically freed from it by moving to Chicago, allowing him to come into his own in a way that we haven't seen in the DCnU.  In just two issues, this series suddenly feels like it's going somewhere.  Hopefully, with "Batman" going on a year-long hiatus from the present, we won't have any Bat-family cross-over event hijacking the series and ruining its momentum as we've previously had.  Fingers crossed.

(My only real criticism of this issue is that I find it a little hard to believe that the Prankster would be able to hack into Dick's goggles.  Has Lucius gone so soft that his technology is so easily hacked?)

Nightwing #19 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Honestly?  This issue was difficult to take seriously, since it felt like the hundredth time that this series has changed its M.O.  It's hard to even remember how many different approaches that we've had over the last 20 issues:  first, we had Dick setting down roots in Gotham after leaving Bludhaven, then we had him traveling around the United States with Haly's Circus, then we had him installing Haly's Circus as a permanent fixture on Amusement Mile.  Now, we've moved to Chicago, at least for a few weeks.  I'll make sure not to get attached to Mike.

Trying to move past my annoyance over the constant upheaval (heh) of this series, Higgins does an OK job establishing our new reality in this issue.  At the very least, Dick has a clear sense of purpose:  he wants to find Tony Zucco and he wants to find him bad.  My main criticism here is that Higgins throws a lot of characters at us at once.  I want to say that he makes tracking down Zucco a little too easy with the introduction of the "Dealer" character, but, given how many other series rely on a similar character to provide the hero with information, I can't fault him for it too much.  Plus, he actually makes the Dealer into something of a character, with the whole card shtick.  I was less impressed with the crazy woman in the bar, simply because she seemed to be a completely unnecessary distraction.  I think we would've been better served by him spending more time on the Dealer or on Dick adjusting to Chicago.  But, I'll also say that I find the Prankster intriguing; I love how s/he has the child trafficker burn his money to stay alive.  Higgins uses that moment to seemingly install the Prankster as an anti-hero, though it's still unclear why s/he would tip off the cops that Nightwing was in town.

Speaking of the Chicago authorities, Higgins introduces two mysteries related to them here.  The first is the fact that something clearly happened in Chicago to turn the city against masked vigilantes. The second is the fact that Tony Zucco happens to be the Mayor's driver.  I'm guessing that we're going to revisit both mysteries soon.

So, overall, it was a decent opening to Dick's time in Chicago, even if it was a bit of a mixed bag.  I'd like to think that it was a permanent shift and allow myself to get accustomed to the setting, but, again, given this series, I assume that he'll be rooming with Flash Thompson in Philly by the end of the year.  But, if Higgins actually manages to stay with this approach for, like, six whole issues, I could see myself really enjoying it.

Nightwing #18 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Man, this issue did not do what I wanted it to do.

I mean, on some level, Higgins gets the job done.  I thought the use of the video game as the vehicle for Dick's mourning of Damian was a nice touch.  It struck at the tragedy of a sudden death, the sudden removal of the person from a whole pattern of expected plans.  Moreover, he really conveyed how dizzying it has been for Dick to have his life fall apart so completely over the last two weeks, from discovering that Batman's lying to Joker's assault on Haly's Circus to Damian's death.  As we see in his conversations with Sonia, it's shaken him to the core, leaving him wondering why he lets anyone into his life given that the one constant in his life seems to be that they'll eventually leave it.  Moreover, Sonia gets some great moments here.  I was genuinely touched by her sad story about Cocoa, the dog at the home of a set of foster parents who wound up thinking that she wasn't a good fit for them.  Her loss is so poignant there, both in losing Cocoa but also the possibility of a family, and it made me, possibly for the first time, hope that maybe Dick and Sonia do get together.

And then we bring back Tony Zucco.

