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Shallow, spoiler-filled recap of Nightwing issue #87
Too much good not to share. And formatting this entry kept me from writing a bitchy one.
the Jack: hee!
the Jack: i just got done reading nightwing #87
the Te: good?
the Jack: oh GOD
the Jack: first of all, because pretty pretty makes jack shallow, i'm loving the new art team of zircher & owens.
the Jack: there have been a lot of unfortunate art direction decisions in the nightwing title's past. these two draw him looking like dick. ie, SEXXXXXXXXXAY
the Jack: his hair is growing back out now that he's done with the cop thing!
the Te: yay!
the Jack: actually, for several pages it almost seems to grow a little every panel.
the Jack: maybe dick really is meta, and his superpower is sexy hair.
the Jack: shall i just recap the issue highlights for you?
the Te: sure. *g*
the Jack: ok. issue opens with dick and babs having dinner at a nice restaurant [in gotham, we later find out; and i read it as an attempt at reconciliation since they were )( this close to breaking up at the end of last issue]. there's a blowgun dart.
the Jack: babs and dick, being babs and dick, hear it coming. babs swings around with her dinner plate and deflects it.
the Te: *hee*
the Jack: dick's still just getting out of his chair -- though in fairness to him, she was closer, since it was aimed at the back of her head
the Jack: dick's looking especially sexy for the date, with a blue-black button-down that matches his hair, and jeans so dark it's only the cut and stitching that give them away. (boy does not dress like a heterosexual.)
the Jack: the baddie comes flipping into the dining area -- it's tarantula. you know from tarantula?
the Te: no
the Jack: ::SPLUTTER:: oh my GOD i just noticed the bas-relief/mural in the restaurant. apparently it's a greek place: two chiton-clad women enclasped, foreheads together as if they're about to kiss; two bearded men sharing a cup of wine; and a centaur with a handful of arrows
the Jack: ::nub widescreen pagespreads with juicy details packed into the background::
the Te: *snort*
the Jack: anyway, tarantula... chick showed up in the 'haven awhile back, flirty with nightwing, who was suspicious of her qualifications to be a cape, and downright hostile once he saw she packs a gun. tarantula is the name john law went by, back when, also -- john law who's a retired 'haven cape who lives in dick's building now.
the Jack: so tarantula's leaping in, blades out, and dick's got one foot up on his chair to leap up and take her on. and barbara's all, "i've got this, dick. stay out of it."
the Te: heh
the Jack: and yeah, she's got her escrima sticks out, but... dick stay out of it? riiiiiiight. he leaps OVER tarantula as she's landing on the table, setting up to grab her.
the Jack: babs: "i mean it, grayson. back off."
the Jack: t pulls gun, dick disarms her, babs knocks t off her feet. 'not bad for a cripple,' t taunts. then babs really lets her have it.
the Jack: she's totally kicking ass. ::hearts barbara::
the Te: *nods*
the Jack: then tarantula comes back with a flying kick, which babs totally has blocked... except dick dives in with a heels-over-head nightwing tackle, and babs ends up taking a kick to the head that capsises the chair.
the Jack: so babs is on the floor. as is tarantula, some yards away, with dick on top of her. "dammit, dick!" babs says.
the Jack: tarantula plants one on dick... and knees him really hard in the 'nads. and makes to make her escape.
the Te: mm-hmmm
the Jack: there is now a panel of dick grabbing his crotch with both hands in dc canon. [hey, i said pretty brings out the shallow in me...]
the Jack: meanwhile, babs is all, "you'd better run!" and grabs a fork that wound up near her on the floor and shurikens tarantula in the thigh with it. doesn't stop her getting away, quite, but still, BABS kicks ASS.
the Jack: "you okay?" dick asks, all shaky [and possibly soprano] as he rights the chair. "better'n you" she snaps back.
the Te: heh
the Jack: the wait staff reappear. the cops have been called. our bat-couple decide on a graceful exit out the back way, eased by the hundred dick gave their waiter.
the Jack: so then the story cuts to this reporter who's been popping up around both nightwing and dick, interviewing his neighbours.
the Jack: all very cute, but not quoteworthy, except that apparently yoska graesinka (dick's gypsy-not-grandfather from the adoption storyline back in 'gotham knights' #20-21) did, in fact, move into the building like he was talking about last issue.
the Te: okay.
the Jack: "...even so, he still say we are family and embrace me like i am real grandfather."
the Jack: jack's thought? dick is feeling the need of an older male figure in his life... one with his own living space in the same building... one who is like family, though not blood...
the Jack: then the reporter's talking to her shadowy boss. B plot. boring.
the Jack: dick and babs are at 'gotham city amusement mile, est. 1884' continuing their date.
the Jack: dick's wondering aloud why tarantula would be in gotham, much less target babs. and here comes the REALLY good dialogue.
the Jack: dick: she doesn't know who i am out of costume, much less whom i'm dating.
babs: you sure about that?
dick: what?
of course i'm sure! how could she know? she's a vigilante newbie. she's just wearing a mask because john law did.
she doesn't even know what secret identities are for.
the Jack: babs: do you?
dick: excuse me?
the Te: heh
the Jack: babs: well, you have been a little on the reckless side lately, don't you think?
dick: did you just ask me if i know what secret identities are for?
the Jack: babs: showboating at the p.d., letting dick grayson and you-know-who run around with the same injured shoulder...
dick: did you just ask me if i know what secret identities are for?
the Jack: babs: ...body-tackling armed maniacs in public restaurants...
the Jack: dick: okay, you know what? you're right. i've been pushing it lately, trying to do too much.
but the 'haven is all on me, babs. just me. and if it needs twenty-four/seven attention, then i'm the only one in a position to know that. that's my call to make.
babs: so everything you've done -- it's all been rational and planned?
the Jack: it's like watching a train wreck, innit? ;)
the Te: *snerk*
the Jack: dick: it's all been necessary, babs.
babs: no one can do it but you? you've got the experience and the inroads and the plan?
the Jack: dick: as far as bludhaven's concerned? absolutely. and it'd be nice if that could buy me just a little bit of respect.
babs: wow. okay.
well, then, i guess it's finally happened...
the Jack: say it with me, te...
the Jack: babs: congratulations. you've managed to turn into bruce after all.
the Jack: dick: [drops his double handful of cotton candy]
the Jack: incidentally, during this part of the convo, they've strolled over in front of the haunted-house ride. there's a painted bat looming on the wall behind babs's head as she delivers the 'turned into bruce' zinger.
the Te: heh
the Jack: dick: that... that is so unfair. that's -- what does that even mean?
babs: dick, listen to yourself! bludhaven was managing a long time before you got there.
the Jack: babs: i'm very proud of what you've accomplished, but does it have to come in the form of this messianic zealotry? isn't one batman enough?
dick: [punches the face clean off the wooden 'you must be as tall as my broomstick to enter the HAUNTED HOUSE' witch sign] [pointy angry speech bubble] leave him out of this!
the Jack: babs: nice. very mature.
dick: babs, i--
the Te: *HA*
the Jack: lalala our relationship problems have nothing to do with how hung up i am on batman lalala
the Jack: babs: i'm tired of this, dick.
[wheels off down the boardwalk]
i'm tired of fighting with you to let me take care of myself, i'm tired of your relentless energy, and i'm tired of always playing "remember when."
the Jack: babs: oh, and i'm really tired of the way you always look surprised when your ex-and/or-potential-psycho-love-interests-in-costume plant one on you.
the Te: "and most of all, I'm tired of you making me wear the batsuit when we're screwing."
the Jack: he learned that facial expression from bruce.
the Te: *snort*
the Jack: HA!
[bat-icon-making tangent snipped]
the Jack: babs: oh, and i'm really tired of the way you always look surprised when your ex-and/or-potential-psycho-love-interests-in-costume plant one on you.
dick: [catches up to her] barbara... please. what did i do? i haven't seen you this angry since back when your dad got shot and i came to give you the--
babs: [pointy angry speech bubble] don't you dare! not one word about the past!
[pointy angry speech bubble] are you even listening to me?
the Jack: they're now directly in front of the Tunnel of Love ride.
babs: look... why do you love me, dick?
dick: ...
what?
the Te: ooooh
the Jack: oh, just wait.
the Jack: babs: you heard me.
dick: i... we... i mean, i've always...
the Jack: dick: babs... you're stunning and you're brilliant and you're possibly the strongest person i know... inside, where it really counts...
...one look at you and my heart catches in my throat, my body flushes with heat, i...
i've always loved you. all the best parts of my life, you were there...
and i'd do anything to protect that, anything to protect that connection, to protect you...
the Jack: [in other words: i am completely unable to express my feelings for you in terms that don't also describe how i feel about bruce.]
the Te: *snerk*
the Jack: oh, dick's now down on one knee in front of the chair, holding barbara's hands.
babs: dick...
the Jack: and this speech bubble of hers is over the MOST GORGEOUS PANEL of dick with tears standing in his eyes and his mouth doing that turned-down thing. and his hair is really pretty. i must scan this page and make an icon.
babs: dick, we can't go on like this... i think it would be better if--
the Jack: babs: --i think maybe we shouldn't see each other anymore.
the Jack: and she turns the chair away.
the Te: awwww
the Jack: blah blah C plot boring. dick comes home all broken-hearted and dejected, helmet in hand. yoska is there. they sit on the steps and talk.
the Jack: dick: you're up kind of late, aren't you?
yoska: is hard to sleep inside for me. i get up to check if stars still there many times each night.
the Jack: dick: actually, some of them aren't. we're seeing light they gave off millions of years ago.
a lot of what you're looking at now is already gone.
yoska: yes. is true.
is okay with you that this is so?
the Jack: dick: well, now that you mention it...
...no, not really. i'd rather it stayed the way it was.
the Jack: WOOBIE dick! ::cuddles him and consoles him with batblowjobs::
the Te: awwww
edited because I'm stupid sometimes
::happysigh:: I do so adore Devin Grayson.
You're not reading Nightwing? Why the hell not?
the Jack: hee!
the Jack: i just got done reading nightwing #87
the Te: good?
the Jack: oh GOD
the Jack: first of all, because pretty pretty makes jack shallow, i'm loving the new art team of zircher & owens.
the Jack: there have been a lot of unfortunate art direction decisions in the nightwing title's past. these two draw him looking like dick. ie, SEXXXXXXXXXAY
the Jack: his hair is growing back out now that he's done with the cop thing!
the Te: yay!
the Jack: actually, for several pages it almost seems to grow a little every panel.
the Jack: maybe dick really is meta, and his superpower is sexy hair.
the Jack: shall i just recap the issue highlights for you?
the Te: sure. *g*
the Jack: ok. issue opens with dick and babs having dinner at a nice restaurant [in gotham, we later find out; and i read it as an attempt at reconciliation since they were )( this close to breaking up at the end of last issue]. there's a blowgun dart.
the Jack: babs and dick, being babs and dick, hear it coming. babs swings around with her dinner plate and deflects it.
the Te: *hee*
the Jack: dick's still just getting out of his chair -- though in fairness to him, she was closer, since it was aimed at the back of her head
the Jack: dick's looking especially sexy for the date, with a blue-black button-down that matches his hair, and jeans so dark it's only the cut and stitching that give them away. (boy does not dress like a heterosexual.)
the Jack: the baddie comes flipping into the dining area -- it's tarantula. you know from tarantula?
the Te: no
the Jack: ::SPLUTTER:: oh my GOD i just noticed the bas-relief/mural in the restaurant. apparently it's a greek place: two chiton-clad women enclasped, foreheads together as if they're about to kiss; two bearded men sharing a cup of wine; and a centaur with a handful of arrows
the Jack: ::nub widescreen pagespreads with juicy details packed into the background::
the Te: *snort*
the Jack: anyway, tarantula... chick showed up in the 'haven awhile back, flirty with nightwing, who was suspicious of her qualifications to be a cape, and downright hostile once he saw she packs a gun. tarantula is the name john law went by, back when, also -- john law who's a retired 'haven cape who lives in dick's building now.
the Jack: so tarantula's leaping in, blades out, and dick's got one foot up on his chair to leap up and take her on. and barbara's all, "i've got this, dick. stay out of it."
the Te: heh
the Jack: and yeah, she's got her escrima sticks out, but... dick stay out of it? riiiiiiight. he leaps OVER tarantula as she's landing on the table, setting up to grab her.
the Jack: babs: "i mean it, grayson. back off."
the Jack: t pulls gun, dick disarms her, babs knocks t off her feet. 'not bad for a cripple,' t taunts. then babs really lets her have it.
the Jack: she's totally kicking ass. ::hearts barbara::
the Te: *nods*
the Jack: then tarantula comes back with a flying kick, which babs totally has blocked... except dick dives in with a heels-over-head nightwing tackle, and babs ends up taking a kick to the head that capsises the chair.
the Jack: so babs is on the floor. as is tarantula, some yards away, with dick on top of her. "dammit, dick!" babs says.
the Jack: tarantula plants one on dick... and knees him really hard in the 'nads. and makes to make her escape.
the Te: mm-hmmm
the Jack: there is now a panel of dick grabbing his crotch with both hands in dc canon. [hey, i said pretty brings out the shallow in me...]
the Jack: meanwhile, babs is all, "you'd better run!" and grabs a fork that wound up near her on the floor and shurikens tarantula in the thigh with it. doesn't stop her getting away, quite, but still, BABS kicks ASS.
the Jack: "you okay?" dick asks, all shaky [and possibly soprano] as he rights the chair. "better'n you" she snaps back.
the Te: heh
the Jack: the wait staff reappear. the cops have been called. our bat-couple decide on a graceful exit out the back way, eased by the hundred dick gave their waiter.
the Jack: so then the story cuts to this reporter who's been popping up around both nightwing and dick, interviewing his neighbours.
the Jack: all very cute, but not quoteworthy, except that apparently yoska graesinka (dick's gypsy-not-grandfather from the adoption storyline back in 'gotham knights' #20-21) did, in fact, move into the building like he was talking about last issue.
the Te: okay.
the Jack: "...even so, he still say we are family and embrace me like i am real grandfather."
the Jack: jack's thought? dick is feeling the need of an older male figure in his life... one with his own living space in the same building... one who is like family, though not blood...
the Jack: then the reporter's talking to her shadowy boss. B plot. boring.
the Jack: dick and babs are at 'gotham city amusement mile, est. 1884' continuing their date.
the Jack: dick's wondering aloud why tarantula would be in gotham, much less target babs. and here comes the REALLY good dialogue.
the Jack: dick: she doesn't know who i am out of costume, much less whom i'm dating.
babs: you sure about that?
dick: what?
of course i'm sure! how could she know? she's a vigilante newbie. she's just wearing a mask because john law did.
she doesn't even know what secret identities are for.
the Jack: babs: do you?
dick: excuse me?
the Te: heh
the Jack: babs: well, you have been a little on the reckless side lately, don't you think?
dick: did you just ask me if i know what secret identities are for?
the Jack: babs: showboating at the p.d., letting dick grayson and you-know-who run around with the same injured shoulder...
dick: did you just ask me if i know what secret identities are for?
the Jack: babs: ...body-tackling armed maniacs in public restaurants...
the Jack: dick: okay, you know what? you're right. i've been pushing it lately, trying to do too much.
but the 'haven is all on me, babs. just me. and if it needs twenty-four/seven attention, then i'm the only one in a position to know that. that's my call to make.
babs: so everything you've done -- it's all been rational and planned?
the Jack: it's like watching a train wreck, innit? ;)
the Te: *snerk*
the Jack: dick: it's all been necessary, babs.
babs: no one can do it but you? you've got the experience and the inroads and the plan?
the Jack: dick: as far as bludhaven's concerned? absolutely. and it'd be nice if that could buy me just a little bit of respect.
