Nightwing, Volume 3: Death of the Family

Nightwing (2011)

by Kyle Higgins (Writer), Eddy Barrows (Illustrator)

After having his face sliced off one year ago, the Joker makes his horrifying return to Gotham City! But even for man who's committed a lifetime of murder, he's more dangerous than ever before. The Joker sets his twisted sights on the members of the Bat-Family and attacks them all where it hurts—and for Dick Grayson, that means going after the family he's built up for the past year at Haley's Circus!

Collecting: Nightwing 13-18, Batman 17, and a story from Young Romance #1.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Batman, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

176 pages, Paperback

First published December 10, 2013

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B) 75% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: A repeatedly defeated, dispirited hero, and a story that stagnates, dismally dull, in monotonous enlargements of lore.

*Progress updates: Issues #13-14 ◦ Issues #15–Young Romance #1

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as impressed with Nightwing as I initially was, but this didn't stink.
The beginning with Lady Shiva, and Dick's (maybe) budding romance with Sonia was fairly boring.
The Death of the Family story was decent, but it didn't blow my mind.
The only part I really enjoyed was at the end, with Damien and Nightwing interacting, and Dick trying to come to terms with his loss.

Recommended to hardcore fans of Nightwing, and Death of the Family completionists.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so good omg!

Wow this had so much great stuff in it like Nightwing fighting Lady shiva and seeing the threat she represents and then the coming of Joker and how he targets HALY's circus and the fallout of that and how Dick reacts to the events of "DOTF" and its brutal, seeing how he is and then what happens to Damian in batman inc with Damian.. talk about losing everything and the man is at an emotional low with so many bad things. Losses all around and the big bombshell of what will happen to the circus and who maybe alive. Its one of those volumes that deals with the emotional pitfalls of the character and the losses and in that regards its amazing and epic and I just that for it!

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s Nightwing’s turn for a Death of the Family tie-in - and it might be the worst of the bunch (though I’m betting Ann Nocenti’s Catwoman ultimately scoops that prize)!

As all of these tie-in books seem to be, Nightwing Volume 3 is a mish-mash of unconnected short stories thrown together haphazardly. Tom DeFalco writes what can only be described as a two-part filler storyline featuring someone called Lady Shiva. She and Nightwing fight and that’s it - totally pointless. I did like Andres Guinaldo’s pencils though - it’s easy to see why he got picked by DC given his style is very similar to Greg Capullo’s, the main Batman artist.

Then we’re onto the Joker storyline - and spoilers to anyone who cares about that sort of thing!

Once again Joker sets up an incredibly elaborate set of obstacles for a member of the Bat-family in addition to the many complex schemes he’s arranged in other Death of the Family tie-ins AND the main story itself. So we’re supposed to believe:

1) Joker breaks out Nightwing’s ex from Blackgate without being seen,
2) arrange for ALL of the former, now deceased, Haly’s Circus members (scores of corpses) to be dug up, transported to Gotham, and arranged inside the new Haly’s Circus without Nightwing being any the wiser,
3) set charges all around Haly’s Circus to perfectly blow it all up,
4) track down and infect with Joker toxin ALL new members of Haly’s Circus, who’ve made a break for it with quite a head start, and corral them back to Gotham,
5) capture Nightwing - along with the rest of the Bat-family - and bring him to the caves beneath Wayne Manor.

All that - and everything else in the six or seven Death of the Family books?! It’s too much. Joker’s resourceful but he doesn’t have Flash’s Speed Force!

The story itself was just contrived as there’s no real connection between Nightwing and Joker besides the obvious. It doesn’t add to Death of the Family at all and is wholly skippable. It also made me realise how little I care about Nightwing’s world from the sheer number of unknown characters who popped up to have an “impact” on Nightwing. Raya Vestri? Jimmy? Sonia Branch? I think the latter is the daughter of Tony Zucco. But really, I don’t care about any of them - I barely care about Nightwing!

Like all of the Death of the Family tie-ins, Batman #17 is thrown in, and the Nightwing short from Young Romance #1 is also included. Nightwing has chinese food with someone called Ursa Minor - describing this thing as throwaway is being generous.

Then, of course, to round out the book there’s a mention of Damian’s death, just like the other Death of the Family books. If you read Batman Incorporated, Volume 2: Gotham’s Most Wanted, you’ll know Dick and Damian went out together facing down Abomination and Leviathan in a blaze of glory. They had a great final exchange:

Damian: We were the best, Richard, no matter what anyone thinks.
Dick: Hey, we can’t help being great.
Damian: Ready?
(They charge together into danger for the last time)

They were talking about when Dick was temporarily Batman and Damian was Robin (see Grant Morrison’s superb Batman and Robin books for those capers). That’s so much better than the crappy final conversation Dick and Damian have in this book - something about playing a video game soon?! Rubbish. I’m going to ignore Higgins’ farewell and stick with Grant Morrison’s. I liked Juan Jose Ryp’s art though - very detailed and eye-catching. Very restrained too as he usually produces incredibly graphic bloody violence!

There’s another nod to Scott Snyder’s Batman stories as The Dealer makes an appearance (he was in Batman: The Black Mirror) but it doesn’t make this book any better. If anything he shows that the Batman editors’ mandate seems to be: remind everyone of Snyder’s Batman contributions at all times - he SELLS!!

The last page is a “big reveal” of a character central to Nightwing’s backstory but all it did was underline my ambivalent feelings about the character further.

The artists - Andres Guinaldo, Eddy Barrows and Juan Jose Ryp - steal the show with some great looking pages. Shame it’s all in service to sub-par scripts from Tom DeFalco and Kyle Higgins. Nightwing, Volume 3: Death of the Family: even Nightwing fans are going to be flicking ahead to see how many pages are left until the end.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another Nightwing volume, another okay volume.

The thing is the nightwing run here isn't bad but it isn't pushing anything new.

The first part is all about Shiva, and I'll be honest, besides are arc with Cass, she is always boring as hell. The next arc is death of the family and we find out how Joker got Dick and brought him into the fold to torture Batman. Last is Dick dealing with the aftermath of death of the family, and if that's not bad enough, dealing with Damien's death as well.

The ending is by far the best part. The stuff with Damien is gold and it shows these two are always meant to be Batman and Robin in my eyes. All that was good. Some of the stuff with joker is even good. The rest is boring, typical nightwing jumping around but no reason to care, and a terrible love story.

Overall a 3 out of 5.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it's not bad. Not a big fan of the Death of the Family stuff. This is one time when I really felt like the regular writer of the book got kind of railroaded into an event, because it didn't really feel like it was a natural continuation. That said, the stuff with Damian at the end was really fantastic. It's that kind of thing that will keep me reading this book, and hoping that maybe Nightwing can get through one lousy volume without getting upstaged by an event outside the book.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of the book was really good -- a lot of Nightwing in action on the rooftops of Gotham, and continuing the Vol. 1 circus acquisition story-line -- and that was great after a lackluster Vol. 2. But just after Joker's initial appearance things started to get disjointed for me.

From other GR reviews (thanks, everyone, for the info) I gather its related to 'Death of the Family.'

Luckily, Vol. 3 somewhat regains its clarity with an irrelevant but semi-dark comedic short 'Another Saturday Night' featuring Ursa Major (more of her, please), and then returns to the circus / Sonia story-line to bring it home with a bombshell revelation on the final page.

[Omni Theus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cool to See Another Perspective of Joker's Death of the Family Arc
OVERALL RATING: 4.5 stars
Art: 4.5 stars
Prose: 4.5 stars
Plot: 4.5 stars
Pacing: 4.5 stars
Character Development: 5 stars
World Building: 4.25 stars
The way each Bat character is woven into the New 52 is really solid. That touching moment between Dick and Damien was top shelf stuff. Real magic.

[Tokio Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first two issues are awful. They are horribly written, giant eye rolling material of doom. They are almost as bad as the new Batgirl writer.

Nightwing acted like a teenage boy who thought every girl he meet was into him, and Batgirl was being a insensitive jerk. Luckily the Death in the Family story line brought the volume to a three star or I would have given this a one.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nightwing's emotions run the gamut in this collection, which makes me think that volume 4 will have him squarely seated in a therapist's chaise lounge.... But I guess I will have to wait and see if my predictions come true.

Sadly, it's mostly girl trouble. I can't help but think that with the Joker running around, Batman deceptively watching from the shadows, investing in a circus (a circus!!), a brother that is in serious need of guidance, and, IDK, years of not dealing with the death of his parents, that something other than girl trouble would be stressing him out. But no. He seems to be mostly focused on how women play in and out of his life as a costumed superhero.

I love Nightwing. I really do. And I love how his internal dialogue is being written in this volume; there is a lot of character being dredged up in these pages.... But every women he meets doesn't have to be a love interest!!! The range of conflict is getting fairly narrow for Dick Grayson these days.

I think the lynch pin for this volume was how many of the issues were forced to cross over with other Batman titles. It would have been great to simply focus on Nightwing and his current state of mind. Although, I will say, the Requiem story was quite touching.

3.5/5

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

As part of Sidekicks week among the Shallow Comics Readers, I'm diving headlong into four volumes of Nightwing - the one, true sidekick of our warm and fuzzy pal The Batman.

Just how many gabled skylights does Gotham have for Bat-heroes to crash through before some contractor goes, "Y'know sir, I think you'll save a lot of money on future repairs if you go with a cheaper design"? It's really quite disturbing how much historical property damage these heroes are willing to perform in the name of beating on underpaid henchmen. Heroes of Home Depot, more like!

Tom DeFalco eh? His two-issue fill-in (at least, I assume it's a fill-in while Kyle Higgins was working on something else, cause it wasn't co-writer and it wasn't a backup, but two whole issues right in continuity with the current storyline) was pretty good. For a dude seasoned on 80's comics writing, his stuff here isn't nearly as stiff or overly tell-don't-show as if expect, compared to some of his contemporaries (paging Ann Nocenti, Stan Lee).

When we get back into the swing of Higgins' writing, of course, it's all overburdened with the Death of the Family event, and becomes as morose as a baby funeral. Where's the joy, the lighthearted spirit of Dick Grayson? Does DC's "everything must be gritty" mandate extend across even the properties that are founded on bright enjoyment?

OK, sure - since Snyder suckered all the Bat family characters into his super-sized Joker insanity, I guess we gotta deal with it here too for continuity's sake. But Jesus, does that mean we gotta shit all over Dick and force *him* to be as humourless as Bruce? And when did that mean that Barbara became a mean bitch too? Never saw that out of Gail Simone's current storytelling.

I'm not thrilled with this book - pastiche of second-string artists, fill-in writers and bastardized storyline. Hope we got all that crap out of our systems and we can get back to the unencumbered essence of this book.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very sad comic book. Lots of death. I would have to say that the Joker still creeps me out. What?! Tony Zucco is still alive? Interesting to see what will happen in the next comic.

[Jesse A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, guys. Im pretty done with the death in the family storyline. Please don't have anymore. Please.

[Richard Dominguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good story from Nightwing's point of view.

[Michael (Mai) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the best volume of Nightwing yet. We see all kinds of terrible things happen to him, the loss of two friends, of his circus and of his brother, Damien (well...I'll explain that in a bit) and he still remains to be kind hearted and trusting. This is particularly important to the story because Joker thinks this is his biggest weakness while everyone else, including Damien, think it's his biggest strength and what makes him Dick Grayson. ( I sort of think it's his acrobatic, smack-talk, fighting that makes him, well, him, but what do I know)

This one is intense because it's the Nightwing version of Death in the Family arc. Joker is a complete and terrifying ass-hat like normal but with a scarier face mask. (made out of 100% American face!)

The problem with this (and most of the New 52) is when an event is so big, like the death of Damien, that it spans across multiple titles, in most titles you miss out on actually seeing the big event. I've now read about his death in Teen Titans and Nightwing but still have not seen it happen or under what circumstance. I get to see a little asterisk that tells me to refer to an issue in Batman Incorporated (I don't even like Batman Incorporated.... ) and then cut to a tombstone or a ghostly phantom of Damien.

[Lucas Lima · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, another tie in in the Death of The Family arc, and, as it is supposed to be, just an ok book. You'll probably forget everything about it, while you'll have some fun.

The firsti part is a Tom DeFalco's story with Lady Shiva. Then, we got the tie-ins, and then some good chapters about Dick's and Damian's relationship.

[Beckiezra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5? There were a lot of ups and downs in this book for me. I liked the art at the beginning (it went down some later on when artists changed, multiple times, as always), and yes I recognize it was art I mentioned disliking last volume, I'm a fickle person, what can I say?

The storytelling felt pretty weak at first. I was annoyed that the same Amusement Mile explanation was given in back to back issues and I wasn't feeling the circus stuff anyway since I knew it was all doomed.

Batgirl was terrible and totally unlikeable in the three scenes where she was randomly stuffed in this book. Any friendship/love from the old DC seemed entirely missing from their interactions. Honestly, I vaguely felt like rooting for Joker to shoot her in the spine again, she was better as Oracle anyway.

I almost wish the zero issue had started this volume so the Lady Shiva stuff would be more related, but I did read volume 2 recently enough that I remember she showed up there at least so it didn't seem totally out of no where.

The Joker issues I didn't start out liking (poor Jimmy), but I'd changed my mind just in time for it to end too quickly. I didn't bother to read the Batman issue for a fourth time, but I like that artist's style better.

I have NO idea what that Ursa interlude was about and why they couldn't stick it at the end. I guess it wouldn't be as dramatic as ending with Tony Zucco being alive, but it was such a style and story break. It didn't make any sense at all to put it there, we immediately went back to super immediate aftermath of the Joker story. That didn't really make sense either since we left the Batman issue with Alfred down for the count in bed and Dick patched up and making a run for it. Blah, continuity issues in a multiple book crossover. I appreciated the coloring style (colored lines) but I wanted the art tightened up/more attractive.

I appreciate that there was some aftermath stuff for the Joker story and for Damian's death. I loved that Damian at least was paying attention (and being a total stalker, not creepy at all, Little D) to Dick's emotional state. It just made his death that much more bitter. Twist the knife a little more with the nice interactions and signs of growing humanity in the little assassin, writers. I wonder if I'd find his death more shocking if I was reading these things month to month rather than being spoiled ahead of time and then reading volumes.

PS How are all these other reviewers getting free comic books? I want free graphic novels, too...

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is far from a ringing endorsement, but this series is... consistent. While I don't actively look forward to reading each volume of Nightwing, when I actually pick it up, I find myself breezing through it fairly easily without any major frustrations. This is really saying something for a New 52 series, since I find myself constantly frustrated with those.

The thing Higgins does very nicely here is focus on the character of Dick Grayson. It's not all Nightwing flipping around kicking people. He's digging into what makes Dick his own man, and how he can set himself apart from Batman/Bruce Wayne while staying true to the ideals Bruce instilled in him. It's a great way to keep me rooting for Dick. Otherwise his nonstop chatter and boasting during fights would get on my nerves so much that I'd toss this.

Now, in spite of that attention to character, which I have to acknowledge is well handled, this series just doesn't really do it for me. The superheroics feel stale, and the plots always seem overly familiar and well-trodden. I'm glad Higgins tied this series into the Death of the Family arc so cleanly, but I still just felt kind of bored by the whole thing. There just isn't really a flare to this series, either visually or writing-wise, and that keeps me from truly loving it. It's just missing that X-factor to really kick it into high gear. Still, one of the more readable New 52 series, so take that for what it's worth.

[Isabel · Rating 5 out of 5]

OHMYGOD THAT ENDING WHY WHY WHY WHY WHY :((((( I loved it so much omg my feels

[FortressOfBookitude · Rating 3 out of 5]

As in the previous volumes the story in itself is ground-solid but the execution underwhelming. Especially the start is weak but it ends on a surprisingly good note.

[Elinor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Toujours pas méga fan de Nightwing...

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Hunter” and “Die for Me” (DeFalco/Guinaldo) – Good art (almost as good as Barrows’). The storyline may have a little too much going on. There’s a super assassin called Lady Shiva, who’s pretty cool despite being a mercenary causing the good guys trouble. There’s flirtation with Sonia Branch (the daughter of the guy who killed Richard Grayson’s parents) mixed with the Amusement Mile/Haly’s Circus project. There’s bickering between Nightwing and Batgirl. Through it all, Richard’s trying to do the right thing.
“Cleaning House” and “Curtain Call” (Higgins/Barrows) return to the Joker/Death of the Family storyline, climaxing with Nightwing’s capture by the Joker. It’s a stronger story than the first two, with sad implications for Richard as his ex-girlfriend and another friend from the circus are victimized and used against him. Barrows’ art is as fabulous as ever.
“The Punchline” is the Snyder story from the Batman Death of the Family volume. Which was also used in the Batgirl book. This annoys me. Granted, Nightwing (like Batgirl and the other Bat-heroes) is tied up part of the time during the culmination of this plot and the Joker didn’t say anything else to them until Batman arrived, but it would have been nice to have a different take on what happened when Batman wasn’t in the room and what it was like when everyone was whacked-out on Joker-gas and fighting each other.
“Another Saturday Night” (Higgins/Greene) is a cute story with some fighting and flirtation. It’s basically about the difficulties of maintaining relationships as a superhero; Nightwing gets dumped by one girl and then meets another who seems like a possibility, only to get stood up later. The art’s a little cutesy, fuzzy, manga-ish. It’s not bad, but I think it feels out-of-place. It does have a counterpart in the “Dreamer” portion of Batgirl Vol. 3, though.
“The Long Week” and “Slow Burn” (Higgins/Ryp) covers the aftermath of the Joker/Death of the Family storyline, along with the appearance of a weird group that steals and auctions items from tragedies and disasters. (Didn’t Batman have a run-in with these weirdos, too?) There’s also emotional fallout from Damian’s death—the details of which must be in a book I haven’t seen yet. Anyway, Richard is torn up about it. But the interesting thing about him is that he’s essentially an optimist. Despite the bad things that have happened to him personally and the bad things he’s seen, he still lets people in and tries to move forward instead of becoming completely paranoid and cynical and living in the past. He’s still pretty young and can seem rather naïve at times, but he’s still admirable in his efforts. There’s more awkwardness with Sonia—I can’t say I really care for that relationship—and it turns out that (wait for it) Sonia’s father is still alive. I didn’t care for the art; it’s bolder, at times hyper-macho with craggy faces and overdeveloped musculature.
I already have Vol. 4, so I will continue onward and see what happens….

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

Nightwing Volume 3: Death in the Family continues the interweaving of one story arc across several characters. Each book in Death of the Family has a convergent point (Joker capturing each of Batman's "family" (Nightwing, Damian/Robin, Batgirl, Red Robin/Tim Drake)) and then each diverge either before, during, or after that point. It's a great concept and fleshes out each of the characters nicely. But what keeps that conceit from being a 5 star book is that the convergent panels are simply reprinted in bulk for each bulk and not retold from a different perspective. Like it or hate it, a whole chunk (30 pages or so) are simply repeated across the volumes.

In Nightwing Volume 3 Death of the family, We start from Joker's storyline convergent point of the Batman 'family' captured in the cave. After that scene, Dick Grayson turns to rebuilding the circus in Gotham, with a circus family he has cultivated to bring amusement back to Gotham (and as a tribute to his parents). But Grayson is conflicted - the person making it possible is the daughter of the man responsible for his parents' deaths. If he allows himself to have feelings for her, does he betray his parents? Meanwhile, the Joker has plans for Nightwing, hoping to exploit Nightwing's belief in people by having them try to destroy and then abandon him. Can Nightwing protect those he cares about - or will Joker manage to systematically destroy Dick Grayson's future?

We have some great interaction scenes - between Batgirl and Nightwing, Barbara Gordon and Nightwing, and Damien/Robin. It has a solid story arc but also opens the door for a revelation about a character from Grayson's past.

The artwork didn't wow me this time. Dick Grayson looked a bit too much like Frank Stallone and the female characters were very bulky. It just didn't look like Nightwing enough for my personal preferences. That said, the artwork was solid and well presented.

In all, I appreciated that this one had a very strong storyline and arc. As well, a more serious tone but with a lot of Grayson history/backstory as well.

Received as an ARC from the publisher.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good read; however, I didn't enjoy it as much as I usually would. I've been sick, and so I've been in the mood for simple, fun entertainment. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of that currently checked out from the library, so when I just couldn't sleep any more, I picked this graphic novel up. And while I can't deny that it's well-written, I didn't love it as much I know I usually would. That said, I'm giving it the four stars I know it rightly deserves, even if it feels more like a three stars in my current mood.
That all aside, the Nightwing comics in the New 52 are, like I said, well-written. They're dark, but it's Batman's side of the DC Universe, so I can't really complain there. However, Nightwing, for me personally, should be at least a slightly lighter character. He's Dick Grayson, the first Robin: the light side of the Dark Knight, the hope among the fear. And while the latter is definitely true in this volume--despite the heartache and turmoil Dick experiences, he decides to still lean on people and depend on relationships--I was hoping for a bit more of that ole Dick Grayson charm and attitude. A few quips would have definitely been a nice way to break up all the doom and gloom.
Though, to be fair, with this volume focusing on both the "Death of the Family" story line and Dick's reaction to Damian's death, I can also see how that might not be appropriate. And I can see why Kyle Higgins wanted to explore Dick being brought down to the lowest possible point, where even his optimism was starting to crack.
I did also really enjoy the comics that focused on Dick and Damian's relationship as brothers. It showed Damian to be more than a trained assassin; in short, it showed his human side. And I think many people tend to just see Damian's attitude and overlook the truly developed and downright fascinating character he is. That especially shows in any comic that focuses on Dick and Damian's interactions.
To say the least, this volume was an interesting character study of Nightwing, but I'm starting to hope, going forward, that I'm going to see a bit more of the Dick Grayson that I grew up with shining through some of the inherent darkness that comes with the New 52's story lines.

[cauldronofevil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nightwing Volume 3 Death of the Family trade paperback/graphic novel. Jeesh. They’re comic books — ‘collected’ comic books. A bundle of issues collected into one book. “Graphic Novel”! That just makes us sound like ‘Trekkers’ that think they are too cool to be called ‘Trekkies’! Douche-bags all.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I read this because a Huffington Post quote on the cover says “This is a book you need to read.”.

The art is a little better in this book. I think it’s the same artist. I’ve always liked ‘stylized’ art. Art that doesn’t try to look photographic, but looks dynamic. This artist has a bit of that going that works well.

Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) shows up and they have a spat that doesn’t even remotely make any dramatic or character sense.

Batgirl is wearing the wanna-be-Iron-Man version of her outfit. I’m not a fan.

I did not read the story where the Joker apparently cut off his own face and scotch taped it back onto his own head.

Whoever the Marketing Guy who thought ‘Hey! Let’s make EVERY story cross over into 5 different comic books, that way if you want to read the whole story, you’ll have to buy 5 books you wouldn’t otherwise buy!’ was too stupid to realize that the other response might be ‘Fuck this. I’m not reading this series anymore!’.

I wonder how that worked out?

Anyway, the stupid thing about Joker cutting off his own face is that just like Superman’s death it was an obvious stunt that was obviously going to be ‘retconned/forgotten’ very soon.

Also, it was Joker doing something ‘crazy harmfully funny’ to HIMSELF. Which is kinda the exact opposite of how the Joker thinks. So it’s just plain dumb, not scary.

If there’s one kind of crazy the Joker isn’t, it’s self-destructive crazy! His crazy is all outward focused.

If the Joker were self-destructive crazy he wouldn’t be much of a villain.

And giving the Joker /curly/ lettering isn’t really working either. It’s gimmicky, like Joker’s a poltergeist.

That’s not nearly as scary as what the Joker really is - a narcissists who likes killing people and getting rich doing it.

Curtain Call is supposed to be a showdown between Nightwing and the Joker. Joker (of course) somehow took over Haly’s circus and now completely controls it but he also dug up every body that’s every died in Haly’s circus (including dogs/lions) and put them on posts waiting for Nightwing to show up.

Admittedly it’s a cool image. But it’s also really illogical and stupidly unbelievable. And I guess you can say that comics don’t have to be believable, but Batman comics really should be.

Lost of explosions occur and then the undead bodies of Jimmy the clown and Rala his ex-girlfriend crush come back to life and torment him. Maybe Joker got hold of Scarecrow’s fear gas?

Don’t know. Don’t care. Its dramatic, but so ‘forced’ it’s got no tension, because it’s so illogical and unreal. Of course Joker makes all his old dead friends come to life and attack him.

And he’s knocked out and the Joker drags him somewhere… till next issue.

See there’s no real suspense with something that logically couldn’t—even in a comic book universe—really have happened. It’s just lame.

God next issue is Joker without a face trying to be ‘scary’. But it’s totally lame because a guy who would get constant face infections and be unable to leave his mom’s basements isn’t really scary at all.

So, apparently Joker cut off the face of Nightwing, Batgirl and Tim Drake. Leaving them alive but leaving their faces in ice.

But of course its all a fake out and everyone is okay and Joker faked their faces being torn off and he Joker gassed them but it didn’t matter.

FU.

Look, I can see what they were going for. They have a little vignette at the end that shows that the Joker doesn’t really care what Bruce Wayne’s secret identity is, because for him, it’s all about the battle of wits between him and Batman.

But it just didn’t work because when you push Joker into Michael Myer’s territory, you make him stupider, not scarier. Because the Texas Chainsaw/Michael Myer’s type slasher is just stupid. Not worth of being a Batman villain And then when you reverse it and say ‘it was all a gag’, it’s even dumber. Because it’s got to funny to AT LEAST THE JOKER before it makes sense as a motivation.

Sorry .

“Another Saturday Night” was actually kind of awesome. A sort of ‘superhero meet-cute’ is not that rare but the surprise ending is. And much appreciated.

One of the things that few authors get right about Nightwing is how truly naive he really is. Becoming a superhero at age 8-10 (depending on how you call it) and staying one for pretty much all the years since leaves you a little unequipped, especially in the romance department. So despite being rich and handsome he’s always been a screw up with women. He can always attract them, but has a tendency to over commit way too soon, and of course flake out quite a lot for unexplainable reasons.

It’s the “Beautiful-But-Doesn’t-Know-She’s-Beautiful” fantasy. Hard to find in real life, but fun to imagine. It happens in real life, but it’s generally pure luck.

The Long Week story is actually pretty good. I personally think the art is terrible. It looks like they took the artist from a “G.I. Joe” book and tried to put it into a Bat-family book. It doesn’t work, but the story is good.

Boy, I really don’t like the art. Again it’s not bad it’s just not very dynamic. The story kind of works. Dick Grayson atypically closing himself off because of how much he has been betrayed and lost (though how he figures Damian betrayed him seems clumsy).