Seriously, I have no idea what Higgins is thinking.  It seems to be an almost cruel inverse of the above formula:  the only people who stay in his life are the ones that he doesn't want.  Higgins seems to be doing it to specifically keep Dick and Sonia apart, because I can't for the life of me figure out a reason why he'd do it otherwise.  I mean, what does Tony Zucco being alive bring to Nightwing's story?  Moreover, why now?  Why would he suddenly resurface after all these years and send an e-mail to his daughter announcing his return?  It's all way too convenient and I can't say that I have any interest in seeing where it goes.

Moreover, the art in this issue is truly abysmal.  There's a scene where Dick is at a coffee shop with Sonia where it looks like someone has beaten him in the face repeated with a bat.

Honestly, I really just wish this series could find its footing at some point.  It's been 18 long issues and I feel like we've been all over the place, never letting Dick's story gel long enough to make it interesting.  It doesn't have to be tragedy all the time.  He can get the girl and fight crime and just be a guy.

(Also, in yet another example this month of pet peeve #2, Batgirl appears nowhere in this issue.)

Nightwing #17 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

We continue the aftermath of "Death of the Family" in this issue and, unfortunately, seem to veer into the next episode of the soap opera that the Bat-books have become.  (Spoilers related to "Batman Incorporated" #8 below.  You've been warned.)

Higgins does a great job showing the repercussions of "Death of the Family" here, as Dick struggles to be everything to everyone as he usually does.  He tries to comfort the victims of Joker's attack at Haly's Circus, be strong at the funerals of Jimmy and Reya, and weather the loss of his fortune as he's forced to shutter the Circus.  He assures concerned Alfred, Barbara, and Sonia that he's fine, but it's Damian, who observes him all week from the shadows, who's there to stop him from taking out his pent-up aggression on some thugs trying to steal mementos from the Circus site.  (I will say that Higgins doesn't really establish how Dick knew that the thugs would be there, but I guess we can assume that he'd be around the site anyway.)

The moment with Damian is lovely, a rare DCnU acknowledgement of their previous DCU partnership.  Had I not known about "Batman Incorporated" #8, I would've been thrilled to see it.  Instead, the moment is cheapened because it's obviously intended simply to remind us of their partnership to heighten the impact of Damian's death in that issue.

In the Channel 52 feature at the back of every DC comic, it's spoiled that Dick is moving to Chicago, leaving Gotham.  (Well done, asshats.)  Initially, I was annoyed, but, at this point, I just welcome the change, simply to escape the constant drama that the books featuring Batman himself have become.

Nightwing #16 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I have to say, I'm pretty damn surprised that Higgins has Joker destroy Haly's Circus here.  Plus, when I say destroy, I mean, destroy.  From the bodies of deceased members to the lives of current members to the structure of the circus, Joker destroys all of it.  Has Higgins been planning on that?  Have the last 16 issues of "Nightwing" been setting up this moment, giving Dick a raison d'être in his personal life only to have it ripped from him by Joker?  Even for Joker, it's a pretty brutal attack; after all, it stands to reason that Dick's parents' bodies were in there somewhere when Joker brought down the circus.

But, it makes me wonder if Joker has been misrepresenting himself, or, at least, if we've been misinterpreting him.  Maybe he doesn't really want to "murder" the Bat-family.  It'd be too easy.  Maybe the "death" in "Death of the Family" is a metaphorical one.  When the dust settles and Barbara contemplates the fact that she was almost driven to murder Joker and Dick realizes that everything that he ever had has been stripped from him (plus whatever Jason and Tim experience at Joker's hands), it stands to reason that they're going to blame Bruce.  He knew that Joker knew their identities and he didn't tell them.  Sure, Bruce can pretend that he didn't think that Joker really knew.  But, he was pretty clearly wrong.  So, by not allowing the Bat-family to draw its own conclusions from the evidence, Bruce has made himself solely responsible for this mess.  He's the reason that Barbara's mother lost a finger, why Dick lost Haly's Circus totally and completely, and whatever happened to Alfred happened.  It's all on him.  When they all leave him, furious at him for failing them so greatly, it stands to reason that he'll focus his anger fully on Joker...giving him exactly what he wants.

