Nightwing #93-#94

Happy February, everyone!  Whenever I think of February, my thoughts immediately turn to Valentines’ Day, the holiday commemorating love, romance, and expensive chocolates (mmm, Godiva…).  And seeing as how February is the only month with such a romantic holiday as its centerpiece, I figured it’d be appropriately ironic to spend this month discussing something I loathe with the force of a rather large exploding planet. 

(Not to give anything away here, but I feel I should warn you—if you think you will react negatively to depictions and discussions of rape, you may want to steer clear of this blog until March.)

In order to understand what’s going on here, I should probably give a bit of background information on the storyline that concludes with issue ninety-three.  This comic stars Dick Grayson, formerly Robin, sidekick to Batman, and currently Nightwing, protector of the city of Blüdhaven.  Blüdhaven, meanwhile, is under the thumb of unscrupulous gangster/businessman Roland Desmond, a.k.a. Blockbuster.  At some point before this issue, Blockbuster decides that he’s had enough interference from Nightwing and comes up with a plan to destroy him—he isolates Dick from his friends and then threatens to kill everyone he ever comes into contact with, thus forcing Nightwing into a situation where he must either give up his principles and kill Blockbuster, or watch everyone he ever cared about die violently.

Right away, anyone who knows anything about Dick Grayson can see a major plot hole opening up.  I am by no means the first person to point this out, which only emphasizes the obviousness of the problem.  Specifically, Nightwing has about nineteen thousand friends.  This is the guy who is not only a member of the expansive “Batman Family”, but also led the (Teen) Titans for many years in its various incarnations.  This is the guy who hangs out with Superman and even led the Justice League on at least one occasion.  So not only should it be nearly impossible to kill Dick’s friends and relatives because most of them are among the most physically and/or mentally capable people on the planet, it should be absolutely impossible to isolate Dick to such an extent as there are simply too many people who care about him and would be more than happy to help him out in a crisis.

But I guess Blockbuster’s superpower is defying all semblance of logic, because his plan is working.  Dick’s apartment building has been blown up, killing many of his friends and neighbors.  The circus he grew up in was burned down, again killing many people.  Dick’s partner on the police force, Captain Amy Rohrbach, essentially fired him once she found out about his nighttime job.  And as if that wasn’t enough, Dick’s girlfriend, under the false impression that he was seeing Blockbuster’s former (?) confederate Tarantula, has dumped him.  And by the time issue ninety-three opens, Nightwing has been run into the ground, desperately looking for a way to stop Blockbuster from murdering anyone else.  Because apparently picking up the telephone and calling in some back-up is too difficult.

The issue begins with Captain Rohrbach on the roof of the Blüdhaven police department, where she and her husband have constructed a makeshift Bat-signal in an attempt to contact Nightwing.  It works, and our hero arrives, looking very much the worse for wear.  Amy tells Dick about a local reporter, Maxine Michaels, who has discovered his secret identity and is working for Blockbuster.  That makes, what, four people (Blockbuster, Amy, Tarantula, and Maxine) who’ve worked out that Dick is Nightwing in the course of this story arc alone?  I’m sure Batman will be thrilled to hear that.  Amy also offers Dick his job (and his gun) back, so that he’ll have “more options” when it comes to defeating Blockbuster.  Nightwing refuses both and swings off to go talk to Maxine.  Under the assumption that Maxine outted his identity to Blockbuster, he accuses her of being responsible for the death of the people in his apartment building, but she denies all charges and even gives him a pep talk… er, sort of.  One second she’s saying “If Desmond [figured out your real name] before [I did], that’s on your head”, and the next she’s all like “It’s his fault, all right?  The bad guy’s.”

Which brings up two points.  One, if she knew Blockbuster was a “bad guy”, then why on earth was she working for him?  Well, maybe I missed something by not reading the preceding issues.  And two, it highlights the inconsistency of the writing—accusatory one second, docile the next—that rears its ugly head again later in the story arc.  Though to be completely fair, Nightwing did sort of start the accusation train, so I guess Maxine had a reason for jumping on board and being defensive.  Later on, however, there are no handy excuses for this kind of behavior.  So you can consider this scene a watered-down preview of coming “attractions.”

In any event, Maxine’s demotivational speech is rather rudely interrupted when Blockbuster crashes through the window and shoots her in the head, prompting Nightwing to react by… flinging her across the room.  I guess.  Either that or it’s some sort of tap dancing move.

The temptation to listen to the soundtrack of a Gene Kelly movie is overwhelming right now.

