Welcome to part two of this three part recap of Nightwing Volume No. 1: Better Than Batman. For this post I am going to cover issues #1-4. If you want to see how Nightwing reclaimed his name, check out my Better Than Batman part one recap, here.
Better Than Batman Part 1: In Romania a couple of ghouls are digging up a grave. One looks like a Victorian lady and I think her name is Doctor Leviticus (she seems to be referring to herself in the third person, so I am not 100% sure). The other one looks more like a zombie. They find a small box with an owl on it. It appears to be full of coins. Also, maybe the zombie is named Padurar? Does his name matter? No, because he gets shot right in the head. A guy who looks like the one who shot Lincoln March in the Nightwing Rebirth #1. He tells Doctor Leviticus to get to digging. (It is not clear what he is looking for yet.)
In Italy at the Teatro Regio Di Torino, a couple is watching an acrobat group performing. They are then attacked by a person dressed as a snake who yells, "Die for Kobra!" While that is happening Nightwing is narrating about his past, growing up as part of the "Flying Grayson's." How he found himself with Batman as his partner Robin and how now he is back to swinging from buildings as Nightwing. We see he is on stage with the performing acrobats and then he swings in and saves the couple from the snake dude. This rich couple is either in The Parliament of Owls or is important to them. (Remember that the Owls think that Nightwing is working for them now, so he has to put on a good show.)
In Greece later, Nightwing lands at the current gathering place of the Parliament of Owls. A woman wearing the now black owl mask calls a meeting to order. There are hundreds of screens with other members of the parliament. She tells Nightwing that they are not happy with him. (Basically, they are mad at him for not killing people.)
The Owls have decided that Nightwing needs a partner, a thief and outlaw by the name of Raptor. They will be working together and Nightwing better get on board with stealing and killing. He agrees to stopping other criminals and light intimidation. Nightwing is going to do things his way and they can take it or leave it. As he walks out, he does think that maybe that was not the best idea.
Back at the Batcave, Batman and Robin are sparing. Nightwing gives Robin some advice that results in Batman getting clocked right in the face. Batman dismisses Damian, who is happy to go play some video games. Dick apologizes for getting carried away and then proceeds to tell Bruce what the Owls want from him and asks what Bruce thinks. Bruce is a bit harsh saying that he will bankroll whatever Dick needs, but if Dick wants things his way, then he needs to get out there and do it. I think Dick was hoping for more, but takes it pretty well.
Later in Burnside, (a suburb of Gotham) Dick is dressed for a date with Barbara (Batgirl), but she is dressed for work in her full Batgirl outfit. He thought is was a date, but she points out the top of the bridge is not really a date location. She asks if she should go change but he tells her not to worry, he just wanted to say goodbye before he goes to play spy. She is still pretty mad about him lying about being dead and playing spy before. It is clear she just worried about him running around alone. At least in Gotham or with the Titans, someone has his back. Before they can talk about it more, there is a crime to go foil. They fall back into their usual banter as they jump off the building to fight crime. (Note: Dick promises to get Babs a nesting doll.)
In Moscow, Nightwing is saving another guy and creeping the guy out by telling him, "The Parliament sends its regards." Nightwing is narrating his thoughts about Bruce. He knows that he is lucky to have had Bruce to help him and let Dick be whatever he needed to be. After saving the guy, Dick goes to find that nesting doll for Barbara. While he is enjoying his find, his new partner, Raptor, rolls up on him. Nightwing tries to blow him off, but before he can leave Raptor kicks him to the ground and takes the nesting doll, asking who Barbara is. (This Raptor guy looks like the dude who killed Lincoln March and the zombie in the beginning.) Nightwing tries to fight back and Raptor taunts him, while beating him up and telling him that Batman was a shit teacher (paraphrasing).
Better than Batman Part 2: In Gotham city, in the past, Batman is holding a guy off the roof. A young Dick as Robin tells Batman that he should let the guy go. Batman does drop the guy off the roof, telling Robin that all criminals are liars and only fear will make them honest.
In Moscow now, Nightwing is trying to recover. Raptor kindly reminds him that he is Nightwing, he works for the Owls and now they are partners. Nightwing again tries to blow Raptor off, because dude attacked him, not good partner qualities. Raptor makes a funny point about how all heroes fight before teaming up and Nightwing cannot help but agree. The Owls have a mission for them, go rescue an Owl boat from the Kobra cult. Nightwing is finally sold on accepting some help, Batgirl did say he works better when on a team. Raptor calls out Buteo (name of a hawk) and whistles, a huge drone shows up.
In Tokyo, Batgirl gives Dick a call. She tells him that Gotham is crawling with heroes, so she decided to travel a bit. She asks if they can meet up, he agrees that once he is done with his mission he is down to meet and give her her gift.
We see that while he was talking to Barbara he was also jumping off the drone into the ocean. (Note: They see a shark, but it is pretty chill.) Nightwing asks about the drone's name and Raptor tells him it is all about branding. Raptor gives Nightwing a long lecture on symbols and selling your brand. Before they can talk about theme songs, Raptor is pulled under the water, for half a second Dick thinks about leaving Raptor to the Kobras, but he is a good guy, so he swims down to help. Raptor is fairing pretty well and actually breaks open a capsule of "shark attractant" to draw the sharks to attack the Kobra guy. (That is some Batman level planning ahead.) The cultists use snake DNA to mutate themselves.
