Nightwing #4 “South Beach Connection” – Written by Kyle Higgins – Art by Trevor McCarthy
Again, my apologies for another late review. While I wait for January 18th, when Batman, Catwoman, and Nightwing #5 come out, I thought that I would go back to give you all my thoughts on last month’s issue of Nightwing.
Well, we probably all saw what was coming (and what are money was giving us) when we saw the tagline on the front cover: “Double Trouble! Will Batgirl save Nightwing in time?” To put it bluntly, DC thought they’d throw us the old shape-shifting villain trick on us, and throw in Batgirl for some eye candy. Well, neither the crappy villain nor the eye candy was able to distract us from this month’s subpar issue.
Now don’t get me wrong. I like Nightwing. The fanboys like Nightwing. The girls love Nightwing. And judging by the first three issues, Kyle Higgins’ story is pretty good, too. Nightwing has just inherited Haley’s Circus, and he is being accused by a villain named Saiko that Nightwing/Dick Grayson is the most bloodthirsty villain in Gotham. Oh yeah, that leads me to another question: what happened to Saiko? We were left hanging in suspense in November, the last page issue #3 showing Saiko declare that he plans to kill Grayson. And for some reason, he is mysteriously absent in this issue. And Zane, Dick’s old rival who turned up in #3, what about him?
I have been noticing a consistency here, Batman #4, while still being a great comic, was not as good as Batman #3, and Catwoman #4 was by far not as good as the previous issues. Maybe this is just the “downtime month” before a next really good #5. Higgins can’t abandon the story he has been telling since last September, so I am sure that we will be seeing Saiko again soon…
Other than the diversion from the plot, I don’t have anything to complain about this issue. The art is good, the dialogue isn’t cheesy, and its fun seeing Barbara and Raya’s desire to cat fight over Dick. And also, the last two pages of this issue really give us something to look forward to in issue #5, when Dick finds an old book hidden in the tent of Haley’s Circus with a series of names on each page, his own being the last on the list. I personally am unsure about what this might mean, but Mr. Haley had given Dick a clue to look there, so it obviously is something that has to do with the history of the circus. So we got a slow issue last month, so I am going to guess that the next few issues will be packed with great action and plot.