If Snyder plays it this way, then I buy it.  I totally buy it.  I buy the estrangement that we're probably going to see in the next few months of Bat-books and the anger that Bruce will likely feel.  At this stage, it's the only conclusion that I could see coming from this event that would make me buy it and, increasingly, I think that it's where Snyder et al. are going. Fingers crossed.

Nightwing #15 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

All right, if we put aside the question of how Joker has kidnapped Alfred, Barbara's mother, and Damian, freed Raya from prison, murdered Isabel and Jimmy, and shanghaied the Penguin all in the span of a few hours, Higgins delivers a pretty decent issue.  It's not quite as good as "Batgirl" #15, but he does use Joker in some pretty obvious yet still impactful ways here.  After all, as Dick himself essentially acknowledges, Haly's Circus is pretty much one big red flag waved in the face of a returned Joker.

Unlike the main titles ("Batman," "Batman and Robin," and "Detective Comics"), Higgins and Simone have done the best in making Joker's attack on people close to Dick and Barbara seems coincidental and not necessarily a sign that he knows their identities.  For example, he kidnapped Barbara's mother because she's Commissioner Gordon's ex-wife; moreover, Barbara only stumbled upon the kidnapping because James directed her there.  Similarly, Joker goes after Jimmy the clown because of the posters showing a resemblance between the two of them.  Unfortunately, I'll say that the use of Raya is a little more difficult to justify, given that her story is pretty directly related to Dick and not Nightwing.  I mean, Saiko may have fought Nightwing (and Raya may have helped Saiko), but it all had to do with Bruce saving Dick from becoming a Talon, putting Saiko next in line for the "honor."  It had nothing really to do with Nightwing.  So, I'm only left to believe that Joker chose her because of her connection with Haly's Circus, but it makes you wonder why it had to be her.  Why not pick one of the many people who work for the circus?  Her connection to Dick seems a little too strong to be coincidental.

Higgins does manage to focus on something beyond "Death of the Family."  Dick and Sonia finally kiss and it goes pretty much how you'd expect it to go, with Dick being unable to think of her as anyone other than Tony Zucco's daughter.  After the interruptions caused by "Night of the Owls" and now "Death of the Family," I'm excited for us to eventually return to this plot and really start to get somewhere with it.  But, we have a while yet before we get there, unfortunately.  Again, Higgins did a better job here than I feel like Snyder is doing in the main title, in terms of keeping up the mystery, but it still felt forced.  We'll see how it goes.

Nightwing #14 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

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.

Nightwing #13 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

After his run on "Superboy," I had seriously come to question whether Tom DeFalco had lost his touch.  However, I'm glad to say that I rather enjoyed his Nightwing.  He actually seemed to give Dick a focus that he's been lacking under Higgins, a drive that we haven't really seen him have in the DCnU.  DeFalco does a great job juggling a number of stories here, from Dick's pursuit of Lady Shiva to his confused relationship with Sophia Branch to his committed revival of Haly's Circus.

The Branch mystery seriously deepens, since it appears that Lady Shiva's arrival in town has something to do with her (given that Shiva kills the guy who we saw in the background when Branch called to cancel her dinner "meeting" with Dick).  One of my complaints of Bendis' portrayal of Victoria Hand in "New Avengers" is that he overplayed the mystery of whether Hand was working for Norman Osborn or the New Avengers.  It was clear that the answer was going to be one or the other, so it wasn't really all that interesting of a question in the first place.  But, Higgins and DeFalco have made Branch's motivations a lot more complicated.  She very well could be engaged in illegal activity, as DeFalco at least suggests here, but it's unlikely that it's as black-and-white as "good" or "evil."  It's that sort of mystery that keeps you reading a comic.

