Grayson #6

Within a span of a few pages I saw zombie Free Willy, a dude checking out Dick Grayson's ass and I thought to myself "Tim Seeley's writing this isn't he" and I looked back at the opening credits and sure enough Tim Seeley did indeed write this issue. It's really a testament to the cohesiveness of Grayson that a book can have two writers with two completely different styles and it all works.

The set-up for Grayson #6 starts with Dick and Helena exploring an island looking for the brain of Paragon only to find out that it is gone and all of the inhabitants of the island compound (save one guy and a zombie orca) are dead. Helena decides to use her hypnos to interrogate the lone survivor and Dick is told to just wait around which he does until a certain vigilante dressed in black finds him and there we have the main plot for the issue.

This issue of Grayson is unique because it is the first (and so far only) installment of the series that doesn't read like a one-shot as it is the most plot oriented book of the series and it also ends in a cliff-hanger. There is so much that is thrown at the reader in this issue, an earlier threat has returned as with a plan that could end up killing thousands of people and ironically puts Spyral into a position to be the hero, you learn more about the inner-workings of Spyral along with a hint of Mr. Minos's motivation, you learn more about Midnighter and his new base of operations the God Garden, as well as why Dick Grayson will always have a hard time maintaining his cover. Based on what I just said, it might seem overwhelming but I think that Tim Seeley budgets the page space pretty well, there was only one piece of plot progression that I thought wasn't needed.

The solicit advertised that this was going to be mostly be about Dick taking on Midnighter, I was a little apprehensive going in because of the probability that Midnighter would get jobbed just to make Dick Grayson look good. While the end result is expected for a title focused on Dick Grayson, I think the writers do a good job of not nerfing Midnighter too much. There is a weakness that is exposed by Dick Grayson but it is one that was covered in Grayson #2 - Gut Feelings so it's not PIS (Plot Induced Stupidity), anyone who tells you otherwise has not paid attention to what has been going on in the series. There was also quite a bit of homo-eroticism throughout their entire encounter this issue.

There were a lot of things that I liked about this issue, first and foremost I am very appreciative of the fact that this comic does advance the plot significantly and it sets up a lot of interesting developments down the road, the one I'm looking forward to the most is Dick Grayson and God Garden. The second is the dialogue and characterizations, with the exception of one character (which I will get into) the characters were written well, the banter was sharp and witty and when it needed to be the exposition was relatively clear and concise. Midnighter has one line that will pretty much stick out in every reader's mind, it's a line that most people on tumblr have used to describe Dick Grayson and while that might sound like a disaster waiting to happen, I laughed at that line. The art, as usual is excellent, Mikel Janin does a fantastic job, when you look at the action scenes, you can feel the movement of the characters and the panel layout makes it so that the action is coherent. There are several panels of characters showing emotions and Mr. Janin really does (as he has done for the whole series) a great job of drawing believable emotions, because it really isn't as easy as it looks. His scenery work is also excellent. My favorite panel is the one that Spyder, the head of Spyral, it was pretty cool and jarring as well. However, I would like to mention that the colorist Jeromy Cox deserves a lot of credit as well, the whole comic is very colorful and his work is really apparent in the Spyral or Hypnos scenes that really emphasize the hypnotic aspect of the Spyral world, this issue more than any other really show off his talents.

In terms of what I didn't like, there wasn't a whole lot as most of it was of the nit-pick variety, but there was a scene involving Mr. Minos and his superior that looks impressive but Tim Seeley tries to give us a motivation for Mr. Minos in the conflict that has been set up and it just feels weird. I really enjoyed the enigmatic aspect of Mr. Minos and to try and give him motivations like erasing his pain really feels awkward to read, I don't know if I'm the only one who felt that way. Character complexity is generally a good thing and maybe in the long run this could work out, but the way it was shown here was forced and frankly cliche. If there's one element of PIS in the Dick/Midnighter fight, it's not the result, it's how Midnighter takes an aspect of Agent Grayson and assimilates it in his battle computer, the latter makes sense, but the former needed more explanation, though we might get that in the next issue. Oh and Aqua-Mom....no just no.

Overall, this was a great issue, it's witty, the battle that takes place is fun to watch and isn't too disrespectful to Midnighter, many interesting threads have been set up which helps the Grayson series move forward and builds the world that Dick Grayson is currently in. This, more than any other issue of Grayson, has me eagerly waiting the next issue. It actually makes me a little upset that there will be a two month break from Agent 37 coming up. 4.5/5, go out and read it and Nightwing fans, save your tears and buy this comic, you're actually getting a fantastic story that is true to the character.