Nightwing #134 – Dan Watters, Writer; V. Ken Marion, Artist; Veronica Gandini, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The dark story of the Zanni and Olivia Pearce is reaching its apex, with Dick having entered a twisted circus in the spirit realm with the help of Martian Manhunter. As J’onn tries to explain to Barbara why this has to happen and Bryce continues to languish in a coma with kryptonite poisoning, Nightwing continues to descend into a nightmare world. This is clearly where Dan Watters gets to indulge in his taste for horror, as he creates an upside-down world filled with disturbing visuals. But when the Zanni challenges Dick to a game for control of the circus, things start getting all too real. The Zanni, with the help of the undead Olivia Pearce, has begun kidnapping children from around Bludhaven, including a literal baby. If Dick wins a series of twisted games, the children go home. But if the Zanni wins, Dick stays in the circus forever – and becomes its ringmaster of pain.
The first game is a simple carnival game of tossing balls to knock over tin cans, the predecessor of the carny games that are fleecing people at fairs to this day. But there’s a dark twist to it, of course – the cans reflect Bludhaven, and whatever happens to them happens to the city’s buildings. While Dick is struggling to balance this devil’s bargain, Barbara and J’onn desperately try to prevent the city from collapsing in on itself. The dark visuals of this issue make for a nice contrast with the more action-packed segments, and it’s interesting that this ties in so heavily with the 5th dimension stuff that Tom Taylor debuted with Nite-Mite. The concept is so often used with more comic elements in the Superman books that it’s pretty rare to see it used for horror, like it was very effectively during the Emperor Joker story long ago. This has been set up nightly for a big conclusion.
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