The only downside to this issue is the somewhat random portrayal of Barbara Gordon.  She seems to be some sort of crazed vigilante in this issue.  She not only implies that she's going to kill Joker, but Dick seems to think that she wouldn't understand if he died trying to save a murderer.  It's completely at odds with Simone's portrayal of Barbara or, in fact, any portrayal of Barbara ever.  I think that I'm just going to pretend that it didn't happen.

New Comics!: The #0 Edition #3 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Justice League #0:  Seriously, Billy Batson is probably the best thing to come from Geoff Johns' "Justice League" so far.  With an entire issue dedicated to him, Johns really gets to delve into his character, showing other sides to the sarcastic and sharp teenager that we've already seen.  ("Listen, Chester, that stuff might work like candy on six-year-old, but you come any closer and I'll knock out the last of your teeth.")  Whereas we've seen Billy's sarcasm plenty before, it's the sharpness that most comes into play here.  I thought Johns did a great job by having Billy earn the right to become Shazam by teaching the Wizard that a "pure good" person didn't exist.  He's not just handed the role.  Instead, we're reminded that Billy has seen a lot in his fifteen years and, as a result, has an unique insight into the way that the world works, one that he shares with the Wizard.  In so doing, we get our flawed hero straight from the gates, as the Wizard realizes that having the "embers" of good, at least at this point, are more important than being "pure good."

In "Flashpoint," Billy and his foster siblings shared the Captain Marvel body, if I'm not mistaken, but, here, at least for now, it seems just to be Billy, as the "full potential" of himself.  In this issue, Johns really manages to play up the "Big"-esque laughs of a child-in-a-man's-body scenario; I particularly liked when he smashed the Wizard's throne, looked at his now-adult fist, and declared, 'Sweet."  As it usually goes with wizards imparting gifts before they die, the Wizard sets the stage for future storylines:  he instructs Billy to stop Black Adam from awaking the Seven Deadly Sins of Man; he informs him that he can also weave spells in addition to controlling the Living Lightning; and he tells Billy that he should rally his family around him, but that it should be the family that "can be" and not "should be."

Johns also makes it clear that Billy's probably going to learn some tough lessons in adulthood and responsibility in the coming days.  As the Wizard saw, he has the "embers" of good, which we see when he stops the mugger from stealing toys from a woman.  But, he definitely isn't "pure good," given that he asks for money after helping her.  I'm hoping that Johns doesn't overdo that part too much, but it'll be interesting to watch Billy work through those issues.  Johns and Frank play up that anticipation, showing us a gleeful Billy in the last panel who believes that Shazam is going to help him earn money.  He's clearly got some heart-breaking, Uncle-Ben-getting-shot-by-a-robber-he-failed-to-stop moment coming and the fact that I'm already worried about him shows how much Johns has done with his character already.  It seems pretty clear that he's going to realize that he needs the personalities of his foster siblings to create a true superhero, one that balances out his faults, but I trust Johns to get us there in an interesting way.  Seriously, at this point, I'm just waiting for Billy to get his own book.

Nightwing #0:  DeFalco and Higgins update Dick's origin story for the DCnU and do the best with what they have, largely by seemingly adopting much of the origin as its found in "Dark Victory."  I believe that Dick going to live with Bruce for a while since the police need to stash him somewhere as a material witness comes straight from "Dark Victory" (and makes a lot more sense than Bruce just taking in a teenage boy).  The problem, though, is that DeFalco and Higgins diverge from that script by eventually sending Dick to an orphanage, presumably after the police are no longer worried about his safety.  Really?  Thanks for staying kid, good luck with processing your dead parents.  Really?  Are we supposed to believe that Dick never lived with Bruce?  It seems to be an extremely powerful ret-con, one that essentially undoes their relationship as father-and-son (or, at least, older-brother-and-younger-brother) and puts a lot more emotional distance between them.

