The story of Ric Grayson continues. Yay. While Scarecrow is on his rampage across Bludhaven, the Nightwings move in to put an end to his reign of terror. Meanwhile, Ric Grayson tried to ignore who he really is. As I said in my previous Nightwing review, no one really wanted this story arc to happen. Despite that, this was probably the best issue so far in the Ric Grayson story.
(Spoilers Incoming)
We pick up right where we left off with the Nightwings confronting Scarecrow. As the leader of the Nightwings demands that Scarecrow stand down and surrender, the villain is taken aback by the fact that four imposters are standing before him. He then sends in his crazed army to hold off the would-be heroes. As the Nightwings debate over how to properly fight off crazed civilians without hurting them, Ric is a few blocks away, running from the fight. As he prepares to enter his cab and escape the madness, he sees the four Nightwings attempting to fight off the mob. “Walk away, Ric. This doesn’t concern you. The Nightwings are on this. They want this life. They chose it. I’ve made a different choice. I’m not going to feel bad about it…” At that point, the tide of the fight has shifted in favor of Scarecrow. As one the Nightwings takes a nasty hit, another one of them attempts to confront Scarecrow directly. This results in the young hero being shot twice in the chest. At this moment things finally change for Ric.
Ric immediately blames himself for the apparent death of the young man. “This kid took a bullet that was meant for me. No. Meant for Nightwing. If I hadn’t turned my back on who I was, that would be me. Is this who I am now? Someone who lets other people fight his battles for him?” He begins to have flashbacks to the night the Flying Graysons died, and knows that before this fight is over, he needs to do something. All four of the Nightwings begin to look hopeless as the mob overruns them. However, before Scarecrow can order them to rip the heroes apart, a taxi cab with a burning tire strapped to the hood comes tearing through the street. The resulting fumes from the burning tire negates the Scarecrow’s fear toxin by causing the mob to cough up the gas. Out of the cab climbs Ric in the best disguise he could throw together (complete with Arrow season 1 grease paint over his eyes). His distraction allows the Nightwings enough time to check on their wounded man and discover that he is still, albeit faintly, breathing thanks to the body armor in the Nightwing suit. As they gather around their injured comrade, Ric runs after Scarecrow. When the two come face to face, Scarecrow gasses Ric with fear toxin. However, thanks to years as Robin and Nightwing, Ric is immune to the toxin and is able to stop Scarecrow before he can do anymore damage, with an assist from the leader of the Nightwings. After Scarecrow is turned over to the police, Ric asks if this makes them a team. While the leader of the Nightwings refuses, the brother and sister of the team want him with them. As the fourth and final Nightwing states to end the issue, “Why does this suddenly feel like it’s all going to end badly?”
As someone who has not enjoyed the Ric Grayson angle from the beginning, this issue was great. From the actual story to the art, it was amazing. While I didn’t mention it before, I love the four Nightwings using the past four incarnations of Grayson’s suit. Seeing one of the Nightwings go down in battle was enough to trigger Ric’s return to heroism, and that was probably the best way to do it. Having someone who has come across as selfish this entire time get such a reality check was satisfying and sensible enough to work. The characterization of Ric in this issue made him a much more likeable character, and just a little closer to the old Dick Grayson. Even if we have to wait a while for Dick to make his full comeback, even just these little shades of him are enough to hold me over until that time finally comes. I find it ironic that the most likeable they’ve made Ric so far is when he’s acting the most like his old self. Hopefully after a solid end to this arc, that old self will be back fully. In fact, I don’t even think they need to do away with the other Nightwings. Batman Incorporated happened, maybe Nightwing Incorporated is the next step (even though we know the Nightwings are probably going to die by the end of this). Until the next issues, I’ll hold one image in my brain: Ric standing there with the Nightwings to finish off the issue. Let’s hope we keep on this track, and that it eventually leads to the return of Dick Grayson.