Nightwing #45 Review

Writer: Benjamin Percy/ Artist: Christopher Mooneyham / DC Comics WHO OR WHAT IS… WYRM? There is something utterly relatable about Dick Grayson waking up to phone call from a client and proceeding to have a successive series of anxiety attacks regarding his personal, professional, and heroic life and still having to go about his day. Percy has amazingly frantic dialog, and Mooneyham perfectly captures all of these little expressions that embody those mornings where everything is just a little off and just a little inconvenient. Nightwing #45 is about Dick Grayson, unplugged. It is a story that discusses the constant stream of information and technology at our fingertips and puts a decidedly superhero-esque spin on how it all connects. During a time where the newsfeeds are constantly ablaze, there is a definite appeal of shutting it all out and going back to the basics. Percy approaches the issue with a particular tact that makes a technophilic like myself sympathetic to Grayson’s situation.

And Percy does so much right with the worldbuilding and pacing. Halfway through the issue, Grayson muses on the history of Blüdhaven that gives the right amount of texture and character to a city that we have constantly seen evolve over the last forty plus issues, and it works both as a quick recap and way to drive the story along. These little moments let the issue transcend from good to great. And Mooneyham’s artwork is equally impressive, and the final pages embody the technological h…