DeFalco and Higgins more successfully use a version of a powerful scene in "Dark Victory" to flesh out the relationship between Alfred and Dick.  In "Dark Victory," Alfred comforts Dick over his loss, telling him that he'll never be alone again, something that he wishes he had said to Bruce in the wake of his parents' death (rather than being all stoically English).  In this issue, it's Alfred telling Dick that he shouldn't feel guilty for healing, something that Bruce has never really done; it's not the same conversation, but the impact is the same, as the reader realizes that Alfred has learned from his mistakes with Bruce when it comes to parenting Dick.

Similarly, Dick goes on patrols to find Zucco in the early days of his time with Bruce.  Eventually, Bruce finds him and brings him to the Batcave, revealing his identity.  Here, Dick guesses his identity, but the impact is the same.  Bruce doesn't just decide to endanger a child's life; he realizes that Dick has the same drive he does and nothing he can do is going to stop him from pursuing justice.  If having Dick stay with him to protect him as a material witness makes Bruce less child-molster-y, having Bruce take on Dick as a partner because he's seen him in action and realizes that he's not going to be able to stop him at least makes him less criminally negligent as a parent.  (Though, now, maybe he never was his parent in the first place.  But, I digress.)  Finally, Robin gets his name here from his mother, as he did in "Dark Victory," where we learned that she called him that because he was always "bobbing around."  Here, he's similarly constantly moving; in fact, the whole point of the issue is that he's in "perpetual motion."  To emphasize the link, DeFalco and Higgins have her refer to Dick as her "robin" in this issue.

Overall, except for the orphanage part, I'm happy with the details described here.  However, I am extremely NOT happy about the other two big revelations in this issue, that Dick is 15-years-old when his parents die and that Barbara and he never dated.  Based on "Batman" #0, that makes him 20 years old now.  That seems way, way, way too young.  It also makes it somewhat creepy that Barbara is four or five years older than he is.  She became Batgirl roughly three years ago, meaning that she was hoping for a romantic relationship with Dick when he was 17 years old and she was 21 or 22 years old.  Really?  Are we supposed to believe that?  The only thing that I can imagine mitigating that age difference would be the revelation that Barbara started college early, making her a little younger now.  On the second point, I think the bio page has the Barbara information wrong.  Several issues of "Batgirl" and "Nightwing" have made it pretty clear that the two of them were an item.  I'm not saying that it was the longest relationship of all time, but it's pretty clear that one exists.  [Sigh.]  I'm just going to have to ignore these parts.  I wish someone would invent a beer that helped you selectively forget certain pieces of information.  Of course, given the way the DCnU is going, I'd probably be catatonic given how much of it that I'd have to drink.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #0:  OK, let's leave the Joker story aside for a moment.  The main story in this issue pretty much follows Jason's actual origin and improves certain parts of it.  He turns to crime as a teenager to make ends meet after his dad is taken to jail and his mom overdoses on drugs.  After getting beaten unconscious he's found by Leslie Tompkins and gets caught by Batman when he tries to steal prescription drugs from her.  (This part is a whole lot better than stealing hubcaps off the Batmobile.)  Leslie convinces Bruce to adopt him and the rest is history.  Bruce taking in Jason doesn't make a lot of sense, but, it didn't make a lot of sense in the DCU either, so I certainly can't hold that against Lobdell.

In terms of Jason's narrative, we see the softer side of him that other people don't get to see, like when he laments the fact that he didn't get to say good-bye to Bruce or thank him for everything he had done for him before he dies.  The most poignant comment, for me, was when he framed the violence that he brought to the role of Robin as him trying to punch away the ghost of his father before he could adopt Bruce as his new one.  It's a nice touch on Lobdell's part, building off Tynion's work in "Batman" #0 to show Jason as probably the most sympathetic of all the characters in DCnU.

The Joker story is of course the most interesting one, since it implies that he knows who Batman is and manipulates events to install Jason as his second Robin.  It suggests an even more intimate connection between the two of them and, with the upcoming Joker arc in "Batman," I'm intrigued where DC goes with it.  All in all, this #0 issue was much better than the other Bat-family ones, other than "Batgirl" #0.  Jason's origin at least rough matches some logical sequence of events, more so than Dick's.  At this point, I'll take it.

