Review by Tim Sheridan
“No Fly Zone”
Writer: Devin Grayson
Penciller: Phil Hester
Inker: Ande Parks
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Letterer: Travis Lanham
Editor: Nachie Castro
Published by DC Comics
Every few months, it’s my job to review this book. Not a whole lot changes from month to month though, so I’m sad to say, there is not much new to report. This series will always hold a special place in my heart, as Nightwing is one of my favorite characters in all of comicdom, so I’ll pretty much always pick it up. Regardless of how absurd the actions of Dick Grayson are, I’ll be there reading them.
To catch you all up, all I’ll say is that Dick is acting like a villain these days, and is teaming up with Deathstroke. That’s been the status quo for a while now, and the story is only now starting to really pick up steam. Probably has to do with the fact that the team has to wrap this up in the next two months.
What makes this issue special is an appearance by Superman. Dick knows that Superman can tell if he is lying, by hearing his heartbeat and therefore, can figure out that Dick is NOT really a villain. But then Deathstroke one ups Dick by planting a device on him that alters his body rhythm. Pretty sneaky, huh? But Superman understands what’s up by the end, so it’s all good.
But this is just a step too far for Dick. He finds this sort of behavior by Deathstroke wrong. (Far worse than all that murdering he is known for, apparently.) So he leaves. But of course Deathstroke swears revenge, and…end of issue.
This revenge thing will take us up to “One Year Later”, and then everything will change, or so we are lead to believe.
I think this is the last issue with this art team. Personally, I will miss them, because I thought that Hester and Parks were a great fit for the book. Their work on this issue was excellent, and the (pretty much) full page shot of Superman was the best.
Grayson has delivered a decent script here, but it seems like she has said all she can with the character. Perhaps that is why this past 8 or 9 months have seemed rather slow. I think she knows she has to take her time up to the OYL split. I will miss her on this book too, because other than Chuck Dixon, she was the perfect writer for it.
So while this book is not nearly as good as it could be, or than it used to be, I still enjoy it.
