Nightwing #8

After seeing the lame treading water stories that came out of The Culling Preludes, I'm not exactly expecting a lot here.

Now that Nightwing has learned he was supposed to be a Talon and now that he's lost a tooth thanks to fucking Batman and his amazing fisticuffs dentistry, let's see what Nightwing plans to do with himself.

Except this issue isn't about Nightwing! It's about the Talon that is planning on killing Nightwing during the Night of the Owls! He was born in 1901 and here he is at 9 years old:

This is not an accurate portrayal of juggling three balls.

I learned to juggle one Thanksgiving when I was ten or so. I think I had three pairs of balled up socks and I was trying to juggle them like you would see on a cartoon: throwing all three around in the same direction. My older cousin who didn't actually know how to juggle but knew a lot more about it than I did told me that wasn't how it was done. He made kind of a motion how the balls were supposed to travel and I picked it up from that. By the end of the meal, I was juggling. Not really well. But I was doing it correctly and somewhat competently. The kid in the panel above just looks like he's throwing three balls in the air and smiling like a mental patient. "WHHHEEEE!"

Here he is doing wrong again! And smiling like a moron about it!

The boy's father had died while building a bridge and the boy was left on his own while his mother worked at a textiles factory. And she probably worked 12-16 hour shifts!

Are you kidding? You're nine years old in 1910! I'm surprised you don't have a family and a 60 hour a week job!

He was not supposed to be begging but what else could he do? He couldn't juggle very well!

Goddamnit! Now he's juggling four balls and he's doing an even worse job than three!

And now five! And it's a total fucking mess!

One day when the boy was throwing the balls into the air haphazardly, a man in the crowd had his wallet picked. The boy fired a ball at the thief's head, knocking him unconscious. The man whose wallet was saved offered the boy a new job. But then the scene moves to present day Gotham with Nightwing so I don't know if he offered the boy a job as a Talon or not.

Nightwing is busy breaking into the Gotham Police Evidence Locker to examine his baton found at the scene of that double murder a few issues ago when Alfred sends a message to the Bat-Gang.

How did Alfred get this list of victims?

Nightwing heads off to protect Mayor Hady. But isn't Mayor Hady an asshole? Let him die!
Nightwing arrives a bit too late to save a number of security guards and one of the councilmen. But stupid Mayor Hady is still alive. Isn't Mayor Hady the guy working with the Dollmaker over in Detective Comics?

Back to 1910, the young Talon has been offered a job to join Haly's circus.

They can bill him as The Boy Who Can Throw Six Balls Chaotically Into The Air!

The boy who couldn't juggle was given knives to throw at a human target! I don't know if his technique at knife throwing was any good though since I have no experience throwing knives. Except maybe a few small souvenir knives at the sides of redwoods. The boy became a local celebrity and soon feel in love with Amelia Crowne, the daughter of one of Gotham's elite families. This family was on the level of the Waynes or the Cobblepots or the Arkhams!

Back to the present, Nightwing continues to maim the Talon and the Talon continues to heal and keep coming. Doesn't Dick remember what Bruce said: the Talon's healing power can be nullified by the cold! Get the fucking ice cubes out, bitch!

Nightwing kills the one that was sent to assassinate Mayor Hady. But what about the one sent to kill Dick Grayson that can't fucking juggle to save his life?

See? I tried to fucking warn you, you idiot!

I don't know how William Cobb regenerated and got his ass out of the Batcave. Maybe that will take place in Batman #8. Even though this is a prelude! Batman should be more careful with his regenerating corpses.

Nightwing Issue #8 Rating: +1 Ranking. Consistently looks good. Consistently tells a solid story. I can overlook the poor juggling representation this time.