Nightwing #29 Review

The cover of Nightwing #29 shows a bruised and battered Dick Grayson facing down seemingly every bad guy he's ever encountered. I exaggerate, but the image is a fitting summation of the issues dealt with in the book -- we are shaped by our pasts, especially by our tragedies. While there's technically one issue left of the series, that's more a numerical technicality. Nightwing #29, by writer Kyle Higgins and artist Russell Dauterman, is the conclusion the character deserves. While not every unanswered question is answered (an impossible task considering the circumstances), the series is given a heartfelt and impactful finale. If you haven't read the issue yet, be forewarned: it's almost impossible to discuss it without verging into spoiler territory.

Last we saw, Dick's young friend, Jen, had found herself in a position that was all too familiar: her family had been taken from her in an unconscionable act of violence. She sets out to find the man who killed them in order to bring him to justice; unfortunately for her, that man is Victor Zsasz, one of the DCU's most effective psychopaths. Luckily, she has Nightwing on her side, in more ways than one. The book's structure is governed by Dick's monologue, delivered to a heartbroken Jen, who is just as lost as he once was. It almost feels like he's speaking directly to the reader, and his words echo with a universal truth. Identity is a construction fraught with tragedies and coincidences, and the person Dick has become is an amalgamation of the events of his past, for better or worse.

In a fortuitous and clever act of saving the best for last, the book's art, by Dauterman and colorist Pete Pantazis, is some of the best the series has seen. The violence of Nightwing's fight with Zsasz, the grief imbued in his memories, and the absolute joy of taking flight is brought to life beautifully. The full page splash of a smiling Dick leaping across a city's crumbling skyline is the heart of the character filtered into a single image, and the final page, showing him zipping up the Nightwing emblem on his chest, a small grin tugging at the corners of his lips, is the farewell the title deserves.

Melissa Grey wears Green Lantern pajamas to bed and writes stories for a living. She can be found on MyIGN at MelissaGrey or lurking on Twitter @meligrey.

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