Nightwing #4 Comic Book Review/Recap

Nightwing #4 – Showdown in the Labyrinth

Nightwing #4 Comic Book Recap

In Raptor’s headquarters, our heroes sit down with Dr. Leviticus. She explains she created the Book of Wisdom to allow the Owls to maintain confidentiality in their book keeping. She gives them a copy of tome, so all they need to find the coins possessed by the Owls to decode the book.

Later, the two travel to the Lair of the Owls. They spot the refuges Raptor and Nightwing “rescued” earlier. Looking over the girl from before, Nightwing tells his partner it’s time for the long game to come to an end. They’ve done things Raptor’s way for a while now, but every instinct tells Grayson it’s time to act. Putting his hand on his partner’s shoulder, Raptor says Dick’s instincts are right. They move tonight.

That evening, the Owl’s Orator is woken up after Nightwing and Raptor begin freeing the refuges. Not entirely surprised, the Orator transforms into a gruesome beast. Betrayal will not go unanswered. As the group makes their way out of the Labyrinth. The Orator is now fast and dangerous, but Dick is able to provide a distraction while Raptor poisons the monster. They go to find the coins for the book of wisdom, but when they find it, Raptor collapses, having been wounded in the earlier fight.

Nightwing panics and tries to save his friend, using Raptor’s gauntlet to heal is partner. As Raptor struggles to stay alive, the two comments on something Dick realized the second the two men met – they both grew up in the circus. Bonding over their shared history as Raptor recovers, the orator finds the two men. They flee, and find an exit. Raptor insists that Nightwing go without him, knowing he will be captured by authorities if he goes with Grayson. Dick asks what that means for all of Raptor’s talk about being a better mentor.

Raptor can tell Grayson is rueful about all of this, and comments that Dick is just like his mother, before pushing him out of the Labyrinth. Baffled, but unable to do anything about this revelation, Dick meets up with his former spy contacts in Spyral, who have saved the refugees. From their lair, the Orator watches over them escaping outraged at all of this, but powerless to do anything about it. The young refugee girl happily calls out to her hero.

Later, Dick returns to Wayne Manor. Damien greets his friend amicably, but Bruce isn’t so pleased. The two quickly get into an argument about Raptor, who, without a doubt, escaped all this, and Bruce still doesn’t think can be trusted. Grayson comments that Bruce doesn’t trust anyone, not even Dick himself, and storms off. Dick points out Bruce don’t believe anyone can walk the line between light and dark because Batman couldn’t walk that line. Because if Bruce ever crossed any lines, he couldn’t come back from it. However, Grayson isn’t Wayne, and he has Batman to thank for that.

Far away, Raptor presents a gift to the Kobra clan – a third copy of the book of wisdom. Now whenever Spyral finds an agent of the Owls, the Kobras will find out about it first. Happy with his pay, the clan asks what Nightwing will do when he discovers Raptor’s betrayal. The thief smirks at this notion. He’s got Grayson completely under his thumb.

Nightwing #4 Comic Book Review

So a couple of things to note this issue: First is that our premiere story arc for Nightwing has officially wrapped up. Not a big deal, but a bit surprisingbecause it feels awfully sudden. But that doesn’t matter as long as we are delivered a solid, high-quality story, which Nightwing #4 pretty much has.

In fact, the biggest problem I identified with this story last issue was that the Owl’s weren’t coming across as a threat, so the presence of the big scary owl monster was a good addition to ensure that the Owls weren’t… well, their defeats are racking up and at this point it seems like the Talons can be defeated by a light breeze, so it’s a valuable addition, to say the least.

More than anything else, though, this story served as an introduction to Raptor, who is a pretty cool character. He’s fun, clever, and has some cool abilities provided by his gauntlet. Overall, he is a solid addition to the world of DC.

Anyhow, overall, in spite of their being some problems and the ending feeling a bit rushed, it’s a fun, balanced end to Nightwing’s first major outing in Rebirth. I recommend this comic. It’s well made and reasonably done – a good new start for an old character.

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