Then Nightwing asks, “What did you do?” To which the proper response is obviously “What’s it look like, you idiot?” Blockbuster, surprisingly enough, is a bit more tactful than I am and taunts our hero about how there isn’t one good reason why Nightwing shouldn’t just kill him where he stands.  A fight scene ensues, during which Desmond continues to monologue about how knowing that Nightwing and Dick Grayson are one in the same is “a useful piece of information, but it’s not the real secret…”

Well that would explain a lot of that Nightwing-in-bondage fanart I keep running into…

The point Blockbuster finally makes is that Nightwing is more concerned with the safety of the people around him—even strangers—than he is with his own safety.  Uh, yeah, pretty sure that’s true of every superhero ever.  That’s why they’re superheroes.  As the two fight their way through the hotel, Blockbuster declares that he’s going to follow Dick around for the rest of his life and kill every person he so much as shakes hands with.  (Yes, Blockie, I’m sure that you will be able to follow a guy who has been trained to be stealthy since childhood with noooo problem.)  Nightwing tells him to shut up and punches him down the stairs, but Blockbuster is STILL TALKING.  WHILE he’s falling down the stairs.  Gah.  Listen, 'Wing, if you don’t want to kill him, gimme a weapon and I’ll do it myself.

But maybe I shouldn’t have said that, as Tarantula has come along with that exact same offer and a gun pointed at Desmond’s cranium. 

Y’know, Nightwing’s got the villain completely cornered now—he’s holding onto Desmond’s shirt, plus he’s got Tarantula holding the gun on him.  So he COULD have just put the cuffs on him or called Batman/Oracle/the Titans/take your pick on the comm link or thrown back his head and yelled for Superman, all of which would result in Desmond going to prison for murder and assault.  After all, what would Tarantula do about it?  She could just walk away, but that would put Nightwing in danger because he’d have to keep fighting when he’s already exhausted.  Or she could try to shoot Blockbuster anyway, but she’d risk injuring Nightwing as well, and that’s clearly not something she wants if the fact that she’s warning him to move away is any indication.  She may not like that Nightwing is merely arresting Desmond instead of letting her shoot him, but she’d be stuck. 

But maybe it's Official Superhero Hairwashing Night or something, because Nightwing does none of the above and steps out of the way.  Tarantula promptly puts a bullet in Desmond’s brain, and that’s the end of that.  The page afterward is completely silent, with no dialogue or sound.  Even I have to admit that this is an effective way to get across the dead silence that follows the loudness of the gunshot that ended Roland Desmond’s life.  And the close-up of Nightwing’s blood-splattered gloves does a nice job of conveying the character’s sense of guilt, regret, and horror over his (lack of) actions.  And that is the last bit of praise you will ever hear from me regarding this comic, because this is the bit where the fun really starts. 

The shooting completely pushes Nightwing over the edge and into nervous breakdown territory, and he’s all but incoherent as he runs up to the rooftop for air.  Tarantula, not taking the hint, follows and finds him crying and apologizing to her and to Bruce for failing them.  She then attempts to “comfort” him by pushing him down, completely ignoring his saying “don’t touch me”, and raping him, while Nightwing’s narration boxes indicate that he is all but catatonic and has no idea what is going on. 

There are not enough caps locks in the multiverse to express how much I HATE this scene.  Do I even have to explain what’s wrong with it?  The moment clearly just speaks for itself.  Or at least I thought it did until I ran across an interview with the writer, Devin Grayson… but we’d better save that for the end of the Part Four, or else we’ll never get done.  And hey, you know what?  Great things have been known to come from buffalo chips, so maybe the rest of the story arc will be an improvement.  Then again, anything would be an improvement over those last few pages, so that’s not really saying much.

Issue ninety-four begins with Nightwing and Tarantula fighting some guys.  Er, correction—Tarantula is fighting.  Nightwing is just sort of sitting there letting the crooks beat the stuffing out of him because he’s too busy obsessing over the events of the last issue.  One of the flashbacks we see is the rape scene from Nightwing’s point of view, with his hand reaching up as if he’s trying to stop her.  Just in case you still had any doubts over whether or not their little encounter was consensual or not. 

And by the way, I hope you enjoyed that little reference to the rape because that’s the last time it is ever mentioned by anyone.  There’s incompetent storytelling, and then there’s this.  You can’t just introduce an event this serious and this life-changing and then refuse to acknowledge it!!

Nightwing eventually gets knocked unconscious, and Tarantula takes him back to the motel that she cajoled him into breaking into between issues.  She puts him on the bed, and thankfully doesn’t join him, although heaven knows she has no problem screwing guys who are half out of their heads.  She instead goes out to buy groceries while Nightwing lies there motionless, mumbling nonsense.  As you’ve probably noticed by now, Nightwing is not a well man.

While Tarantula is out, she overhears some thugs talking about an assassin they call “Snakehead”, so she goes running back to the motel to tell Nightwing.  After a series of shots of Tarantula changing into her costume (are we supposed to be happy about that?), she is attacked by Snakehead himself, who turns out to be Copperhead.  I… guess someone warned him that some woman was asking questions about him and so he followed her…?  Anyway, I was rooting for Copperhead the whole time, but unfortunately, Dick chooses this moment to come back from hiding the Nightwing-cycle.  Evidently he managed to become coherent, change to civilian clothes and leave the motel room while Tarantula was out.  He chases Copperhead away, but not before the assassin poisons Tarantula.  Dick treats her but doesn’t show an interest in going after the bad guy.  When she pushes him, he throws a fit, which ends with Tarantula leaving and saying this:

Oh, gee, REALLY.  I wonder how that could have happened?!

