The Good
For an issue that involves Nightwing fighting a giant demon, I was impressed at how well Higgins pulled it off. Usually the Bat family are best with the thugs-and-mobsters kind of villains, and a foray into the supernatural served as a good mix-up. However, it would have been nice to cross over with some kind of mystical backup for the case and making it an adventure instead of shoehorning it into the current arc (more on that below).
The final cliffhangers took me by surprise, but then I realized that it actually kind of made sense. I didn't equate this with bad writing or predictability because, well, I didn't see it coming. Fair warning: it may induce some groans, but I want to see how it develops. That's a good thing.
The Bad
For those of us who were interested in the current mystery storyline, this issue is kind of a write-off; Dick bumbles around with a voodoo priestess gone mad in a fit of love, and it ends with little-to-no explanation of what actually happened. Dick's clown co-worker (man, that feels weird to type) offers a cliche "it's best to leave the past in the past" line while shrugging off that his ex summoned a demon.
Comics, everybody.
Why does every clown in the New 52 have to follow the yellow-purple-green Joker color scheme? This isn't the first time I've seen this done. And really, why didn't Dick react to it? Wouldn't he have spent most of his adolescant life fighting the guy?
For being a master detective (or the protege of one), Dick seems to having an abnormal amount of trouble with figuring out the connection to a list of names. This kind of bothers me a bit.
The Verdict
I've been a pretty big fan of Nightwing's New 52 run so far, but this was the first time that a whole issue disappointed me. There were simply too many unanswered questions and bland panels for me to enjoy it like previous issues; it made no headway on the arc's story and kind of left us floundering.
Then again, the cliffhanger has me hooked at least until next issue, and if it delivers, it should erase this little snafu.
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