Streets Paved With Depression And Despair — Reviewing ‘Nightwing’ #140

Blüdhaven used to be Gotham but with a shinier surface level that somewhat masked the darkness at it’s very foundations. Thanks to the mayor’s new superhighway, the shininess and hope has washed away, replaced by darkness and despair.

Unfortunately for the city, its inhabitants, and the vigilante sworn to protect them, there is something even more nefarious behind it all. Nightwing #140 peels back the curtain even further as Dan Watters, Denys Cowan, Norm Rapmund, Francesco Segala, and Wes Abbott present the fifth chapter of the current story arc.

-Spoilers Follow-

Hot damn. Month after month, this series continues to present something darkly unique but also so perfectly attuned to its protagonist. In the ongoing story of the Watters-led run, there was some crime and street level stuff but the fantastical of the Cirque du Sin was at the forefront. Something beyond human comprehension is at work, but the overall focus and effects center on human nature.

Digging into the toy box, Watters dusted off Charles Halstead, the original Justice Society fighting Psycho-Pirate. Not the modern one that wears the Medusa Mask that manipulates emotions, but the older one who manipulated emotions and minds with mere words. Halstead is at the center of a murder mystery, only for it to be revealed that he is the mastermind behind Mayor Bisogni’s superhighway.

This removes hope from the people, reducing them to desperate shells stuck in a cycle of the mundane. They have no aspirations for anything, be it crime or other non-crime related things. This makes the inner-city neighborhoods unlivable, turning parks into junctions, paving over parks and living spaces, pouring exhaust through the suburbs, and generally erasing much of the joy or love that could be found in this city.

Everything delivered is so raw and painful, making us feel things about a cannibal having to step up and be the one to end the threat of Halstead. This man committed atrocious crimes pushed to a breaking point because even he could see this was all wrong.

Once again, Cowan rises to the occasion to deliver a gritty and scratchy style of artwork. It’s rife with the right amount of rougher textures that befit how hard this story has to go and hit. Everything is weighty in presentation as the panels give so much detail and openness with how they are laid out. Backdrops are left neutral as the overwhelming dread has sapped the skies of their twinkle. Rapmund’s inks help bring those elements even more to the front as they add a different kind of weight and definition.

Naturally, the color palette which Segala utilizes taps into these same tonal aspects. He’s going for a more washed out, toned down appearance that again works to signify how melancholy and depressed the overall city has become. Interior spaces like the bars and Cannibal Colm’s house are where some of the more striking darker and heavier colors come into play. A very blood red hue to the lighting in Colm’s place connects to the character’s bloody path. This contrasts the story he’s telling and the bit of conscience or whatever might actually have a kernel within him still.

A level of desperation is evident in many of the voices, except those like Halstead and Bisogni who are resolute in what they are doing. Gone is Nightwing’s usual jovial nature; left behind four issues ago when the whole affair with the witch, the car crash, and the road changed everything. A broken and angry man is in his place and we see that in the visuals but hear it plain as day in how Abbott delivers the dialogue. As the long-time letterer, he’s seen the vigilante through some times, and knows how to best create the right atmosphere.

So much is told to us through the captions, some of them from an omnipresent style narrator. Their flow and power radiates through each and every page they are present upon. Immersing the reader deep into what is happening in a way that always supplements the other artwork, as should be the case.

Nightwing #140 is now available from DC Comics.