Review: Nightwing Vol. 5- Setting Son
Quick Summary
Pros: The Batgirl and Nightwing story is a wonderful detective mystery wrapped in a star-crossed romance. The final half of this book is a thought-provoking and introspective look into the growth Nightwing has made in this series and a touching way to end it.
Cons: The last issue is exposition heavy and makes some heroes seem out of character.
Overall: There is a lot going on in this volume as mystery, adventure, and wholesome character development are all on display. It is a book with a few flaws which are vastly overshadowed by what it does right: it tells an interesting and entertaining story to start things out and gives a heartwarming conclusion to the Nightwing series before it switches over to being Grayson. This makes this a great book on its own and an even better book for anyone who has been keeping up with this series.
Story
Nightwing Vol. 5: Setting Son is a great story and a great conclusion to a series. It provides a couple of classic, Nightwing-style adventures throughout the book while also concluding with an ending that sums up both the past few issues and the rest of the entire series. This collection stands out as one of the best books in this series so far and is something that any Nightwing fan should enjoy.
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This volume kicks off with a “Zero Year” tie-in story. Basically this means the entire issue is a quick flashback to six years prior to the present. It is an alright issue that involves Dick learning a bit about how to treat friends while also connecting to themes and relationships established way back in Nightwing Vol. 1: Traps and Trapezes (Review). Overall this issue is pretty average and mostly serves for some character development before the real story starts.
The next issue though, is simply fantastic. It sees Nightwing and Batgirl reunite and revisit their crime fighting and personal relationships. Meaning that it isn’t just a simple love story, it also is a fun detective story as well. Both of these are equally excellent in their own way. The love story is a hopeful, yet ultimately tragic, examination of why Dick and Barbara are not dating, despite the fact that they are perfect for each other. And the detective story is a thrilling and action packed Sherlock Holmes style mystery with an M. Night Shyamalan style twist at the end. It is an amazing little story that makes this entire collection worth reading.
From here, the story progresses to a style similar to what was seen in Nightwing Vol. 4: Second City (Review). It revolves around Dick dealing with supervillains, living in a new city, local law enforcement, and general life problems. This is standard superhero fare and provides a nice little reprieve from the heavier emotional action that the beginning of this volume contained.
As the story wraps up, this standard superhero fare amps up and begins to become more personal. This starts with events that remind Dick of his parents’ death and ends with the unrelated death of another child’s parents. Dick helps her deal with this and even takes down her parents’ killer. However, this action isn’t the highlight here. The real highlight is what the reader learns about Dick from his conversations with her. It is clear that these past five volumes of adventure have taught Dick a lot and that he has grown from what he has gone through. This issue is the closure to the last five volumes and the Kyle Higgins’ love letter to the character. It is well done and well told in a way that offers a truly satisfying conclusion for anyone who has been reading this series.
Finally, the last issue in this book, is a quick introduction to what is coming up next in the world of Dick Grayson. Due to the events of Forever Evil, the world thinks Nightwing is dead and Batman intends to use that. It is a dark story which depicts Batman and Nightwing viciously fighting each other while Batman provides exposition for the next series. On its own, this issue is not that good. It is a thin story heavily focused on text and plot development. It is also a jarring change to see Batman treating Nightwing so horribly here when he and Nightwing were so friendly in Forever Evil. It isn’t the best issue to read but does provide the reader with necessary information, so I suppose it manages to accomplish its purpose.
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Nightwing has been a series which has ranged from average to great while never being truly bad. Perhaps it hasn’t been the best series in the New 52, but Kyle Higgins never failed at consistently bringing entertaining stories out and always treated this hero well. It seems unfortunate that the series is ending now as this volume and the last were the two best volumes so far. Higgins has done a great job here, hopefully things will only continue to improve as Dick transitions from Nightwing to Grayson.
Art
The art in this collection is nice throughout, yet has a range to how nice it looks. The first half of the collection is drawn by Will Conrad, whose art we praised in our review of Vol. 4. However, the second half is drawn by Russell Dauterman, whose art style is pretty different. To me, it was too much of a change too quickly and ended up being a little bit off putting. It almost seemed like they were going for a Batgirl Vol. 1: Batgirl of Burnside style look but with a Nightwing twist to it. Some may end up liking how this looks but I, personally, found it a little off putting.
Continuity
This volume flows directly out of the events of Nightwing Vol. 4: Second City (Review). The story then continues in Grayson Vol. 1: Agents of Spyral.
This volume also references and continues the stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below.
- Since this is the fifth book in a series, obviously the previous four books are going to be referenced slightly. However, since this book is the conclusion of a long run on this character, portions of those books are heavily referenced at the end of this volume. Links to reviews for those previous four volumes are below.
- The first issue in this volume is a tie-in to “Zero Year.” This relates to the events of Batman Vol. 4: Zero Year: Secret City (Review).
- Batgirl mentions several events taking place in her life. These events take place in Batgirl Vol. 3: Death of the Family and Batgirl Vol. 4: Wanted.
- There is a pretty significant tie-in with the end of this volume and Forever Evil. Right before the last issue of this volume, the events of Forever Evil take place and explain why these events are happening.