Sending In The Clowns — Reviewing ‘Nightwing’ #124

Something dark and ominous has come to Blüdhaven, playing a dangerous long game with Nightwing and others. It shifts its circus themed fingers through the streets, stirring up the gangs and police alike.

Wavering on the thin line between life and death, Dick Grayson comes face to face with his mysterious previously unknown foe. Dan Watters, Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini, and Wes Abbott deliver the next chapter of their show stopping new run.

This chapter hits such dark and ominous notes with a solid visual foundation.

Soy’s artwork comes with an inherently rough, almost sharp, texture to it at all times. This speaks to the overall tone that the story is going for. Whether action or quiet scenes, there is a sense of true depth and weight on every page through each panel. This allows the characters and the settings to feel adequately to scale for our minds, making sure that this world feels as wide and lived in as it should.

Shadows are everywhere, really playing into the stories darker nature.

Our characters’ faces are clear as day in showing off their emotions, even when they are holding back. Body and facial language are extremely on point here.

How Soy choses to use the panel space is what really helps each sequence. The full page reveal of the Zanni as they broke the fourth and all other walls to address us, the audience, is a nice touch. It allows the gray and whites of the costume and the background space really stand out. Turning potentially welcoming monochrome into something dangerous feeling.

Woven into all this is the color palette Gandini uses for the series. Plenty of flashier colors are sprinkled throughout but the majority is heavier and darker. Granted, part of that comes from the fact that it is night and many of inside spaces are dark as well. At the same time, it’s been part of this run so far, really playing up the growing oppressive or squeezing feeling that is happening to Nightwing and others.

The walls are closing in on them and through all the visual elements, we can truly feel that. This is not a story where hope and tenacity are guaranteed ways to success. Before our eyes, the dark plans of a likely supernatural force are coming true with Dick Grayson stuck in the very center.

Watters conveys that through the overall story, allowing the artwork to soak in even more of the energy. This really gets into who and what these characters are, allowing us to feel and hear them through and through as things unravel. I like the more subdued nature to Babs and Dick’s relationship here. Just soft spoken affirmation of their feelings and their knowledge of one another, even in the face of potential death.

How Watters has handled this story and its steps is really illuminating. What seemed like just a typical gang war story in Blüdhaven has evolved. Digging deeper, the story is pulling at strings that weren’t even visibly there previously. There is such a delicate care being taken here to make sure that every piece of the story, the overall machine, is intricately cared for, letting so much happen within this space that makes deep characters sense for those who inhabit it.

Keeping the voices clear and concise also falls to Abbott. He handles all that has been thrown his way on this series over the years with ease, allowing the different voices to ring across the page. Their unique and distinct elements intact and clear upon the page, moderating things as needed to make sure that tone, volume, intent, and emotional energy radiate through every letter.

Part of that modification comes with the dialogue specifically for figures like the Zanni. Just like the overall color scheme of the other artwork, there is a very monochrome effect in play for the Zanni dialogue. Once again, those color schemes are heightened in order to make them truly ominous and very creepy in respect, just dripping with dangerous intent hidden behind what should seem fun or sweet in some capacity.

Nightwing #124 is now available from DC Comics.