Creative Team:
http://www.dcindexes.com/features/comic.php?comicid=131645
-
Writer: Kyle Higgins
-
Penciller: Eddy Barrows & Andres Guinaldo
-
Inkers: Eber Ferreira, Ruy José, & Mark Irwin
-
Colorist: Rod Reis & Peter Pantazis
-
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
-
Editor: Bobbie Chase & Brian Cunningham
-
Assistant Editor: Katie Kubert
Detailed Impression:
Nightwing
# 9
features an intense battle on the cover between Nightwing and his
great grandfather, the Talon named William Cobb. The figures are
dynamic, especially
Talon's,
and the scene is dramatic even
though Nightwing looks like he'd be equally engaged (if
slightly less bloody)
as a drummer in a metal band. One sort
of
wonky thing is that both
characters' upper bodies appear
too big to be supported on the relatively puny legs Barrows draws for
them.
Inside
the book, the
creative team continues
its work from the last issue
progressing
the battle and
relating
Cobb's origin through
numerous flashback sequences. Cobb's origin, as
well as that of the Grayson family line,
is deeply tied in with one
of the
five
leading families of old Gotham,
Haly's Circus, and the Court of Owls.
Barrows
handles the art chores for roughly two thirds of the issue. His pages
are as good as ever and the panel layouts contribute nicely to give
the action more of a sense of motion. Andres Guinaldo's pages are
generally well-drawn. However, his more traditional layouts are
visually less interesting. Additionally, and I don't know if this is
because of the multiple inkers and colorists involved in completing
the issue, some of Guinaldo's facial work looks pretty rough. In
all likelihood, Guinaldo and company were just in a rush to get the
pages done in order to back up Barrows who might have gotten behind.
The art shift is more disappointing because of the extremely lush
background work Barrows put in. Again, he was probably under a time
crunch, but Guinaldo's pages just don't have a comparable level of
detail although his action work is still pretty spectacular. His
action work looks its best in his first few
pages
showing Cobb
at the beginning of his career as a Talon.
Higgins
uses the fight scenes to good effect in order to provide
meta-commentary about the criticism directed toward Nightwing by, not
only other characters in the DCU, but also other members of the
larger comics fandom who
might
view
the character as a
poor man's imitation of Batman.
Higgins
responds
to the criticism via the dialog between Nightwing and Talon while
also pointing out that Cobb's view of the city is both myopic and
dated.
He
also
does
a fine job resolving the
battle in such a way as to highlight Nightwing's degree of skill and
strategy.
Overall Impression:
Issue
# 9 of Nightwing is not perfect. It is very good, but hindered by
multiple art teams. The situation is exacerbated by inconsistent
coloring; not that the
colorists are incapable, but having a single colorist could have
provided a unifying element to smooth out the differences between the
two pencillers and three inkers.
I
don't know if Cobb's origin story was Higgins' creation or that of
Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo who had first developed the character.
I do recall Higgins stating, in his “Fatman on Batman” interview,
that he came up with the origin of the Grayson family name which I
found to be really cool.
I've
complained ad nauseum about Snyder's Batman overshadowing
many other stories occurring
in the Bat-family of books. After Night of the Owls, Snyder relents
for a short while. This
allows Higgins and company
to do address their own
story arc over the course
of the next few issues developing
some plot points they established over all of their previous issues.
We'll see how that works out for them in upcoming reviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment