Nightwing #26

Does Nightwing consciously choose the stupidest poses he can think of? This is the guy who constantly squat falls around Gotham.

Looking at my Rankings, Nightwing has really fallen far! It's not because of the quality of this comic book although I really haven't been enjoying it as much as I used to. But I'm beginning to notice the overall quality of all of DC's comic books are steadily increasing. I keep seeing titles down in the thirties and forties and thinking they should be so much higher. Then I quickly glance up the list and can't decide which comics should be lower than that comic. So I just leave it alone to let people wonder how I could possibly hate Lemire's run on Green Arrow so much.

Helpful note: I don't. Another helpful note: My rankings barely mean anything.

I have a feeling if a lot of DC's fans didn't feel betrayed by DC retooling the characters and deleting random aspects of their pasts, they would actually still enjoy a lot of the current comic books DC is putting together. I can see how the bond can easily be lost when the company that owns the character tells you the character is not the same character you always loved. So I don't think anybody should be convinced to like the new DC stuff. They'll either continue to give it a chance or leave it. That's the way it should be in a case like this. I'm enjoying more than I'm disliking now (which wasn't the case a year ago) but I still think DC has one major weak point to get over: character building.

When the Reboot began, DC put all of their efforts into "world building." The back of every comic tried to hammer it home to the fans: "We're world building! World Building! WORLD BUILDING!" Lots of comic books crossed over to other comic books to let the fans know how intertwined The New 52 was and how all the stories were taking place on the same world. But the character building really kind of fell to the wayside as the plots and crossovers pushed past and took front and center. Some comic books, like The Flash and Batwoman, went the opposite route and built their worlds around their characters instead of shoving their characters into the world they were building. These comic books are much better off two years down the road than many others. They're really well established and I feel a bond with those characters over many others. Something like Scott Snyder's Batman turned the world into one of the main characters by treating Gotham as Batman's confidant and, possibly if you want to read it this way, his lover. Some books like Azzarello's Wonder Woman were gloriously fun and interesting even though Wonder Woman's character has been a bit of a blank. But he's built her up through her actions and empathy and compassion which show through in her interactions with her siblings as she tries to help Zola and Zeke. But as to her past or history or why the fuck she's set up in London? Nothing! It doesn't hurt that book though because everything else is so fantastic.

This isn't some kind of year end review of The New 52 though, so I'd better stop there and read about Nightwing and his stupid poses.

This issue begins with Nightwing discussing an element that was just recently found a decade ago, named Kanium, which has become the main compound in a new anti-psychotic. That seems fucking weird. They're going to use a radioactive element in an oral medication? I'm assuming it's extremely radioactive if it was discovered just a decade ago. Aren't all the newest elements completely unstable and exist nowhere but in super colliders? I could be way off base with this because I'm digging deep in the caverns of my pseudo-knowledge logic banks and not discussing this at all with Lord Google because we're having a bit of a spat. It is not porn related! Really!

Anyway, somebody has been stealing all of the Kanium from Chicago area hospitals. And Nightwing has set up a trap to discover the culprit!

It's someone named Mali the Mimic. He obviously recognizes her huge butt crack.

Nightwing manages to stop Mali from making off with the Kanium although I think he might have destroyed it in the process. Mali also informs Nightwing, while arguing with herself, that she now goes by the name Marionette. She also gets away so she can return again in six issues where I'll have forgotten all about her.

Except this issue is called "Some Strings Attached" which means she'll be back in the next act.

Dick and Joey have moved out of the apartment they shared with the photographer whose name I can't, unsurprisingly, remember. Unless he moved in with them because Dick did mention it was a three bedroom! So he's probably still hanging out with them but he probably works during the day so he's not home when Dick returns from Nightwinging around the city. But there is a friend of Joey's, a young girl with orange hair named Jen. Look out, Jen! I don't know how old you are but I'm fairly certain Dick is into you.

Oh, there's the other roommate, Michael. And it looks like Dick is already going to ditch his new job to follow this cop's lead.

Oh. The cop apparently meant "especially after this morning" because Dick's first question is, "What, uh, happened this morning?" That's good to know. Dick can keep his job working a place where he gets to hear cops talk about their cases so that Nightwing can go out and beat them to the arrest. He really is a show off, isn't he? That Zero Year issue was no lie!

Later that night, Nightwing's Narration Box gets hijacked by the cop from earlier. He's there on a stakeout with Michael to see if the mask shows up. He doesn't know her name is Marionette but Nightwing does and Nightwing is there too! Because he's a fucking scene stealing bitch ass wanna be cop. He's also probably the only person that can stop Marionette. Although if she does mimic people, if the Chicago cops go after her, won't she mimic them, become corrupt, and turn against herself?

Nightwing's attempt to apprehend Marionette is interrupted by a criminal that was finally tired of getting his ass handed to him by Batman and decided to give Chicago a try.

Looks like he got some dental work done as well.

Michael and Detective Morgan are under his spell even though they're not wearing hats, just like the other drooling cops. It looks like The Mad Hatter has designed an anti-hat brainwashing technique that uses a frequency broadcast over a person's cell phone. It seems a bit of a cheat but I suppose cell phones are really just our modern day headgear.

Nightwing #26 Rating: No change. I bet The Mad Hatter is pissed that he just walked in on Nightwing after he came all the way from Gotham City to get away from the Bat Family. But what better place to come than Chicago which has outlawed masks, right? It's like when a city outlaws gun, gun crime supposedly goes way up. You know what might make crime go way down in a city whether or not guns are outlawed? Allow people to booby trap their homes! So everybody's house would be as dangerous as a room in one of the Cube movies or a sequel to Saw! Oh, sure. A lot of innocent people will be killed and lots of random chaos will be caused by squirrels and stray cats, but what is the alternative? Possibly getting your stereo and jewelry stolen? Fuck that shit! That shit is mine! I'd rather random, innocent people were maimed, beheaded, and eviscerated all over the city before any of my shit was taken away from me!