Nightwing #29 Review

Writer: Tim Seeley / Artist: Paul Pelletier / DC Comics Usually, when one of your favorite books becomes involved in a crossover issue where the protagonist is not the main character of said crossover, it’s a step back. Typically, this becomes a burden to the book as it’s serving the crossovers need (with some cynicism from me) to help bolster the profile and sales of the big event book. Which isn’t to say that Metal is not putting the full court press across DC’s line. But the Gotham Resistance Tie-In to Metal has been surprisingly coherent, ambitious and enjoyable thus far.

In Gotham Resistance Part II, Nightwing has come back to Gotham, having been drawn by the Nth metal and the weird ass mountain that has sprung up on his once home. Batman is still nowhere to be found, but he joins up with the motliest of crews in Robin, Green Arrow, Killer Croc and Harley Quinn. This surprising team dynamic works in the way you hope that all weird mashup team dynamics work: capitalizing on the weirdness and differentiation of the characters for both predictable and unpredictable reactions. I tend to think that people that aren’t writing Damian as a primary character, overwrite him, making him the most exaggerated spoiled prince possible, but Seeley toes the line here. Damian is allowed to be an annoyance, while also not completely upending the team dynamic. A lot of ground is covered in this book, but what makes this a successful crossover is the use of the previous storylines for Nig…