Raptor explains it wasn't planning, he just tries to have all the things so he can jump first and figure out a plan. Nightwing thinks that is not a very Batman way of doing things. We see our two fellas fighting their way through the ship. In what looks like a med bay, Nightwing finds two large ladies that appear to be asleep. He moves the bed exposing a trap door. While he is doing that one of the ladies rises up and is definitely mutated. It is pretty gross as a smaller girl comes out of the belly of the bigger lady. (WTF?) Before the small girl can stab Nightwing, Raptor pushes him out of the way and kills the mutants. He gets a little stabbed in the process.
Raptor is mad at Nightwing for wandering off and continues to shit talk Batman. They go down into the trap door and it is full of refugees that had been kidnapped by the Kobra cult for genetic experiments. The Owls want the people too, so that they can basically be slaves in a new city the Parliament is building.
Later back in Greece, the lady Owl is calling another meeting to order. They are pleased with Nightwing and Raptor. Seems the ship and its cargo were delivered successfully. Nightwing is pretty pissed as the lady Owl gives them their next mission. Outside Nightwing tries to bolt, but Raptor stops him. Raptor is on to him and knows that he wants to take the Owls down. Nightwing is over Raptor and goes to punch him, but Raptor deflects it. Raptor goes on to call out Nightwing not scrapping the mission, the long game means Nightwing is going to have to do things he does like. Now Nightwing does punch Raptor right in the face.
Raptor is pretty chill about it and tells Nightwing that he has dirt on the Owls. He further points out that Batman lives with one foot in the dark. If Nightwing can trust Batman, then he can trust him too. Nightwing asks why Raptor cares and his reply is that he too is playing a long game.
Elsewhere, Barbara is now dressed for a date. She is leaving a message on Dick's voicemail. She had told him the location, but he is a no show.
Better Than Batman Part 3: Now, we are dumped right in the middle of a story in progress. Batgirl is shocked to see Raptor standing over someone he clearly killed, she is blaming Nightwing. Nightwing for his part is also shocked.
Earlier we see Nightwing and Raptor arriving at a compound looking place in Norway. It is the home of Knute Ruud, one of the world's most acclaimed designers of mazes. There is some mythology about the guy and his home. Raptor asks Nightwing if he is ready for this likely super crazy house, but before he can answer, Raptor goes to attack someone. The someone is Batgirl and she lays Raptor out. Raptor makes some jokes and Batgirl is unimpressed. Nightwing breaks off the fight and talks to Batgirl privately.
Barbara is pissed because she thought Dick was dead, so she tracked him down. Since he is not dead, she is mad that he stood her up for this Raptor chump. Dick explains that the Owls made Raptor his partner now and they are on a job that he didn't want to involve her in. (Classic dude.) She doesn't know how to process all the information, basically she hates it. He whispers to her that the mission is to find and destroy the only copy of a map that Knute has of the Owls' secret HQ, because crazy maze guy designed the HQ. His plan is to not destroy the map and learn more Owl secrets. She points out that it is crazy that he thinks taking down the Owls is his personal mission.
Nightwing thinks that he can trust Raptor. Before they can talk anymore Raptor points out they are on the clock. Nightwing assumes Batgirl will leave but she is not having it. If they can't have dates, at least they can still do hero stuff.
Some awkward minutes later, (that is actually what the comic says and I love it.) Everyone breaks in and of course it is a trap. Batgirl is full of sassy comments and regrets. She triggers a trap but before she is skewered, Raptor saves her. There are a lot of rooms and a lot of traps. Nightwing narrators about how he got to this point, being a hero fighting crime. Once he asked Barbara if maybe they should be fighting poverty instead. Barbara points out that stealing from the rich to give to the poor makes you a criminal.
They reach a final room that is based on Tarot. Good thing Nightwing knew a fortune teller back at the circus. So of course Nightwing solves it right before they get crushed. The lights go out and when they come back on Batgirl is down and Raptor is down. They figure out at the same time that destroying the map wouldn't be enough, Raptor is there to kill Knute. They start running to catch up while arguing if Raptor is going to kill a guy.
Now we are caught back up to the beginning. Batgirl and Nightwing are shocked and Raptor is standing over a dead guy. Nightwing is pissed and punches Raptor in the face. We see that all the Owls back in Greece are watching everything happen in real time. The Owls are happy because they figure the Bat-Family will now reject and discredit Nightwing. All the while Nightwing is wailing on Raptor, destroying the computer and cutting off the Owl communication.
Turns out that it was all fake though. Fake blood and we see Knute is not really dead. Raptor asks Knute for the blueprints and wishes him luck. Once outside, Batgirl is pissed. She thinks that Nightwing is being self destructive and using taking down the Owls as a reason to keep distant from his family.
