Best Friend Powers Activate! Reviewing ‘Nightwing’ #91

Sometimes all the superpowers in the world just can’t beat the power of the best friendship that has survived the end of and rebirth of the universe amongst many other obstacles.

With this issue of Nightwing, we get the second and last part of the two-issue semi-crossover that brought the Scarlet Speedster Wally West in to help his former Titan teammate and best friend deal with an assassin threat against him. What really stands out about this issue is the light humor/banter/heart-to-heart moments as well as the really great artwork from Geraldo Borges and Adriano Lucas.

It’s hard to really come into a book like this one where what regular artist Bruno Redondo, Lucas, and letterer Wes Abbott have done is not only solidly gorgeous across numerous issues but at times has been unprecedented (issue #87), but Borges makes it look easy. Borges’ work here is a really great addition to this book, very notably in the action scenes we get and of those especially the ones that feature the Flash in action.

There is a great weight to what we’re seeing, the speed effects and the bits of speed force lightning just really sell the whole thing really great. It feels like a man running and moving faster than any of us can fathom, from the body movements to the way it all moves across the page towards the eventual conclusion of any given action sequence. Lucas’ colors are fantastic in any given issue, and here they are tweaked a bit to really compliment Borges’ style and make things pop even more.

With the lettering Abbott continues to just make it all flow and work so well, reaching that wonderful point where not only are all the words full of personality but it really feels like you can ‘hear’ the voices of these characters we’ve known for so long. It’s not just the art that gets to have fun with Flash’s super-speed as even his dialogue is so different with the bubbles taking on an almost 3D-like stature with yellow borders and they multiply as he moves along the pages.

There are some great action scenes as mentioned above, the best parts of Tom Taylor’s writing here are the moments between Dick and Wally as well as the later resolution to the plot. These best friends together again catching up, talking about their lives, bouncing off one another is just so good to see again. One of the best things that Nightwing has done in this run so far is not only reestablishing Dick Grayson’s deep ties to the DC Universe (the Bat-family, Superman and Superman, Mr. Terrific, the Titans, and more just to name a few) but make the DC Universe as a whole just feel lived in and like a community.

We lost that feeling a bit during the big New 52 reboot when things were reset, and some came back with DC Rebirth but it still hadn’t reached its final former form that so many grew up loving. There are tons of things that should and need to change about comics, some of them are happening in the pages currently, but establishing deep relationship ties between the heroes and their supporting casts and the whole world is something ongoing comics need to embrace forever.

When it comes to La Agente Funèbre though, I’m of two minds. On the one hand, I’m a bit disappointed that this ‘mysterious’ villain was talked up so much in these issues as a “myth” and so deadly but is pretty much easily defeated thanks to the new suit Nightwing got a few issues ago. On the other hand, the resolution of that defeat and what it means for the book was really well done. Having Grayson utilize Funèbre’s system to set up tons of the best assassins so that they get busted by his super friends and therefore making Grayson an untouchable target (as Lady Shiva tells Blockbuster) is a pretty inspired choice.

This move also serves to settle one of the many plot threads that have been weaved into the story over the past few months, seemingly moving us closer to some other upcoming resolutions. Hopefully, the mention of an assassin missing a heart will bring Heartless back into the title soon, as that villain is very intriguing.

Nightwing #91 is now available from DC Comics.