Batman has no pants which is definitely a problem. Who the hell though Batman in a onesy would be better? And all the ‘armored pieces’ just look like they’ll be the first thing to catch an edge on when swing round the city.

Also, it posits that there is an auction for Dick Grayson’s fathers circus costume that Joker has painted a smile on. So this should mean that everyone at the auction knows Dick Grayson’s secret identity. And once you know that’s it’s pretty obvious that the guy who adopted him is probably Batman. What drugs are they on when writing this?!?!

So, even though it was seen in this series of comic books, apparently it’s inferred that Damian has somehow died.

This is the kind of shite that would never pass muster as a story in the olden days. It’s just crap writing to leave it out. Marvel used to put footnotes in to tell you what took place in another comic.

Vomit. The ending of the story is pretty lame. Sonia Zucco and Dick are starting to get close and then Sonia drops a bomb on Dick. The problem is, it’s a pretty lame bomb.

So far, none of this book has been particularly interesting. Or well done. Where’s Chuck Dixon when you need him?

I give this 2 stars. And I’m not sure where one of the stars comes from.

[Daniel Sepúlveda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puntaje: 4.8 Estrellas

Revisitar la serie de Nightwing ha sido toda una experiencia maravillosa para mí. Esta es una serie que está llena de acción, escenas de combate y, en este volúmen, momentos inolvidables que involucran al Joker haciendo lo que mejor sabe hacer: Traumar a los lectores con sus crímenes y acechando a Batman y todos sus asociados.

Este volúmen incluye los cómics de Nightwing que hicieron parte del evento “La muerte de la familia”, en donde el Joker regresa a Gotham para encarar (Sólo quienes hayan leído el evento entenderán el chiste retorcido que acabo de hacer) a Batman por, según el mismo Joker, dejar que su familia lo debilite.

Como ya es costumbre en las historias que involucran al mítico guasón, seremos testigos de escenas muy violentas y gráficas. Además, seremos testigos de cómo este malvado personaje es capaz de llevar al límite no sólo a Batman, sino al protagonista de esta serie, dejando su vida literalmente en pedazos.

Al final del volumen tendremos unas escenas nostálgicas que nos demuestran la relación de hermandad entre Dick y Damián, además de contarnos sobre algo que pasa en otra serie de cómics, y de la cual no hablaré para evitar spoilers.

Estoy amando esta relectura de la serie de Nightwing, de seguro que este año acabo con los Nuevos 52 y seguiré con la serie del Rebirth, o tal vez me ponga a leer los cómics más antíguos? Ya lo veremos! Por ahora solo les diré que lo recomiendo a ojo cerrado!

[Joshua Adam Bain · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this wasn't so really back enough for 3 stars, but it wasn't so good enough for a 4. So let's say it's a 3.5!

This series was one of my favourites when I first started reading it. This volume lacked that spark that the others had. It was a bit of a disjointed book with some random sections leaving me wandering "what the hell was that there for?". The tie in with the Death of the Family story worked well, they did ad in a section from the Batman title with this, one of which I had just read in the Teen Titans crossover. And I'm guessing I'll see it in most of the other bat-family titles in the DOTF story. Through the series so far all I've been wanting is for Dick to catch a break for once, but yet again every time he gets close to something good it seems to blow up.

This wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't anything great. It left me feeling the same as when I finished Teen Titans - The Culling, which was less than satisfied. I really hoping this series hasn't lost it's bang because I love Nightwing and I think this series has a lot of potential.

I will be optimistically waiting for the next volume.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nightwing Volume 3: Death of a family was amazing. I loved this volume although I felt rather unfurfilled at the end I wanted to know much more however I understand that there are other graphic novels that continue this plot line, I'm sure catwoman, batman and batgirl all have a death of the family volume within their selection so I think i'll have to go for a looksee to read them.
Whilst this centres on Nightwing (hello it is a nightwing graphic novel) other characters also play a key role such as Damian, Batman, Joker and so much more. I loved the story and the plot and I was rather chilled at scenes but it made me continue reading, it made my train journey go much faster than normal which is great. I definitely will continue this series and hopefully branch out more into the new 52 world! Anyway if you've gotten to this volume I definitely recommend continuing on :)

[Iain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty ok I guess. The tie-in with the larger storyline was handled well. I feel like this volume leaves me with less to complain about, but not much was particularly memorable either. I complained before that the character was two dimensional, so it was good to get into Dick's head more in this one. But I come away feeling like just about everything in this volume was either predictable, pointless, or just more of the same thing we've been seeing this entire run.

