Nightwing #47
DC Comics
Written By: Benjamin Percy
Art By: Chris Mooneyham
Inked By: Klaus Janson
Colors By: Nick Filardi
Lettered By: Carlos M. Mangual
In the latest issue of Nightwing, things end a bit anti-climatic. While the arc does make good points about not letting your life get fully swallowed up by technology. The ending isn’t as satisfying as previous arcs. This is mainly due to how Dick doesn’t feel like he got really any growth out of it. The best parts here are definitely seeing him and Batgirl work together to stop Willem’s plan on “rebooting” Blüdhaven and I actually do enjoy his reasons for his justification on murdering the victims for what they’ve done to him. I think the big problem here is how in the end he just comes off as a pawn for someone else instead of being his own major player in the rogue gallery of villains. Once we see that someone else is very interested in Nightwing, Willem is just a backseat driver here and I became more interested to see what the Dark Web has in store for him in the future. Even though Nightwing fights these things called Terminals, the panels don’t really have him do a whole lot against the outside of escaping the fight. So we know they’re still out there and it just drives more on how incomplete this arc really feels.
The art team can come off a bit mix but I always believe that for the most part, it’s always a going to be a personal thing for people if they enjoy someone’s art or not. Klaus Janson style definitely reminds me of John Romita Jr. and I enjoyed the coloring the most out of this issue’s art. I still very much enjoy the design of our new villain of the Dark Web here too. He’s creepy and threatening for all the right reasons. In a world that is consumed with technology, he is definitely one that can be threatening not only for Nightwing but potentially the Justice League too.
I think this arc could’ve been a bit better when a bit more thought put into it. I don’t like how Willem just shows up and is tossed like a pawn when we were already shown the villain that clearly has big plans for Nightwing. The arc overall feels more like a filler that current fans will still find some enjoyment but it’s nothing that can grab new readers. Hopefully, the next arc picks things up and we see a return of the Dark Web because I do believe there’s a great story to be told with this villain.