Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: Who’s Got the Button
Written by: Devin Grayson
Penciled by: Phil Hester
Inked by: Ande Parks
Colored by: Gregory Wright
Lettered by: Phil Balsman
Editor: Nachie Castro
Publisher: DC Comics
All praise Hester and Parks for they are most excellent. Nightwing has been blessed with great artists for most of its run (McDaniel, Land, Zircher, etc) and Hester and Parks are more than worthy to take their place at that table. We get to see them put Dick in the costume for the first time (however briefly) and it confirms it. These two are just excellent.
Storywise, the same goes. I can’t figure out how Dick got to this place or why, but I’m not all that worried about it either. Grayson will have to explain it to us at some point, but for now, I am just enjoying the fact that Dick has involved himself in this predicament and am not as concerned with the why of it all. I will say that I think him going undercover (if he is, in fact, doing that) with his real name is probably not the brightest idea, especially given the Bruce Wayne connection, but he handles those things being brought up well and since Tommy first saw him as Dick (in the police station in issue #100) I suppose that bit cannot be avoided.
In the first issue of this new era, the story was well told, but Grayson ran into some problems with the “mob” dialect. It was too obvious and too over the top to really work. I am sure some mob folk talk entirely in stereotypes and clichés, but I expect that not all of them do. Here, however, Grayson has reined it in considerably and the dialogue flows much more naturally because of it. It also helps her get a subtle joke as Dick, mid conversation, adopts the speech patterns of Tommy while explaining why he is no longer heir to the Wayne fortune.
But the essence of Dick is action, not conversation and Grayson scripts one hell of an action sequence involving crutches for Dick to show off his prowess. Ably aided by Parks and Hester (there they are again) the fight is beautifully kinetic and makes brilliant use of props. Think Jackie Chan at the fight of his abilities, sans all that silliness.
The only thing that didn’t ring true for me was Dick coming home to find Tommy’s daughter rooting around his room. She’s looking for some clothes of his to sleep in because she “missed him”, but isn’t she like 16 years old. I know she doesn’t look like it, but I am pretty sure that they identified her as such last issue. It is possible for young women to get crushes on older man, (especially if it is Mr. Grayson. He’s GOR-GEOUS!), but the familiarity of the scene (as if something had happened between them) made me queasy. I am probably misreading things, but there it is.