babs: wow. okay.
well, then, i guess it's finally happened...
the Jack: say it with me, te...
the Jack: babs: congratulations. you've managed to turn into bruce after all.
the Jack: dick: [drops his double handful of cotton candy]
the Jack: incidentally, during this part of the convo, they've strolled over in front of the haunted-house ride. there's a painted bat looming on the wall behind babs's head as she delivers the 'turned into bruce' zinger.
the Te: heh
the Jack: dick: that... that is so unfair. that's -- what does that even mean?
babs: dick, listen to yourself! bludhaven was managing a long time before you got there.
the Jack: babs: i'm very proud of what you've accomplished, but does it have to come in the form of this messianic zealotry? isn't one batman enough?
dick: [punches the face clean off the wooden 'you must be as tall as my broomstick to enter the HAUNTED HOUSE' witch sign] [pointy angry speech bubble] leave him out of this!
the Jack: babs: nice. very mature.
dick: babs, i--
the Te: *HA*
the Jack: lalala our relationship problems have nothing to do with how hung up i am on batman lalala
the Jack: babs: i'm tired of this, dick.
[wheels off down the boardwalk]
i'm tired of fighting with you to let me take care of myself, i'm tired of your relentless energy, and i'm tired of always playing "remember when."
the Jack: babs: oh, and i'm really tired of the way you always look surprised when your ex-and/or-potential-psycho-love-interests-in-costume plant one on you.
the Te: "and most of all, I'm tired of you making me wear the batsuit when we're screwing."
the Jack: he learned that facial expression from bruce.
the Te: *snort*
the Jack: HA!
[bat-icon-making tangent snipped]
the Jack: babs: oh, and i'm really tired of the way you always look surprised when your ex-and/or-potential-psycho-love-interests-in-costume plant one on you.
dick: [catches up to her] barbara... please. what did i do? i haven't seen you this angry since back when your dad got shot and i came to give you the--
babs: [pointy angry speech bubble] don't you dare! not one word about the past!
[pointy angry speech bubble] are you even listening to me?
the Jack: they're now directly in front of the Tunnel of Love ride.
babs: look... why do you love me, dick?
dick: ...
what?
the Te: ooooh
the Jack: oh, just wait.
the Jack: babs: you heard me.
dick: i... we... i mean, i've always...
the Jack: dick: babs... you're stunning and you're brilliant and you're possibly the strongest person i know... inside, where it really counts...
...one look at you and my heart catches in my throat, my body flushes with heat, i...
i've always loved you. all the best parts of my life, you were there...
and i'd do anything to protect that, anything to protect that connection, to protect you...
the Jack: [in other words: i am completely unable to express my feelings for you in terms that don't also describe how i feel about bruce.]
the Te: *snerk*
the Jack: oh, dick's now down on one knee in front of the chair, holding barbara's hands.
babs: dick...
the Jack: and this speech bubble of hers is over the MOST GORGEOUS PANEL of dick with tears standing in his eyes and his mouth doing that turned-down thing. and his hair is really pretty. i must scan this page and make an icon.
babs: dick, we can't go on like this... i think it would be better if--
the Jack: babs: --i think maybe we shouldn't see each other anymore.
the Jack: and she turns the chair away.
the Te: awwww
the Jack: blah blah C plot boring. dick comes home all broken-hearted and dejected, helmet in hand. yoska is there. they sit on the steps and talk.
the Jack: dick: you're up kind of late, aren't you?
yoska: is hard to sleep inside for me. i get up to check if stars still there many times each night.
the Jack: dick: actually, some of them aren't. we're seeing light they gave off millions of years ago.
a lot of what you're looking at now is already gone.
yoska: yes. is true.
is okay with you that this is so?
the Jack: dick: well, now that you mention it...
...no, not really. i'd rather it stayed the way it was.
the Jack: WOOBIE dick! ::cuddles him and consoles him with batblowjobs::
the Te: awwww
edited because I'm stupid sometimes
::happysigh:: I do so adore Devin Grayson.
You're not reading Nightwing? Why the hell not?
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