Sunday, October 19, 2008

Nightwing 50!

Story- Not wanting to screw up his cop career so soon, Dick arrives at the scene of the Bludhaven PD as Officer Grayson as opposed to Nightwing, where Torque has taken Inspector Arnot hostage and is running a muck with an ultra powerful gun he received from his Intergang buddies. Apparently, Torque has a death wish and is now intent on causing as much damage to the 'Haven and it's cops with his super gun. Being an ex-cop and anticipating their tactics, Torque blinds the snipers gunning for him and continues to fire explosive rounds at the cops in the streets below. One of the cops, a crazy John Wayne type, E.S.U. Commander Michaelmas decides the only course of action is to just rush the police station, even though the cops rushing the station would be sitting ducks. Dick volunteers, against the advice of Sgt. Amy, and manages to make it into the station house, narrowly missing an explosive volley that hit several of the other cops who were also rushing the building. Commander Michaelmas also makes it inside, but can't find Dick, only his discarded police uniform. While the Commander stood there puzzling over why Dick disrobed in a situation like this, Dick, now dressed as Nightwing, confronts Torque in the Chief's office and nearly defeats him, until Torque tosses Inspector Arnot out the window. Dick, even though he knows Arnot is dirty, jumps out the window to save him.
Meanwhile, the Chief's secretary, who was hiding under her desk the whole time, jumps out and tries to shoot Torque, but misses. Torque doesn't, and vaporizes the poor woman for her efforts. Commander Michaelmas arrives in time to see the secretary getting disintegrated and believing her to be Dick, shoots Torque several times in the chest. Thanks to his bullet proof vest, Torque survives, but is taken into custody by Michaelmas.
After saving Arnot, and seeing that the fight was over, Dick slips away and changes into his civilian clothes, walking up to the startled cops, who thought he was vaporized.
In the aftermath, Torque is put in a federal pen, since he blew up the holding cells at the station and his roommate turns out to be none other than Nite-Wing.
Blockbuster, after receiving his heart transplant(I guess it happened in a different comic) finds out his beloved mother died of a massive heart attack while he was being operated on. After hearing that news, he immediately wanted to get back to the job of running the Bludhaven underworld.
The cops cutting down the wrapped up body of Sylph, who hung herself in the previous issue, were surprised to discover that the wrapping was empty, leaving them to speculate that she faked her death and escaped.
Commander Michaelmas confronts Dick and tells him he saw his uniform laying in the hallway during the hostage situation and is now very suspicious of him. He told Dick he'd be keeping a very close eye on him, causing Dick to rethink his career move.

Overall- Oooohhhh... Great story. I really enjoyed this one. I'd guess that Torque would be pretty suicidal, considering his unique physical impediment and I enjoyed his battle with Nightwing. I was glad he survived his gunshot wounds, as well as being pleasantly surprised that Sylph also managed to survive her fate from the prior issue.
Nite-Wing and Torque sharing a cell could be interesting, considering their shared hatred of Nightwing.
Of course, the most interesting development was Dick making the idiotic mistake of leaving his police uniform on the stairs while he switched into his Nightwing costume. Obviously, Commander Michaelmas is an idiot, because if you really think about it doesn't seem kind of funny that he finds Dick's uniform just as Nightwing suddenly shows up at the station house? Even though he didn't put it together right away, Dick now has a very determined cop watching his every move, which should put a lot of strain on his duel identity and make for some very interesting storytelling.
Hmph, I can honestly say I've enjoyed this series a lot more then I thought I would. So far, I can say I like Dick Grayson the person as well as Nightwing the hero, which doesn't always happen with me. For example, I like the Human Torch the hero, but I can't stand Johnny Storm the person. The Torch is a confident hero with cool powers, but Johnny is a womanizing jacka$$. Anyway, I can't wait to get through the next 50 issues, from what I hear, they should prove to be pretty controversial...

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