: (3 of 5cowls)

This cover by Michael Golden and Steve Buccellato is not bad as far as covers go, but it wasn't singing to me either. The image of Nightwing getting punched dead in the face by one of Amygdala's hands, blood flying, is not the strongest point of it, though it was eye catching where it sat in the stands. I could have done without the blood and the inking job made the image seem a little sketchy, detracting from an otherwise nice action pose. The image of the convicts filing out through the flaming prison in the background was a much more striking image if you look past the full color foreground into the crimson and orange hued background. Tad and Dudley are easily recognizable among their number, and the sketchy inking works much better with the stark contrast of that part of the image.

Story: (3 of 5 cowls)
Chuck, Chuck Chuck. I'm really worried Chuck. In the past few months you seem to have made Nightwing fall prey to the Anakin Skywalker syndrome prevalent in Phantom Menace. He's been altered from a clever character whose sharp wit and swift moves let him outsmart much stronger foes, into a guy who gets his butt whooped and is only saved from a smearing by the grace of lucky breaks. I dunno about you, but I prefer to have my hero get out of a bad situation on his own merits, not because he was knocked silly by a giant who luckily cried himself to sleep over it. What I would have liked to have seen, would have been for Nightwing to give Aaron the slip, and reappear as his real friend, Dick Grayson, talking the man down from his rage that way.

The rest of the story was all right, if a little predictable. The three convicts with the biggest grudge against Nightwing escape, and only them. If I'm supposed to believe a moron like Shrike, and the less than brilliant duo of Soames and Ryerstad are the only criminals smart enough to escape in the fire, then Bludhaven probably doesn't really need Nightwing protecting it, because the villain population isn't terribly quick on the uptake. At least this issue was mercifully only involving one main storyline, and we weren't subjected to Chuck being peevish over having to include crossover material which interrupts his grand vision.

I am interested in seeing who the gloved hands belong to. They had a feminine slenderness to them, which would lead me off hand to think of Jessie Quick or Powergirl on the side of the angels, or perhaps Lady Vic (early issues, Titans villain, Birds of Prey Villain, working for Roland Desmond) or Sylph, the under-used villainess from Nightwing 48-49. I would like to see more of the either of the latter, as they have great character potential. Vic was, in the beginning, a brutal merc manipulating Nightwings morality against him, and I like her a great deal. Sylph has a very unique power that seems a good foil for Nightwing's agility.

Artwork: (2 of 5 cowls)

More Trevor McCarthy, but thankfully, according to the letters page, this is his last issue. Trevor's inconsistent style continues here in this issue. He has moments of near brilliance, but in general he creates exaggerated caricatures of the characters, sometimes to the point of the distortion making them unrecognizable. This works on Amygdala, as the man is a walking caricature, but it makes Nightwing look trapped between moments where he resembles a deranged elf, to moments where he looks like (as one letter-writer pointed out) a Looney Toons character. The inking and coloring on this issue are both decent, though it is hard to judge when one has a hard time looking past the exaggerated art. I think McCarthy needs a project better suited to his style. I can see him doing great things on something like the Thing or the Hulk at Marvel, where the hero of the book would be complimented by the style, rather than pseudo mocked by it.

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