Nightwing #101 // Review
The king of Vlatava has been found forty feet down under twenty tons of concrete and steel. The gentleman in question was found under the Titans’ tower. So naturally, there’s going to be a bit of a concern about the whole thing. Officials will show up, and the investigation will be led by the leader of the Titans in Nightwing #101. Writer Tom Taylor launches a fun mystery in the latest issue of Grayson’s saga. It is conjured for the page by artist Travis Moore and colorist Adriano Lucas. The specifics of the mystery aren’t nearly as interesting as Taylor’s execution of it. The art team helps him immeasurably.
The king of Vlatava was last seen in his home nation just a couple of days ago. This is intriguing, as he’s been dead for a couple of weeks. It’s clear that the Titans are being framed for the death of the head of state of a foreign nation. It’s only a matter of time before things get really, really ugly for everyone involved. Nightwing only has a brief amount of time to handle it all before everything blows up. It won’t be easy getting to the bottom of things since magic is involved.
Taylor works with the ensemble of the Titans in a way that feels very much...like an issue of the Titans. Nightwing IS featured pretty prominently in the center of it all, but the story lacks a focus on the title character that feels relatively weak. Taylor DOES seem to be setting up a lot in the first issue of a new storyline, but he’s doing so in a way that is pretty far removed from the title’s central character. And so it doesn’t really have the charm that the title has been gathering lately.
Moore finds sinister power...in a smile. It’s not easy for any artist to carry off without amplifying grins in twisted menace. Moore follows the villain of the title in a way that feels suitably chilling without any sense of amplification at all. Though superpowers DO rest at the heart of the story, so much of the issue is leaning directly into the drama, which suits Moore’s style well. The big impact of Starfire’s power in excavating the body of the late monarch hits the page with added depth courtesy of Lucas’s radiant color work.
Taylor and Moore have a solid story going that feels like it wouldn’t be quite the same in any other genre. It’s very, very difficult to put together a murder mystery story that fits the unique form and style of a superhero story, but Taylor and Moore have presented an entertaining premise that could work well for the next few issues of the series even if they’re not totally centered on the title character. Nightwing deserves a title more closely aligned with him. In time, things might line up for him in that fashion, but the 101st issue is spending a lot of time setting up conflicts for the future.
