Nightwing #139: Remains

Nightwing’s’ turn toward horror and suspense continues in Nightwing #139. Watters once again uses the new superhighway as a basis to dig something up from Blüdhaven’s underbelly.

Watters picks up Nightwing #139 following Nightwing’s meeting with the prosecutor at the end of the previous issue. The storyline advances slightly and is good for a fair bit of tension early in the issue. It also provides a nice through line for these one-off “Blüdhaven Lore” issues that are all connected to the superhighway.

The larger story in Nightwing #139 is a fairly quiet one, at least for most of the issue. There’s no real antagonist and virtually no conflict. Nightwing is helping to identify long dead bodies discovered thanks to the new superhighway. This makes for a straightforward issue and a strangely human one. It also dovetails nicely with the continued fallout from the car crash Nightwing was at the center of in Nightwing #136. There is a kind of symmetry in Nightwing helping to identify these remains and close associated cases after earlier being accused of causing nine people’s deaths.

Dick is more expressive here than he has been in any Cowan drawn issue to this point. Much of this comes during a sequence where he is in costume in a morgue with a mask over the bottom half of his face. Cowan’s success here is ironic given that he has so little of Dick’s face to work with. Cowan widens and narrows Dick’s eyes as needed to add emotion to Dick’s dialogue. Unfortunately, for the rest of the issue, Dick’s expression remains largely static with the same slightly open-mouthed appearance in most panels.

Most other characters don’t suffer from this lack of expressiveness. Cowan uses a similar level of detail for all characters with thin, short lines often being used to accentuate features, especially around eyes and mouths. A greater level of nuance in these lines on other characters’ faces, combined with a tendency to vary characters’ mouths between being open and fully shut, add a range of expression that seems to never be the case when it comes to the series’ main character.

Cowan’s art is well suited to the overall feel of Nightwing #139, though. A major part of that is how he depicts the remains which have an almost inhuman quality, pushing into body horror territory. Additionally, there is definite moodiness late in the issue when Dick is walking along the waterfront on a rainy night.

Segala’s coloring isn’t faded but it is very soft. There is nothing in the issue that could be described as “bright,” and areas of contrast are gentle. Nightwing’s signature blue makes sure that he always stands out, but in a general sense nothing really ever leaps off the page due to coloring. Objects and people in the foreground have a good sense of dimension thanks to Segala’s subtle response to implied light sources. Backgrounds, though, have more of a static coloring without much suggestion of shadows.

This overall color softness plays well with Rapmund’s inks which themselves have a softer quality. There is a slightly thicker outline for characters but in general inked lines are thin.

Fornés’ use of the same blue as Nightwing’s costume for his caption boxes’ fill color makes them stand out particularly in this issue where many of the backgrounds are lighter. The only thing that stands out on the page as much as they do is Nightwing himself.