Nightwing #103 – Tom Taylor, CS Pacat, Writers; Travis Moore, Vasco Georgiev, Eduardo Pansica/Julio Ferreira, Artists; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The turn to supernatural stories for the post-100 era of this title has been unusual, but if it’s a hint to the type of stories the Titans will be facing after the new title launches, it’s very welcome. This issue, the Titans are headed to hell—literally—to try to hack Neron’s soul bank and free Blockbuster’s daughter. While Neron is involved in a battle of wills with the demoness Blade, Dick and his team infiltrate a massive tower to find the most terrifying thing imaginable—a network run entirely by 1990s computers loaded with malware. The segment where Cyborg tries to hack them is one of the funniest of the run so far, but in the end the heroes do find the secret to potentially undo Neron’s contract.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a deal-with-the-devil story without the devil having some tricks up his sleeve. Neron is a great villain, but he’s rarely been used well since the original Underworld Unleashed story. Taylor gives him his charm back, making him an oily trickster who plays on Dick’s insecurities while his henchmen invade Themyscira where the girl is being hidden. The ending cliffhanger is a clever twist of Dick’s ultimate temptation, and it’s a nice tie-in to one of Taylor’s other books. Of course, as interesting as this series is, it’s also very clearly a backdoor pilot to Taylor’s next book—and on that note, this is the first book in a very long time that makes me think this group can still work as a team.
The backup, teaming Dick and Jon Kent, follows up on the mystery at the circus. Last issue revealed that the culprit was supposedly the woman who was endangered by the trapeze collapse—a surprising twist, to be sure, but one that comes with a great secondary twist that reveals the true motivation of the sabotage. It’s an excellent way to look at the atypical way Dick was raised and the way it would affect a child without actually looking back to his past. Of course, the mystery isn’t over yet, and there’s sill one twist to come.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
