Nightwing #59: City Ablaze

Ric trains with Malcolm Hutch, red Nightwing by night and deputy fire chief by day. The two encounter an out of control blaze and jump in, feet first, to assist. But they’re confronted by the cause of the fire, a menacing creature composed of the flames themselves.

Opening with some team bonding through combat training and closing with that character building paying off at least shows that Dan Jurgens can still craft a story inside a fundamental framework. His character voices and motivations are interesting even when they veer towards the cliché. At times it feels like there’s a fair bit going on without much actually happening though. Jurgens writing style is a little above average, something kinder than serviceable, but ultimately this issue only progresses the larger story in small increments. The amnesiac angle, which was interesting at the start, is really faltering. The team Nightwing angle remains interesting but isn’t really exploring its limits yet. This book has some interesting ideas but should feel like it’s heading towards something. Instead, we just get a well-written issue with a generic new threat that is yet to deliver any truly great heights. When Dick Grayson is your titular character, great heights should be the dizzying norm.

The art by Chris Mooneyham isn’t terrible. But the strength is really in the layouts and some of the expression work, with some decent splash panels thrown in, rather than the finishes.

If you could imagine Klaus Janson inking over a current-day Neal Adams that’s sort of what we get here. It’s a style that’s better suited to Five Ghosts or Planet of the Apes, and only really works in part because Bludhaven is supposed to be full of crime-ridden grit.

Nick Filardi has done emphatic work coloring the world of WWE and on Godland. The muted tones of the front two-thirds of the book and the drenched-in-fire last third really don’t leave him a lot to do but he does what he can. It’s an even contribution to a book where there are four Nightwings and an urban sprawl ablaze. There should be more for a good colorist to sink their teeth into.

That goes the same for the letter work by AndWorld design. A capable job of the training sequences action effects is let down by a missed opportunity to really shine in the blazing inferno of the last few pages.