New Comics!: The Batman Mega-Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

Batgirl #12:  The only negative thing that I've had to say about Simone's run on "Batgirl" so far is that her villains haven't been all that well formed.  From Mirror to Gretel to Grotesque, they've mostly served as plot devices to bring Barbara to a new epiphany or set the stage for her interaction with another member of the DCnU cast.  But, with this issue, Simone fully realizes Knightfall and her team.  First, we get insight into the motivations of her three bodyguards, moving them beyond the stereotypical henchman category into actual super-villian status in their own right.  Simone also adds another layer of complexity to Knightfall by tying her to James, Jr.  James is smart enough to see a level of crazy in Charise that he would one day be able to use to his advantage, so I totally believe that he helped keep her alive in Arkham.  By introducing a connection between him and Knightfall, Simone makes Knightfall Barbara's first true nemesis, giving them the personal connection that every great adversarial relationship needs.  Simone also makes you feel empathy for the bad guys.  I found myself relieved that Knightfall and her cronies hadn't actually killed Ricky the car thief, and it's hard not to find yourself understanding why the loss of her twins at the hands of a drunk driver drove Bonebreaker to throw in her lot with someone who pledges to rid Gotham of crime.

Simone is no less adept with the supporting cast.  Detective McKenna is totally a woman on the edge here and Syaf does a great job of emphasizing the fact with her disheveled appearance and bugging eyes.  Batwoman's appearance goes better than I thought.  Simone, not surprisingly, avoids the issue descending into a clichéd girl-on-girl fight, with Batgirl convincing Batwoman to stop hitting her long enough to explain why she should help them.  I dropped "Batwoman," so I'm not really sure what Kate's deal with the D.E.O. is at the stage.  But, as Barbara notes, she takes a risk by throwing in her lot with Batgirl and McKenna, given that she was sent to bring in McKenna.

One mystery still out there is what exactly McKenna did for Knightfall.  For example, she tells Batwoman that she helped Knightfall play the D.E.O., but we don't get any more details because Knightfall interrupts the conversation with her call to have Batgirl meet her at the Three Towers.  But, in keeping that mystery alive, Simone keeps us guessing.  This title is really coming into its own, with Simone delivering her excellent characterization with better developed ongoing plots and less one-dimensional villains.  I happily spend $2.99 a month on this book.

Batman #12:  After the Owl saga, I have to say, I was waiting to see what Snyder did with this issue.  I was hoping for something a little less...epic in scope, something that told a pretty simple story about Batman.  I got exactly that.

This issue is one of those issues where you just don't know where the author is taking you.  It's not your stereotypical superhero story.  We don't see any costumed heroes or villains until the second half of the book and, even when they do appear, they're never really the focus of the book.  When Snyder starts the story, you feel like something is inevitably going to happen to its heroine, something that will inevitably result in her ending the issue in a costume as a hero or a villain.  It's just the way that these sorts of things go.  Even an excellently scripted series like "Earth 2" put its heroes into their costumes pretty much within the same issue that they appeared.  As such, you think you're reading a done-in-one origin story.  Except, you're not.  It's what makes this issue frustrating to read, in the very best way, because, after a few pages, you realize that it's not falling into the same pattern as every other story.  You start getting annoyed and anxious until you realize that you're reading something different, something special.