This scene bugs me (like the rest of them don’t?) for two main reasons.  The first is the portrayal of Nightwing.  He is waaaay too concerned about Tarantula’s health and well-being here.  I don’t mean the bit where he applies first aid to get rid of the poison, because he’d do that for anybody, friend or foe.  What I take issue with is when he tells her “This [carrying anti-poison whatevers] is called being prepared, and if you’re not, you’ve got no business taking on a meta.”  At first I barely even noticed this in the wake of all the other heavy-duty garbage being flung in the reader’s direction, but then I realized—Nightwing is acknowledging Tarantula as a superhero.  He’s not saying that she has no business trying to fight crime, he’s saying that she has to be better prepared when she DOES fight crime.  The crime-fighting part is already a given.  This is the woman who shot Blockbuster right in front of his face and then assaulted him at his most vulnerable, but somehow that’s not enough to disqualify her from the Superhero Olympics.  Yeah, THAT’S normal behavior for a guy who was raised by Mr. Uber-Strict Moral Codes.  And if the comic actually acknowledged this in any concrete way and dealt with it, it’d be fine, but they don’t.  But we’ll have that discussion later.

The second reason, appropriately enough, is the portrayal of Tarantula.  Even putting aside the fact that she murdered one man and raped another, she is annoying, self-absorbed, and an idiot.  It’s quickly becoming apparent that not only does she know nothing about fighting crime, she doesn’t give a fig about learning either (“Cool.  Whatever,” she says when he tries to explain how he’s saving her life).  She wants the excitement and satisfaction of being a hero without putting in any of the long hours of training that Nightwing had to put in.  It’s all just a big party to her.  (She actually yells “Woot!” when they first break into the motel.)  Plus, it becomes painfully—and I do mean painfully—clear in the next issue that Tarantula is in love with Nightwing in her own sick little way.  Is this really the way you treat someone you love, by dismissing them and their problems?  Especially when you caused those problems and are too stupid/sociopathic to notice?  Why are we supposed to be sympathizing with this person again?

Oh, yes, didn’t I mention?  Author says we’re supposed to sympathize with Tarantula.  Remember that interview with Devin Grayson I referenced earlier?  Here’s what Ms. Grayson had to say on the subject of Catalina Flores, a.k.a. Tarantula, and her relationship with Nightwing:

“She knows that he’s still in love with Barbara [Gordon] and that he’s a bad bet for her romantically over the long run, but she’s determined to keep him around as long as she can.  And in that wish, at least, I think we can sympathize with her.”

Let’s translate that into English, shall we?—“She knows that he’s eventually going to come to his senses, so she decides to assault and manipulate him for all she’s worth in order to keep him under her thumb for as long as she can.  And in that wish, at least, I think we can sympathize with her.”

I’ve been trying really hard not to be mean here, but what in the universe could have put it into Devin Grayson’s head that rape equals love equals totally okay??  That’s not the way life is supposed to work.  And how dare you imply that Nightwing is the problem, the “bad bet”, in this relationship because he happens to be in love with someone who isn’t a crazy person!  Like I said, we’ll be coming back to this interview in the last part of this review, and if you read the whole thing you'll see why, but for now… this is getting longer and rantier by the minute.  Let’s finish up.

Tarantula picked up some info that said Copperhead was going to kill a drug lord at a local church, and so she follows and arrives just in time to confront Copperhead, guns blazing (literally).  She seems to be under the impression that all she needs to do is keep Copperhead occupied until Nightwing shows up. 

 

*shudder* Yecch.  Every time she refers to Dick as her “partner”, it just gives me the creeps.

Back at the motel, Dick receives a call from ex-girlfriend Barbara Gordon, a.k.a. computer hacker Oracle.  She informs him of Blockbuster and Maxine Michaels’ murders and asks him to find Tarantula so that he can help provide her with an alibi.  Why Barbara is assuming that Tarantula is innocent, I don’t know, but there you have it.  The comic ends with Dick sitting on the edge of the bed looking seriously depressed, and apparently he was unable to tell one of his oldest and dearest friends the truth about the whole situation, because we have to endure six more issues of this filth. 

In conclusion (for now): Have I mentioned that I hate these comics?  Because I REALLY HATE THESE COMICS.  Blockbuster is an idiot whose master plan should have failed immediately, Nightwing’s idiocy could be explained away by certain psychological factors if the comic even cared enough to go in that direction, and Tarantula is an egocentric monster (whose shirt is getting skimpier and skimpier by the issue).  I have never before run into anything that made me so mad in so many different ways—this thing is pushing berserk buttons I didn’t even know I had.  I mean, am I making half this stuff up?  Am I delusional or overreacting?  It just doesn’t seem possible that a comic exists where you discover new things to hate about it every single time you pick it up.  Nightwing #93-100—the gift that keeps on giving (nightmares)!

Next time: Gonzo will be updating weekly instead of biweekly, because X'hal knows we don't want to wait two whole weeks to get to the wedding of Dick and Cat... wait, what?!

Images from Nightwing #93 and Nightwing #94