A Good Human And Their Good Dog — Reviewing ‘Nightwing’ #129

A nice big simmering bowl of chicken soup can sooth the soul as well as a sick or weary body. So what can a metaphorical created in the mind soup do for a fifth dimensional warping reality while trapped in Titan’s Tower?

Nightwing #129 answers that question, and more, as the series brings an end to its current story arc. Heroes collide in this installment from Dan Watters, Dexter Soy, Veronica Gandini, and Wes Abbott.

Nightwing is one of those characters that I somewhat found a bit later in life. I wasn’t reading a lot of DC Comics as a child, and if it wasn’t showing up in the 90s era DC Animated Shows or Batman films, I wasn’t in the know. All my attention was on small bits of Marvel and some of Archie era Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Much like Rich Rider/Nova over at Marvel, once I read stuff with Dick Grayson I was hooked. He’s my guy and I’m beyond thrilled to have been here for a couple years now of really good Nightwing stories. This current run though, damn, chef kiss all around. The last one was great and brought him back as the heart of the DC Universe. This one is going even further at mixing up the genres and digging deep into the man behind the mask.

Similarly, Watters is a writer I wasn’t familiar with till recently. Just like Nightwing though, I’ve become an instant fan. There is just so much depth, thought, emotion, and more on these pages. Everything that is Nightwing and the characters around him is baked into the pages themselves, radiating out with power and force.

This story had every opportunity to be an over-the-top silly situation. Nothing wrong with that, as I adore silly over the top comic book stories. The medium is built on a lot of that, especially in the superhero realms. Instead, Watters found a way to take a character like Nite-Mite and really wring the heart out of this story in major ways. This turns his situation into a horrific painful experience, that tugs at every heartstring that exists.

That’s why Soy is one of the best artists for this sort of thing. His dense rich artwork is rough and sharp to the touch with so many angles and dramatic takes. It’s mixed with a softer and more whimsical energy that befits such a bold hero like Nightwing. This allows the story to have that fun free style that it evokes, mixed with a more real and firm energy that plays to the horror vibes. So far, Soy has pulled off every single sort of genre or focus shift that the title has asked for.

From the street gang war crimes to supernatural clown entities to this reality altering horror show. Nite-Mite still has that animated kind of silliness to him as we see him, but also horrific. Emotions are important always, but even more so with a story of this depth type. There is no question about who feels what and how it’s working in this artwork. Body language, facial expression, and more are on point as they join the depth of detail and density that we see on the page.

All of that can be said in similar ways about the color palette. I’ve written about Gandini’s color work on quite a few titles at this point, and I’m always glad to see her name in the credits. She hits those powerful mixed heights with the levels of darkness, lightness, and middle ground coming together. That builds this world with a palette that hits neutral levels to create spaces that feel familiar to us just at a glance. Having those toned-down colors allows for a solid foundation allows vibrancy and heavier darkness to rest easily.

They’re not fighting for dominance. Instead, they bleed together, waxing and waning as needed for the moment. Reminding us that this is a superhero story but also a horror story of sorts. There is a heavy richness that is felt in these colors that lets them stand out while also standing back.

Colors play a part in the lettering visuals as well. Abbott is Nightwing’s voice in many respects, because he’s been doing the lettering of this character for years now. He takes what is in the script and adds it to the page with emotional energy, flair, and visual pop, making sure it flows and sounds great while also being accurate to the feelings, tone, and volume we need to hear in our heads.

Great lettering is lettering that stands out because of the visuals, but also because as you read it you don’t even think about how great it actually is. This allows the voices of these characters to grow within our minds so that we truly hear them with every single word that we take in. Nightwing lives in my head, and Abbott plays no small part in that fact at this point.

Nightwing #129 is now available from DC Comics.