Nightwing #120 - DC Comics

NIGHTWING No. 120, January 2025

Keeping Dick Grayson’s alter-ego largely in this comic’s spotlight, Dan Watters’ script for Issue One Hundred And Twenty of “Nightwing” certainly should have entertained its readers with a good mixture of adrenalin-fuelled action and emotional insight into the costumed crimefighter’s psyche. Sure, the English writer’s premise of a villainous company executive placing “deadly experimental weapons in the hands of the city’s oh-so-corrupt police force” isn’t perhaps the most original of ideas. However, also placing the nefarious Spheric Solutions behind Bludhaven’s current all-out gang war is arguably a stroke of genius, and one that makes the notion of jet-pack wearing police officers mercilessly gunning down fourteen year old kids with technology-advanced ray-guns traumatically terrifying.

Furthermore, the idea of Batman’s first protégé risking all for a white, whiskered rabbit will doubtless make many a bibliophile smile despite the increasing seriousness of the storyline. Desperate to allay the cute, yet clearly badly traumatised animal, the titular character instinctively brings the fluffy victim of Olivia Pearce's cybernetic experimentations back home with him – rather forgetting that he already has a beloved pet dog waiting for his return; “Haley! Down! He. Is not. Breakfast!”

Finally, the London-born author also makes it abundantly clear that Nightwing is not dealing with a stereotypical big businesswoman who simply believes her enormous fortune can buy her anything she wants. But rather someone who can easily manipulate the media for her own ends, and use them to stir up the turf battle Grayson is so determined to thwart. Indeed, the fact that Dick knows Pearce’s corporation is setting up the Teddies to die along with the rest of the municipality's surviving gangsters, yet can do little about it, shows just how influential and deadly Spheric Solutions has already become.

Dexter Soy also needs a congratulatory slap on the back for prodigiously pencilling all this drama with great gusto and flare. Whether it be the former Robin bravely battling a giant robot, running for cover with a rabbit tucked under his arm, or realising that Bludhaven Police Department have mercilessly killed a teenager wearing a monkey mask, the Filipino illustrator does a fantastic job of imbuing all of his figures with dynamic life and, where needed, convincing emotion.

The regular cover art of "NIGHTWING" #120 by Dexter Soy