Nightwing #3
The previous issue resulted in the death of Mr. Haly and the reveal that Dick is now the owner of Haly’s Circus. This is a transitional issue that deals with those events. It starts off with Mr. Haly’s funeral and show how other members of Haly’s Circus are coping with those revelations. The remainder of the issue has Dick continuing his mission to discover who hired Saiko to kill him and why Saiko has branded him as Gotham’ most dangerous killer.
I continue to very much enjoy Eddy Barrow’s art on this series. Barrow is quickly becoming one of my favorite Nightwing artists. I really like the facial expressions his characters use along with his framing sequences. Barrow’s single page character portraits in this issue are fantastic. There are two in particular that are poster worthy, one of Nightwing and another of Saiko.
As for the writing, this is a good transitional issue that moves the story along. It was good how Raya pointed out to Dick that he is always moving forward in life but in the process he hurts the people he leaves behind. Dick always going forward is one of my favorite traits of his character and one that I have tried to incorporate into my own. So, it was good to have a character point out the negative consequence of that characteristic.
One thing I do not like about this issue is a fight scene. The issue could easily have not had the fight. This fight felt like it was only in the issue to fulfill page requirements. This would not be problem if it were a good fight. The way this fight is handled feels like it has been done over and over again with other characters. I thought Higgins could have given us something more unique.
Overall, a solid issue that does a good job building towards the next part of the story.