Dick Grayson is fighting an uphill battle against corruption in Dan Watters’ Nightwing #124. Despite brokering an uneasy peace, a mad arms dealer instigates a war between the gangs and the Blüdhaven police. To make matters worse, Nightwing risks his life to help the gangs by any means. This includes taking it upon himself to shelter the Teddies and cure the mutant Flyboiz. The show continues below!
A Reckless Pursuit Of Justice
In the previous issue, Nightwing manages to track down the Flyboiz, only to realize they’ve become horribly mutated by radiation. After an exchange of sci-fi pseudo-science, the heroes come to the conclusion that blood transfusions would slow the spread of the mutation. The good news is that Nightwing petitions the Teddies as potential blood donors. Unfortunately, due to the gangs’ rivalry, they refuse to help. Honestly, it is understandable, considering some of the disfigurements as a result of their rivalry. Curiously, the issue opens up with Nightwing, Crystal, and the Teddies altogether. After re-reading issue #123, I’ve come to the conclusion that Nightwing likely left the Flyboiz hideout between issues.
As a result of infighting, Grayson ends up the only volunteer. Realistically, one person could not donate much more than one pint comfortably without issue, but Nightwing stupidly donates two cups and nearly dies. Consequently, the hero spends the rest of the issue weakened and seemingly hallucinating. Interestingly enough, Watters makes little effort to provide Nightwing with reasonable alternatives. For instance, he alleges that hospitals wouldn’t accept or give them the blood due to them being “nonhuman.” Furthermore, considering this story is a consequence of Absolute Power, ignoring positive outcomes like the Justice League Unlimited as a resource is odd. There isn’t anything stopping Nightwing from calling the Justice League, among other things, to help donate blood or treat the Flyboiz. Either way, Dick ends up in a ridiculous life-threatening state all alone.
Performance Anxiety
In the midst of Nightwing’s brush with death and the macabre, Dick finally comes face to face with Zanni yet again. In issue #122, Watters introduces a seemingly eschatological entity called Zanni. Batman and Robin then confronted Colombina and the Cirque Du Sin cultists. Now, Zanni; our partial narrator and big bad, taunts Nightwing from a dimension potentially between life and death. Claiming to be the spirit of performance, the villain theatrically breaks the fourth wall, directly addressing the reader and peeling back panels and reality at will. If his claims are true, Zanni may be one of Nightwing’s most powerful and cooler-looking foes yet. Dexter Soy’s rendition of the soullessly pale ringmaster is endlessly creepy and intimidating. The depictions of Zanni and the Cirque Du Sin lying in wait just outside of reality is a bone-chilling addition.
Speaking of the Cirque Du Sin, Mayor Grayson immediately eats crow after reluctantly accepting help from Olivia Pearce. Ignoring the public animal cruelty angle, Grayson-Lin signs off on Spheric’s ED-209 mech rip-offs known as “Wanderer-01s.” As predicted, Colombina’s mustache-twirling villain causes the mayor to admit the obvious. Yet, Watters and Soy add in a somewhat unnecessary physical transformation to enhance the creep factor. Nonetheless, she attacks more Teddies, even though Nightwing was sheltering some of them. In any case, even a child like Bryce understands that the gang war is silly. Except now, Bryce sees the police as the true enemy. It isn’t unreasonable to see how witnessing Nightwing fight the police or the police killing his brother would radicalize his beliefs. In fact, Watters insinuates this was the plan all along.
Recommended If…
- You’ve been enjoying this new era of Nightwing.
- Dan Watters is one of your favorite writers.
- You don’t mind Nightwing needing more than animal abuse to prove that an evil arms dealer is an evil arms dealer.
Overall
On With The Show is an underwhelming start to the Watters era of Nightwing. On the one hand, the arc introduces cool-looking and maleficent new villains like Zanni to Nightwing lore. Simultaneously, it can’t nail down its themes of belonging in gang culture, escalation of force, and whatever happens with the Cirque Du Sin. Highlights include the interesting lore and abilities of the Flyboiz and the mysterious Zanni. Frankly, this arc ends as an undercooked setup without saying very much over these last five chapters. What little it does sprinkle devolves into action sequences or ignores logic in favor of nonsensical political commentary or pushes dull plot devices. Going forward, I’d like to see more focus on the gangs and the development of characters like Bryce or Crystal.
Score: 6/10
