Nightwing #13 Review

Though Nightwing #13 doesn't have one of those creepy, die-cut Joker covers, it has about as much to do with Death of the Family as any other ancillary Batman title released this month. That is to say -- expect plenty of pointless references to Joker's return that have no real bearing on the story at hand. Most glaring is a short sequence where Batgirl pops up out of nowhere to complain about not being prepared for a battle with Joker before disappearing just as quickly. I'm starting to think that the best course of action may be to avoid these books entirely for the next few months if this is what we can expect from Death of the Family tie-ins.

Elsewhere, guest writer Tom DeFalco eases in comfortably enough and continues the threads left open by Kyle Higgins. The issue provides a nice showcase of Dick's varied day and nighttime activities, the latter of which have taken on a new sense of urgency now hat Lady Shiva is back in town and Batman is off the grid. DeFalco is at his strongest during a showdown between Penguin and Nightwing where the former is begrudgingly helpful to his old enemy.

Unfortunately, bad dialogue and overwrought narration frequently drags the issue down. DeFalco's writing style is generally better suited for more lighthearted superhero fare, and he doesn't flourish in the seedier world of Gotham. His characters aren't always very convincing. The tone is fairly schizophrenic. Some characters like Batgirl are just flat-out annoying. Nor does Andres Guinaldo impress much with his pencils. His figures are loose and often distorted, and his action sequences simply aren't very engaging. Lady Shiva's new costume design, meanwhile, is another stinker in a long line of New 52 fashion faux pas.

In short, while there's some interesting material at play in this issue, the execution tends to fall flat. I'll be glad to welcome the regular creative team back in a couple months.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.

Source : ign[dot]com