Nightwing #148

I know, I know, I'm just as surprised as you are that this was my pick of the week. I don't know if it was just being let down by other books (I was expecting a little more from GL and Fables... They weren't bad, but I'll get into that in their respective reviews), or if Nightwing was really that good, but I really loved this issue.

The Dick/Alfred scene was just fantastic. Tomasi really nailed both characters. Alfred never says anything about it, but there's this overwhelming sense of pent up frustration from him that he has to sit around and watch 'his boys' (and I'm including Bruce in this) go out night after night and get beat up, and all he can do is patch them up once they get home. And eventually, there will be a night when they don't come home. The scenes with Jason's Robin costume were pretty cool, too. Alfred throwing his bloody surgical gloves on the case was a little over the top, but it definitely got the point across. But I really liked the next one where Alfred sat at Dick's bedside with Jason's costume looking over them both.

I'm also really liking the way Tomasi is writing Dick. He's clearly trying to be his own man, but everything he does is so heavily influenced by being in Bruce's shadow. He's got safe houses, gadgets, and costumes, but they're all there because he received them from Bruce. And, along with all of that, he's also inherited Batman's rogues. Apparently when Batman is gone, they band together and go after Nightwing. That's just what villains do.

My only minor complaint is that I think this is taking place AFTER Batman RIP. I'm not entirely sure on that, but there were a couple of hints like Dick asking Alfred if 'he's really gone this time' and Harvey asking Dick how his stay in Arkham was. It's not really a big problem, since this isn't really a 'tie-in' regardless of what the cover says, but if I'm right about the timing, it's slightly spoilerish in that we know nothing TOO bad can happen to Dick in the RIP storyline.