Daily Archives: April 24, 2012

The cover to "Nightwing #8"

Issue eight is one of the best issues of Kyle Higgins’ run on the title. It hits spot on an interesting dynamic between a talon and Nightwing. Higgins knows how to make it personal, and oh, does he ever do it.

Issue eight picks up back in Gates of Gotham. To be specific, it is Gotham City in 1910. The narrator introduces us to the story he is about to tell: it is one of love. He remarks how he was not a true son of Gotham or being a descendant of a Wayne, Cobblepot, Elliot, or Crowne who are the elites of Gotham. To survive, this kid begs for money out in the street where many times he is performing some act such as juggling. This is much to the dismay of his mother who is not too happy about him doing this seeing it as embarrassing. He feels though he had no other choice when his family is not taking in much income to survive. However, one night a man steals something from the young boy, and throws a baseball at him. It turns out this man works for Haley’s Circus, seems to be a talon, and wants the young kid to join along. The narrative then moves back to the present day where Dick is investigating the Rossini murder that involved one of his Escrima sticks. As Dick is getting closer, Alfred calls upon the entire Bat family as the talons are getting ready to kill all of Gotham’s influential people. Dick goes off to protect Mayor Hady after he informs Alfred of this. As Dick is on his way, one of the talons makes his way there, and slices the head off of one of the councilmen meeting with the mayor. Luckily, Dick gets there in time to stop the talon before he gets to the mayor. We then move back to 1910. The narrator reflects about how the Haly’s Circus man had his eye on the young kid for weeks. His mother also was not fond to hear he’d been begging in the street. However, as he developed in the Circus, he became quite good and famous as a result. One night, he met Amelia Crowne, the daughter of Mr. Crowne, and they fell madly in love with one another. The narrative moves back to Dick’s fight with the talon. Then, the narrator remarks how everything was stripped in the months after Amelia and him feel in love.  After taking out the talon, the mayor remarks he has been killed. However, Dick notes he was already dead, and cannot be killed after that. However, the talon regenerates stabbing Dick with three knives, and the narrator reveals who he is…

This issue is perhaps one of my favorite issues of the series. Kyle Higgins is doing an excellent job of moving the narrative along. He knows Dick, and is certainly making use of this event wisely to develop Dick further as a character. Eddy Barrows is just amazing. He can do almost anything with his art, and he continues to nail every inch of this book completely. Not only do I look forward to seeing what comes next, I also do not want to see this team go anywhere but here.