The art was mostly quite good in this; that's been a complaint of mine in previous volumes. A few different artists with some major style variations, but none of them unwelcome this time around, all enjoyable.

Spoilers:
Dick sank everything into revitalizing Amusement Mile in order to do something good for the city... as if that wouldn't be a huge target in Gotham, for Joker in particular. There was even an episode of Batman TAS about this.

To make it worse, they used the Haly's clown who looked vaguely like Joker as the poster boy on the circus ads, as if that would do anything but get him killed. In TAS the twist was that the casino was going broke and was intentionally provoking Joker to destroy it so they could collect the insurance money, but this story isn't nearly that clever: Dick seems to be doing everything he can to provoke Joker into committing an atrocity there, and there's just no sense behind it.

This volume starts with plenty of foreshadowing in the concerns of the circus folks, conversations about whether it's safe. We know every step of the way that Joker's going to show up and destroy everything. We even get early scenes of Nightwing interrogating Penguin about who hired Lady Shiva to come to town, specifically demanding to know if it was Joker, even though he had no reason to think it was and fully realized it wasn't the right MO. But the story needed to keep Joker in our heads, reminding us he was coming, even while Nightwing cleared up story elements that had nothing at all to do with him.

When *it* finally happens it's hard to feel much because the entire Amusement Mile storyline so clearly only existed to provide a backdrop of devastation when Joker made his appearance. It doesn't feel so tragic, and certainly not surprising, because it was always inevitable that everything tying Dick down in this run would have to be discarded in order to keep the book moving. If anything, it feels like this Haly's storyline stuck around too long.

Joker arrives with some major shock value: a house of horrors featuring the corpses of past Haly's performers. Which is very modern-Joker, but also absurd. What kind of money, time, and army of workers does he have to track down and exhume corpses, transport them, and arrange them, just to give Nightwing a brief shock before blowing them up in his face? And how quickly did he do it, so that Nightwing would not get tipped off in advance: Hey Dick, FYI, corpses from all over the country are being stolen from their graves by the dozens, and they're all Haly's performers. What, he did it all the night before? Sure comics require some suspension of disbelief, but no work of fiction can withstand an unlimited amount of absurdity.

Similarly, why was Raya even in this, other than just to kill her and wipe the slate clean before moving on from this three volume long storyline? Again the absurdity: Joker has the resources to break into Blackgate and kidnap her from her cell, just so he can drug her, dress her in a Nightwing costume, and make a point about how Nightwing and the rest of the Bat family are just knockoffs? Then he heads off to do his evil, leaving drugged Raya with machetes taped in her hands to occupy Nightwing, as if she'd be a challenge for someone who also faces off against Lady Shiva in this? But of course she is a challenge, and Dick gets another huge gash across his chest, just like in every fight. At least in this volume he does make one brief comment about how his armor isn't protecting enough. (But does he even wear any armor? There is no weapon he encounters that doesn't slice right through him.) These kinds of fights get so tiresome.

In keeping with my habit of looking at how much damage Dick takes in these stories: He starts the story with broken ribs, gets beat up by Shiva, and then the night of Joker's attack he gets slashed across the chest, blown up multiple times, hit in the head with an oversized wooden sledge hammer, and then whatever additional damage during the final Death of the Family fracas. He should be dead a few times over, with a fractured skull, but at the end of it all he has a large laceration to his shoulder, rips all over his costume, assorted smaller cuts and bruises, but is basically fine, functioning, fully operational, and not in need of any days off. Just like in every volume.

Points to Joker for pointing out the absurdity of Nightwing appearing around the country in every city Haly's visited, as if no one would notice. Joker would be great at Cinema Sins.


So, given all my complaints even in this volume that I said gave me less to complain about, I'm surprised that I still feel like this deserves three stars for some reason. It wasn't really bad or good, just average and adequately enjoyable, in spite of the many eyeroll moments. I love Nightwing as a character and keep hoping one of these volumes is just going to be awesome, fun, thought provoking, surprising, memorable, etc... and they keep feeling like a more or (in the case of vol.1 especially) less enjoyable trip from A to B. Let's see if vol.4 can surprise me... I'm not giving up yet, but my excitement is waning.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main Death of the Family stuff here is great, once again showing that Kyle Higgins can do tie-ins very well. This continues into the aftermath issues, with the Requiem issue being especially good. The let-downs are the Lady Shiva two part opener, which isn't very compelling, and the random story from Young Romance which is basically a waste of paper. The artwork throughout this book is gorgeous however, with Eddy Barrows, the ever reliable Andres Guinaldo, and the realistic stylings of Ryp to finish us off. Roll on Volume 4.