Broken Frontier

Marv Wolfman’s first arc on his return to the character of Nightwing concludes as the mysteries behind the Raptor armor are finally revealed.

After the misfire of the immediate post-Infinite Crisis direction for Nightwing, Marv Wolfman’s initial four-part storyline has successfully forged a new direction for Dick Grayson. This month’s denouement concludes Nightwing’s involvement with the rogue Lexcorp division heads turned arms dealers who are intent on selling the stolen Raptor armor technology they "acquired" when Lexcorp went bankrupt to anyone looking to create their own super-powered army. It’s been a convoluted chase over the last few months as Nightwing has hunted down Jace Lorens, the small-time Lexcorp employee, who stole the deadly armor from the division heads not realizing its faulty design would fatally irradiate any wearer until it was too late. Lorens, in turn, has been desperately seeking out the scientists who created it hoping they can cure him. And the Lexcorp division heads have been searching for everyone who has come into contact with the armor and, with the aid of a mysterious assassin, eliminating them so they can clandestinely re-acquire it and sell it. And lurking in the shadows is the proposed buyer of the Raptor tech…

To a certain extent, the action of the main storyline is incidental. What is more noteworthy is the ease in which Wolfman has established a new status quo for Dick so quickly in the space of just four issues. Dick’s new locale (New York) and the new supporting cast he’s being surrounded with (whose stories will no doubt be expanded on in the months to come) have put all thoughts of the Blüdhaven years immediately to rest. There’s a very forward-looking feel to the book at the moment which, perhaps, has a certain irony given it’s written by the creator who turned Dick into Nightwing well over twenty years ago. Make no mistake though, this looks and feels like the definitive Dick Grayson. There’s an ease and comfort to Wolfman’s portrayal of the character that makes you feel like no one gets Nightwing quite like Marv does. Dick’s examination of his motivations for being a super-hero and introspection about the course of his life this issue attest to that.

A special mention has to be made for the art chores. The ever-reliable Dan Jurgens provides layouts, with Norm Rapmund and Rodney Ramos on finishes. The action sequences are never anything less than dynamic with the Big Reveal towards the end of the issue being particularly memorable.

Nightwing is a book to watch in the coming months. There’s some evidence that a new gallery of rogues may be built up for Dick given the unrevealed assassin who appeared in this arc and new villains Bride and Groom making a brief cameo this month ready for their starring roles in the next issue. There’s also an intriguing mix of more street-level threats with the bigger cosmic subplot of Nightwing’s escape from the death he was meant to have suffered in the Infinite Crisis, which is again alluded to in #128. And of course we still have the little matter of what happened between Barbara Gordon and Dick during the DCU’s "missing year" to further explore.

Who was it who said you can never go home again? Marv Wolfman is certainly proving them wrong on Nightwing…