Posted in: Comics, DC Comics, Review | Tagged: barbara gordon, batgirl, Batman, Benjamin Percy, Chris Mooneyham, dc comics, dick grayson, klaus janson, lalit kumar sharma, Nick Filardi, nightwing, sci-fi, Scott Hanna, superheroes

Nightwing #46 Review: Is Dick Grayson an Actual Luddite?

Nightwing is under attack from Wyrm, and he has drones infesting his body which give Wyrm power over him. Dick makes an escape from the creature and is saved by Batgirl, and she can deal help with the problem of the drones. The two work to find the source of Mirage's power while the acting mayor of Bludhaven actively gives further authority to the company to transform the city. Nightwing thinks he knows who is behind it all, though.

"Bleeding Edge" is coming dangerously close to a 1990s movie about the dangers of the internet. The Luddite tendencies of this comic were ignorable, because it seemed to be going for a more nuanced approach. That nuance is mostly lost in this issue; it's buried somewhere beneath a mound of tech puns and clichés.

The kicker is that this issue implies the bad guy is exactly who I really hoped it wasn't going to be. Sure, make the guy with cybernetic prosthetics the villain behind the technology corporation; that doesn't come off as uncomfortable at all.

Even this wouldn't be so bad if this book didn't go down numerous tangents and digressions, leaving the plot to feel a bit bloated and slower than it should be.

All problems considered, I still don't quite hate Nightwing #46. Some of the Dick Grayson charm is still in there, and I'm not going to say no to Batgirl as a guest star.

Chris Mooneyham is joined by Lalit Kumar Sharma as artist on this issue. The two have very complementary styles, giving Bludhaven a gritty aesthetic joined by the energy and kinetics of Nightwing and Batgirl. The technology of Mirage has bit of a stale design, but it's not visually ugly either. Nick Filardi is the color artist, and he gives the world a darker tone that could use a little more brightness for balance.

Nightwing #46 is a bit of a disappointing read. It relies on stale tech horror clichés and bad puns, and the story is going a little too slow for its own good. The art is solid enough, but it's not enough to pull this comic into recommendation territory. I can't say to stay away from it either, but it is a dull book on the whole.

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