Nightwing #95 – Tom Taylor, Writer; Bruno Redondo, Artist; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Blockbuster has been Nightwing’s arch-nemesis going back to the 1990s, and Tom Taylor has absolutely been paying tribute to that with his own epic remix. While the masked Heartless has maybe been the most dramatic villain, Blockbuster has had the biggest impact—and this issue takes the chess match between them and turns it into a spectacular duel. We saw Blockbuster’s henchmen successfully capture Melinda Zucco at the end of last issue, setting up an interrogation—until Dick bursts in and dramatically rescues her. Meanwhile, as Sawyer and Turpin try to nail down the larger conspiracy, the former Commissioner MacLean is interrogated by Detectives—and soon turns up dead when they turn out to be in Blockbuster’s pockets. It seems like Desmond is going to get away with everything again—but Melinda has the secret files, and Dick is ready to bring in some heavy-duty backup to seal the deal.
The addition of Maggie Sawyer to this book is a great choice if only for the incredibly awkward reunion between her and Batwoman, but that’s quickly pushed aside as Dick brings in both the Bat-family and the Titans for an epic raid on every corner of Blockbuster’s empire—taking down several of his key operations in one go and seemingly making him more vulnerable than ever before. But that turns out to be a major misjudgment—Blockbuster isn’t Lex Luthor or even Kingpin. He may be a crime boss, but when he’s cornered he becomes a wild animal that lashes out at the things closest to his target. He sets up Nightwing to have no choice but to follow him into a trap, at which point he sets up a brutal devil’s bargain—and the issue ends in a way that may just permanently change the comic’s status quo. Every issue of this book seems to be tenser than the one before it, and we haven’t slowed down once.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
