The season of giving is upon us! No matter what holiday you celebrate, December is the perfect month to cuddle up by the fire with a full mug of cocoa and a good book. If you’re too busy to read a traditionally-published novel, you can always veer into comics and graphic novel territory: they’re fast, they’re gorgeous, and they’re so easy to get lost in, you won’t even notice the passage of time as you dive into the script and wonderful art.
This week’s read was an oldie but a goodie, because we all know I have a mountainous TBR that needs attention more than all those beautiful, shiny books just siren-calling for me from my wishlist… anyway, yeah, this week was Nightwing volume 1: Traps and Trapezes by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows. A plethora of other artists also contributed.
Plot summary
Haley’s Circus, the big top where Dick once performed, makes a stop on its tour in Gotham City – bringing with it murder, mystery and superhuman evil. To uncover more clues as to why a mysterious assassin is targeting him, Nightwing joins the circus’s tour. But as Dick becomes reacquainted with the big top he once called home, he learns there are darker secrets to be discovered.
Worth reading
Honestly, I haven’t finished Higgins’ run, but this first volume is largely contingent upon having at least a basic knowledge of Scott Snyder’s Court of Owls storyline, and I know it gets tied into the Death of the Family and Forever Evil events later on. I read the main Court of Owls and Death of the Family storylines years ago, but if you haven’t, I really recommend reading those to enhance your enjoyment of this. I’m a completionist, so I’ll be finishing the run regardless, but I just sort of feel for Higgins here. He did what he could with the resources he was given, but this volume sort of felt like a side dish that was meant to complement the main dish: the Court of Owls. I hope it gets better, Higgins genuinely seems to like Nightwing as a character, and it’s not his fault he was hobbled by editorial out of the gate.
Flaws
I think I pretty much covered these in the “worth reading,” section, but I still sort of feel like I need to continue on with Higgins’ run to grasp the full scope of it. I highly recommend reading Snyder’s Batman (including the bound-up Joker compilations of each event across the involved titles, if you don’t want to buy and read each one. I bought those, and they helped convince me I’d be interested in Higgins’ Nightwing and Gail Simone’s Batgirl while giving a hard pass to Ann Nocenti’s Catwoman). I’m more than happy to carry on with the New 52 Nightwing, just to see where it goes.
Rating
3/5
Banana Nut Oatmeal
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