Snyder comes close to falling into the same trap as DeFalco in "Superboy" #12, portraying the young gay boy whose sister, Harper, is at the center of this issue as stereotypically gay.  He's into his sister's clothes, he's trying to score with a straight boy, etc.  But, unlike DeFalco's Bunker, the whole point of Snyder's Cullen is that he is stereotypically gay.  A butch Cullen probably (though possibly) wouldn't invite the scorn of his classmates the way "fairy" Cullen does, and it's this scorn that sets events in motion, as Batman saves Cullen and Harper from said bullies.  In some ways, Snyder provides every gay kid's wish fulfillment here, because we'd all have loved a Batman to swoop into our lives, beat up our enemies, and scare them into not harassing us again.  As such, it's understandable why Batman's actions inspire such loyalty from both kids, but particularly Harper.  Snyder does a convincing job of showing us the burden of responsibility that Harper carries with her every day, so it's no surprise that she's as loyal as she is to someone who helped alleviate that burden by making her little brother's day-to-day a lot safer.

In inspiring this devotion, Snyder shows us why Batman has endured as a character for as long as he has.  Often, we see Batman through the screen of distrust that the police hold for him.  Be it comic books or animated series or action movies, we often see Batman through the eyes of the authorities.  For whatever reason, we rarely see Batman through the eyes of the victims that he saves.  Snyder corrects that perception and delivers us the type of issue that explains everything that you need to know about the Caped Crusader.  It's the type of story that you'd find in an anthology, like the "Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told" series, because it gets to the heart of who he is.  He not only rights the wrong, saving the kids, but he also insists on working alone, chastising Harper for messing with his electricity boxes and helping against Tiger Shark.  (The revelation that Bruce runs his own grid within Gotham's electricity grid so that he can control CCTV feeds and support the overall grid was genius.) 

It's clear that we haven't seen the last of Harper Row, though I'm not sure if she's going to be the next Stephanie Brown or something else.  Snyder is unlikely to rush his hand.  Other authors in the DCnU have rushed to get through the character's origin story in order to introduce as many new heroes and villains as possible, showing how new the DCnU is.  By taking his time to tell the story, Snyder is in the process of producing the DCnU's first break-out star and, paradoxically, showing how different the DCnU is.

This story is the type of story that I'd like to see more often in "Batman."  After seeing the "Dark Knight Rises," I commented to my boyfriend that the only negative for me was that Batman isn't exactly the type of guy to save cities from neutron bombs.  He is, however, the type of guy to save bullied gay kids from their tormentors and overburdened teenaged sisters from their anxieties.  This story remind us of that.  I can't wait to see where you go, Harper Row!

Batman and Robin #12:  Every time I start liking this series, Tomasi does something to ruin it.  This issue is a case in point.

First, Terminus' reveal is unforgivably convenient here.  Why tell Batman about the warhead?  Had he not told Batman about the warhead, he could've actually achieved his goal, watching Batman realize that he had failed Gotham right before he died.  But, by going all super-villain and telling Batman his plan, Terminus ensures that Batman has enough time to defuse the warhead and save Gotham.  It's WAY too convenient and I can't believe that the editors actually let it pass.

Second, Tomasi knows that the Red Hood is in space, right?  I mean, even if he weren't in space (though he is), I'm not sure that Tomasi got the memo that Jason isn't really on speaking terms with the Bat-family.  Other than his interaction with Tim in "Red Hood and the Outlaws" #8, Jason hasn't directly encountered any members of the Bat-family (as far as I can remember) except in this title.  His appearances in this title feel odd as a result, like Tomasi is telling a DCU story while everyone else is telling a DCnU one.

Third, we never learn who Terminus is!  He hates Batman so much for what he did to him, going so far as to taunt him, telling him to say his name.  But, Batman doesn't know it, and we never return to it before Terminus dies.

Fourth, am I really supposed to believe the Iron Bat armor fits in the Batmobile?

Finally, the "War of the Robins" ends with a whimper.  I was waiting for some great emotionally driven battle between Damian and Dick, where Dick reminded Damian that he didn't have to prove himself.  Instead, Dick just hurls him his escrima stick and makes a crack about Damian being the one wearing the uniform.  That's it.  The whole big emotional reveal of the "War of the Robins" was a tossed stick and a quick quip.

