DC Comics review 2/15/22 – Nightwing #89, Detective Comics #1053

Nightwing #89

This issue marks the first of a crossover with Superman: Son of Kal-El. Tom Taylor writes both titles so their was no concern of it being lackluster or the characters not sounding right.

As usual, Taylor shows a deep love for various periods of the DCU including a flashback where Nightwing and Batman track down a young Jon Kent.

Taylor’s take on young Jon shows again why aging him up was a questionable choice. There was so much potential in a young kid trying to live up to his father’s legacy. That’s playing out now in Son of Kal-El albeit with no safety net, which isn’t quite as compelling.

Taylor adds nice little character details that shows few DC writers have as comprehensive an understanding of the voices of the DC characters.
That more than makes up for the lack of big action this installment.

The only negative was Taylor killed off a Titans character that had been badly underutilized anyway. That’s the curse with Taylor. Within a few panels he’s able to portray characters in stronger lights than they’ve been in years. In this instance, I was hoping Taylor would continue the character rehab instead of just offing them for shock value.

Artist Bruno Redondo is clearly enjoying being able to illustrate Dick Grayson’s pocket of the DCU. There’s minor ways he incorporates elements of the wider DCU as well and his sense of storytelling is unrivaled. Adriano Lucas’ dazzling colors help convey the hope and optimism Taylor and Redondo pour onto every page.

At this point, it’s obvious Nightwing will deliver the goods each issue and this crossover should further draw more attention to a very solid Superman: Son of Kal-El title.

Rating: 10 out of 10