Nightwing 88

 

Tom Taylor's Nightwing run is one of the best comics I've read in a long time. It's fun, action-packed and absolutely beautiful thanks to Bruno Redondo. Bruno has an amazing ability to really bring emotion across in the facial expressions and body language of 2d page drawn people that, frankly, I've never seen done better. I totally should've shot some images of the pages so I could show you what I mean. I'll try to add some later or maybe next time. 

Bruno's art combined with Tom Taylor's heartfelt storytelling is just nailing all the feels for me. This book is everything I want Superheroes to be. I love that Dick has learned what being a good hero is. What failed before. How sometimes, the legends that came before him failed because their focus was on the wrong thing. It mirrors what we are seeing in our own society. How old systems don't serve the whole but a privileged few and sometimes no one but the system itself. Good systems have been corrupted and some, we learn, have never really been good at all. Dick trying a new approach and it being met with resistance from all sides and how he choses to move forward and who comes to aid in that are really making for a great comic.

Spoiler time.

The Titans showing up in this issue to back Dick was so good. The message about family. Too many of us find ourselves estranged from those who raised us or brought us into this world due to so many things. Empathy, politics, religion, identity, equity, understanding. No one can do it alone and most of us in our 40s have learned that the hard way. It's nice to see that in print. To see a found family so supportive & loving is a beautiful thing. 

Nightwing is such a positive, optimistic book in such a cynical, pessimistic time & that is really what I love about it. That's what I always loved about comics. That feeling that doing better was possible. Somewhere, sometime (the 90s), Superheroes really got depressing. The hope got lost. The "being our best selves & having empathy" just went right off the page. I'm glad it's back. It's good to find it again. It feels like home.