This title just really frustrates me.  As I've mentioned previously, I get it because it's pretty much the only opportunity for me to see Damian, who I enjoy.  But, Tomasi is making it harder and harder for me to justify spending $2.99 when every few steps we take forward we eventually wind up taking back.

Nightwing #12:  The main problem with this issue is one that I've encountered in several other DCnU series, namely, the failure to fully sketch out the goals and motivations of a new villain.  Here, I was specifically unsure if I was supposed to recognize who Paragon was when he took off his mask.  Super-villians generally don't just reveal their identity to superheroes; they usually do it only because they've been driven to crime as a result of something that the superhero did, and, in revealing their identity, they show the superhero how he failed him/her.  (It's what Terminus tried to do in "Batman and Robin" #12, except Batman didn't know who he was.)  However, Higgins never tells us who Paragon was or why, possibly, Dick would know him.  I mean, you'd figure that someone who allegedly mastered thermodynamics and built some sort of reactor before the age of sixteen would be a known property, but, if Dick recognized him, he didn't give any indication.

Moreover, Higgins muddies the waters when it comes to the Republic of Tomorrow.  I had thought that it was essentially a cult of personality built around Paragon, but, after this issue, I'm not so sure.  We learn that Dick apparently saved all the lives of Paragon and the Strayhorn brothers in issue #3, an act that causes the brothers to question their membership in a group that wants to overthrow exactly the type of costumed superhero who just saved their lives.  After they decided to leave the group, Paragon kills them and frames it on Dick to make it into a rallying cry.  I get all that.  But, Paragon says that he "took over the group," which implies the Strayhorns were running it before he killed them.  It begs the question, then:  why did the Strayhorns want to take down costumed heroes?  It seems pretty ambitious for a non-madman, so they had to have some motivation.  But, Higgins doesn't really clarify that part, just like he doesn't really give us Paragon's motivation, including just some vague comment about fighting for what he think Gotham really needs.  I think sometimes that authors forget that not everyone can be the Joker, spreading chaos just to spread chaos. 

Despite the failings of the villain, Higgins does a pretty decent job with Dick's supporting cast.  I'm glad to see Detective Nie make some progress here.  After the somewhat stereotypically gay portrayals in "Batman" and "Superboy" #12, it's nice to see an adult gay man playing a role that has nothing to do with his sexuality, similar to Alan Scott in "Earth 2."  I'm hoping that we see more of him.  I'm also hoping that we see more of Sonia Branch, whose "relationship" with Dick continues to intrigue me.  To be honest, I'm reading this series much more for these insights into Dick's private life than I am his antics at Nightwing at this point.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #12:  Lobdell delivers possibly his strongest issue to date.  Finally.

I liked several things about this issue.  First, I like that Lobdell lets Roy get the win.  When the cover identified a "red knight to the rescue," I was pretty sure that it was referring to Jason rescuing Roy.  Instead, it's Roy rescuing Komand'r.  Second, along those lines, Lobdell successfully pulls off a bait and switch, revealing that Komand'r was pretending to cooperate with the Blight to help keep it from destroying her people.  To be honest, I totally buy this reason, particularly because I didn't necessarily know how Lobdell was going to justify Komand'r selling out her people to the Blight.  (I'm not saying that he isn't going to reveal at the end that Komand'r was working for the Blight all along, but, at least for now, I buy this explanation.)  Third, we finally get the characters showing some emotions.  Jason is downright psychologically grounded in this issue and I thought Lobdell did a good job getting him to try to get Roy to take some credit for saving Komand'r.  The "team" has been together enough time to start forming bonds to each other, and Jason acting like a friend, and not just bro, to Roy is a great start.  I'm equally pleased that Lobdell has Koriand'r not just treat Roy as a boy toy, showing real emotions towards him.  It's almost like the three of them are real people now!  Hurrah!

I'm excited about the Koriand'r and Komand'r v. the Blight battle coming in two months.  I really want this title to ditch demons and space, but, as long as Lobdell is telling a good story, at this point, I'm willing to go with it.