Nightwing confronts Raptor about wanting to take down the Owls. Raptor points out that trust is earned both ways, he also tells Nightwing that he needs to keep figuring out who he is without Batman. (Kind of funny because Batman told him the same thing.)
Before going back to Greece, Nightwing and Raptor make a pitstop in Turkey. He talks about a Book of Wisdom and he narrates that "the parliament is what ails us. Dr. Leviticus is the cure." We see that Raptor has the good doctor in a cage. (She was the ghoul from the beginning, in case you forgot 😉.)
Better Than Batman Part 4: At Raptor's hangout in Turkey, Dr. Leviticus gives us the lowdown on the Book of Wisdom. She talks a lot but basically Nightwing and Raptor have to get some coins and she will recreate the book for them if they promise to protect her from the Owls.
Later in Greece, the lady Owl is showing Nightwing and Raptor around the new nation they are hoping to build. We get a glimpse of the refugees working and Nightwing is very unhappy. She also mentions there is an underground labyrinth. There will be a party the next day, so they can just make themselves comfortable. Nightwing sees a kid that he had seen back on the ship and he tells Raptor he is done playing the long game. They are taking the Owls down tonight. Raptor agrees.
Up in her room, the Owl lady is getting it on with a dude, when she is interrupted by a young couple who report they saw Nightwing and Raptor freeing all the "dirty people." We see Nightwing and Raptor doing just that. She asks if they told anyone else. When they say no, she transforms into a giant owlbeast and kills them. She tells their dead bodies that she just got promoted to a God and this little betrayal would be unfortunate if it got out.
Our would-be heroes find themselves leading the refugees through another maze. Raptor senses someone coming, so they give the people the map and tell them to get out. The lady owl-beast shows up and she wants to kill them both real dead and wants to blow up Damien's head. Nightwing pretty much tells her how dumb she is and that money doesn't mean you get whatever you want. All this while they fight.
Raptor hits the owl-beast with something that hurts her pretty bad. They make a run for it and Raptor explains that the Owls just stole their monster-making tech from Kobra gene therapy, so he hit her with fish blood. Our guys find the middle of the labyrinth and it is a giant statue that they have to take the coins from. Raptor is not doing well though, it seems the owl-beast got him and he is bleeding out. Nightwing gets a little panicky but does what he can to help him. Nightwing tells Raptor that he knows that he was in a circus too, because he knew too much about it. Raptor was in a circus as "the man who felt no pain, aka, Mr. Numb." Because of that he keeps blood on him just in case he gets cut and doesn't feel it.
Nightwing gets him patched up just in time to run from the now recovered owl-beast. They make it to the exit and Raptor tells Nightwing good luck, confusing the poor guy. Nightwing trusts the guy and was enjoying his mentorship. Raptor points out he is a criminal and right before he pushes Nightwing off a cliff he mentions Nightwing's mother. As he is falling, poor Nightwing's mind is reeling, but he does have enough sense to call for his ride. His good pal Tiger King flying a small drone does catch Nightwing and flies him to a boat where all of the refugees are.
Later back at Wayne Manor, Damien is happy to see Dick and even thanks him for not letting his head get blown off. Turns out the bomb in the device did go off and scared poor Alfred. Batman sends Damien off and asks how the mission went. Dick reports that Spyral has the Book of Wisdom replica. They will translate it and give the info to the police. Dr. Leviticus was given a room in The God Garden (the satellite that Midnighter lives on). Batman asks about Raptor (Batgirl told Batman about him). Batman belittles Dick quite a bit about trusting this Raptor guy and that he is a bad guy who should have faced justice. Dick gets pretty defensive and tells Batman off (we see Damien is listening from the stairs). Dick is pretty convinced that he can walk the line between light and dark and that he is happy to not be like Batman.
Elsewhere, Raptor is meeting up with the leader of the Kobra Cult. Turns out he had Dr. Leviticus build a backdoor into the replica book, so every time Spyral gets the name of an Owl, Kobra will too. The queen leader asks what Raptor will do when Nightwing finds out, but Raptor isn't worried.
I am going to wrap this up as if I am ending this volume because part three is going to be a little down the road. We got more Bat-Family stuff to cover and Monster Men to deal with. I think the title of this book was a tiny bit misleading. It was not just about Nightwing being better than Batman. It was also about him finding someone who is a better mentor than Batman. I have a feeling that there is much more to the Raptor story than him just being a thief/merch for higher. Batman is kind of a jerk in this comic but I get the feeling we are seeing Batman how Dick sees him. I think that is the case for Damien too, this is kid brother Damien and I love it.
The writer for this volume is Tim Seeley, he was the writer for Grayson and wrote for Batman Eternal. I like how he treats Nightwing and am very curious where the heart of the Bat-Family is going. The artist for these four issues was Javier Fernandez. He is a comic book artist from Spain who is a Bat-family fan, who has worked on many titles in DC and Marvel. I like his style and we will see more of his stuff in issues 7 and 8.
There were many contenders for best line, but since I get to pick I am going to give it to my girl Barbara. She could have been having a fun time in Tokyo instead of wandering through a trap house.
Comments
Post a Comment