Monthly Archives: October 2012

End Of The Starfire

By: Andrew Hines

This has been  good book from the start. I mean, I know we were all shocked by the way Kori was dressed in the first few issues, but thankfully that's been changed in the last few issues. There's a great team dynamic here in the fact that while nobody but Roy would admit it, they really do need each other in order to stay focused and grounded. There've certainly been some changes in their relationships with the Bat-Family and even their own, but the new normal is starting to grow on me. It just all seems to work much better now.

Scott Lobdell's been doing a great job on the writing since the first issue. I wasn't sure where it was going at first, but it looks like the only origin story left to tackle is Roy's. Again, character interaction and their relationships with the others on the "team" is interesting. I like the way they're headed with Starfire's story. Hopefully we get to see more of Tamaran in the future. The pacing has been good in this issue and it ends on a sort of bittersweet note. It doesn't seem at all clichéd, which is a rarity these days. The dialogue is good as is Roy's narrative intro. We don't see as much of Jason this time, though, which makes me sort of sad. That's really the only thing wrong with the writing here. Not enough Jason, but then this was intended to be a very Kori-centric issue, so I'll allow it.

Timothy Green II's artwork, combined with Blond's colors is pretty good, as you can see at right. The whole thing looks quite similar to Kenneth Rocafort's style, if slightly heavy on inks. This is one of the few titles where there isn't an additional name to work on inks. It's just the artist and the colorist, who work well together. This first page is a good example of that, at least in my opinion. The shadows are a nice effect here and the lighting is great throughout the issue. The effects in general are pretty impressive. I'd love to keep going on this, but if you can see what i'm talking about, just in the first page, do I really need to?

This gets an "A-", primarily because the cover's quite misleading. Well, there's that and I know that with "Death of the Family" around the corner, it's gonna be a whole lot better.

And Now For Something Completely Different

By: Andrew Hines

The great thing about DCU Presents is that you can just pick out the few with a storyline and characters that grab your attention. It's perfect for the picky completist in all of us comic geeks. This one in particular gives us two cool bench warmer heroes in one great starter issue. Blue Devil and Black Lightning have been relative unknowns for a while, with the exception of the latter's appearance in Final Crisis. I really can't recall much about Blue Devil, save for the fact that I always loved the idea of him. He was mentioned a bit in Infinite Crisis, but hasn't had a starring role in quite a while. Anyway, this might be the time to learn more about him.

Marc Andreyko's writing here is very good. The pacing is great as are the character introductions, both in and out of "costume". The setting of Los Angeles is really cool and not something we've seen yet in the New 52. Then there's the inclusion of what looks like both Spanish and Portuguese. That alone is more than other writers have done in a long time. The interaction between Daniel Cassidy (Blue Devil) and Jefferson Pierce (Black Lightning) is about what you'd expect when a new superhero meets someone dressed like the devil. It ain't pretty. Again, gotta say that the pacing is pretty good for a four-part story arc such as this.

Return of Lady Shiva

By: Andrew Hines

There's been a lot going on in Dick's life since #1. His old "home" came back to town. (The dude grew up in the circus. It's complicated.) His old buddy came back from the dead, became a freelance assassin and came after Dick. Then, Mr. Grayson got handed ownership of Haly's Circus. He wants to employ everyone in a concrete location at the old amusement park of Gotham. Add to that someone framing Nightwing/Dick Grayson for a double homicide. That's where things get tricky. He's thwarted that and now two of his deadliest enemies have returned to Gotham.

Let's have a moment of silence for Kyle Higgins leaving Nightwing for this issue and the next. . . . Okay, now let's deal with Tom DeFalco's writing. Suffice it to say, it's average. Better than even the writing of Liefeld, but then again, it's Liefeld. DeFalco gives us some interesting pages, but it's not the best pacing. The dialogue is alright, but only really shines in a few panels. The action sequences are written well, but then we're partly back to the issue of pacing. Then there's the fact that the issue is supposed to be about Lady Shivabeing back in Gotham. She's only there for a page or two and has absolutely no lines. The writing could be a lot better, so here's me looking forward to issue 15.

Andres Guinaldo's art is pretty good and feels pretty consistent from issue to issue. the pencils are great and the different angles don't really change the look of the character much. For some artists, this is a problem, but Guinaldo, as I said, is quite consistent. Mark Irwin's inks lend themselves nicely to the nourish setting of Gotham. It pulls the pencils and colds together pretty well. This leads me to Rod Reis' colors, which are superb as usual. The dude rarely misses a beat. He really puts his all into it as is shown in the lighting on the page shown at right.

All things considered, this issue earns a "B-", which is probably the lowest grade I've given an issue of Nightwing to date. I say buy it if you're a completist or for the artwork, not the writing.