NIGHTWING #67
"Madhouse"
Mildly Recommended (5/10)
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DC Comics
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Pencils: Trevor McCarthy
Inks: Rob Stull & Marlo Alquiza
Colors: Gregory Wright & Digital Chameleon
Letters: Willie Schubert
Editor: Michael Wright
Price: $2.25 US/$3.75 CAN |
Dixon has crafted a fascinating drama in this series, focusing not so much on a young super-hero but on one city's crime scene through the eyes of a rookie cop. Unfortunately, my interest in the book has waned thanks to the new regular penciller and a plotline that seems to have stalled out. There's still plenty of potential in Nightwing, but it's not the title it used to be. Hopefully, Devin Grayson's forthcoming tenure as the title's regular writer will inject it with new life.
Prison guard Aaron Hellzinger, AKA Amygdala, is on an uncontrolled rampage in the Bludhaven prison, and the behemoth's rage is focused on Nightwing. The hero has two problems: he's reluctant to hurt Amygdala since he's not responsible for his actions, and at 800 pounds, he's not sure he could hurt the big guy if he wanted to. Meanwhile, the prison riot and fire provide plenty of distraction to allow Tad and Soames to escape from the prison.
McCarthy's art boasts a lot of energy and conveys action and motion well. But his strengths are overwhelmed by the inconsistencies in his characters. Amygdala is a constantly shifting mass of flesh, and his size and baldness are the only cues to let the reader know that he's the same character. The distorted approach in the art extends to other characters as well, notably the title character. Wright's colors convey the intensity of the fire raging through the prison nicely though.
Dixon's been building up to this prison escape for quite some time... a bit too long, actually. This is the third issue to focus on the event itself, and Soames and Tad seemed to talk about it for year. In the end, Dixon built things up so that I was expecting something a bit more... complex. Soames and Tad's escape ends up being pretty straightforward in the end, kind of anti-climactic. Fortunately, the escape is done with so the plot can finally start moving forward.
Though the action is choreographed well and the narration is sharp, in the end, this issue consists of little more than an extended change of blows between Nightwing and Amygdala. It doesn't hold one's interest for long, especially since the outcome is a given.
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