Nightwing #13 : Dick And Barbara Not So Pleasant Meeting.

[superfangirl1]

Comments

[thefiretonight]

Tom DeFalco writes the worst Babs of the new 52.

[mrstatham]

Um.. Wow. I don't even like Barbara that much, but that's one of the most strawman portrayals I've ever seen. Are we meant to find her remotely sympathetic or likeable, there? Because it isn't working. It's almost like she's bipolar - on the one hand, she's 'not ready' and seems terrified of facing him again, and on the other, she almost seems chomping at the bit to get a piece of him.

Also, great move in setting this after Batgirl #14, which lets us know that, hey, nothing bad can really happen to Barbara that month. The suspense is enthralling.

[md84]

I'm also confused. Are we supposed to think Dick is being insensitive to Barbara's trauma? Or are we supposed to think Barbara is being mean-spirited and self-centered? I'm leaning towards the latter.

[majingojira]

And then Lady Shiva slices a guy's throat with her hair.

Yeah.

This issue was really just a weird issue. I checked it out to see how they handled Shiva. And then this happened.

[darkknightjrk]

The hair thing didn't bother me--the kung-fu folk in comics have always done some ridiculous shit. In terms of her plans, what bothered me was that all these crooks and Nightwing see this shadowy speedboat just buzzing towards the harbor, and EVERYONE assumes--even the guy trained by the World's Greatest Detective--that's her, because there's no way she's smart enough to make a booby trap. o_O

[icon_uk]

Well, not her hair per se, but the razor-sharp weighted blade that she uses as a sort of evil-super-assassin equivalent of a bobby-pin, and as a signature move I can sort of work around the silliness of that.

[espanolbot]

In an interview they apparently came up with the costume first, THEN decided to use it for Lady Shiva.

So, the reason why the costume seems up UnShiva is because it is.

[darkknightjrk]

Well...to be fair, we don't know what happened to her in Batgirl #14, so it's probable that whatever Babs is going through is getting to her bad. However, that still really doesn't explain WHY she was there in the first place, other than spelling out the theme of the book that HIggins has been doing for the past 13 issues.

[darkknightjrk]

The sad thing is, even with it's flaws, this issue was still probably the most solid issue of Nightwing I've read. At least I got a fairly full, non-padded story out of it.

[silverhammerman]

I've never been a fan of having people related to origin stories pop up as supporting characters. Like when the daughter of the burglar who killed Uncle Ben popped up and romanced Ben Reilly, or when Batman turned out to have been raised by Joe Chill's mother. It just feels way to coincidental, granted there's at least an explanation here, but I've still never really enjoyed this sort of thing.
I like the interaction between Dick and the Penguin though, it's somehow very informal even though Nightwing has evidently just kicked in the office doors and barged right in. I love that the Penguin is barely even bothered by it.

[big_daddy_d]

when Batman turned out to have been raised by Joe Chill's mother

Wait what?

[icon_uk]

This constant reference to Dick "always moving on, always running to the next thing" is getting very tired, and is repeated too often to have any meaning any more (especially as in the #0 issue we have a flashback Alfred pointing on that he doesn't, he simply DEALS with things and moves on, which is actually damned healthy.

This is perhaps the worst example of it, Bab's comes across as a fairly crappy human being here, presuming that Dick is treating the Joker (The JOKER of all people, murderer of a Robin) as a non-issue because he's apparently incapable of doing anything else.

Personally, I like that whilst the entire city is paralysed by the Joker's super-duper-threateningness, he's dealing with some other supervillain shit that just happens to be happening at the same time.

[mrstatham]

I think this is part of my problem with Barbara here; Yes, I can understand her wanting Dick's support when it comes to Joker, but she just seems overwhelmingly selfish here; From not even giving him a chance to explain, to completely disregarding that he might have something just as important to deal with right now.

[mrosa]

Am I bad person for hoping she'll get another bullet in the spine to shut her up?

Mod Note: Thread Freeze

[aeka]

This thread is frozen while pending mod discussion.

[angelophile]

Why is everyone. Talking in such. Strange curtailed sentences? It sounds odd. Yes it does.

[jjgalahad]

I have no. Idea what. You're talking about. They're speaking in. A perfectly normal. Fashion.

[starwolf_oakley]

In the "Platinum Heights" era of BIRDS OF PREY, Oracle busted the Joker in the mouth with an escrema stick, knocking out a bunch of his teeth. Somehow that made her feel better. I didn't get why either.

Dick and Barbara just don't gel as a couple.

[roguezombie]

Yeah, I got to agree with you on the last point. The only time Dick and Babs worked as a couple to me was early Nightwing and BoP. It was a strong friendship with a little ust. But then everything got super melodramatic and it really showed why those two just don't work.

[zechs80]

There's two kinds of Tom DeFalco writing styles. Either you get the one who writes entertaining fluff like Spider-Man and Spider-Girl or you get the Tom DeFalco who writes Fantastic Four which was horrific. Reading this issue made me think we got the later. This issue was bad. Just a mixture of all wrong. From the dialogue to the entire scenario as it played out.

Can there be a redo if Shiva ever appears again? Cause the whole hair in axe thing? Why did anyone think that be a good idea?

[icon_uk]

This is Kyle Higgins, not Tom Defalco.

[maseiken]

I don't think I've seen a strong, capable woman turn into a cringing wallflower so fast, Seriously, one moment she's determined and ready for action then within like, 2 seconds she might as well be getting the Vapours.
What a joke.

[big_daddy_d]

Mhmm....nope. Not seeing a reason to like Barbara here. Something big better happen in issue 14 for her to even act like that.

[an_idol_mind]

So is there more to Batgirl's appareance, or is she just swinging in to tell folks to pick up Batgirl #14?

[icon_uk]

Those two pages are it in it's entirety.

[md84]

Babs just doesn't seem to get that not everything revolves around her and the Joker. She doesn't even give Dick a chance to explain why he isn't dropping everything to help her. It's not like he can put Lady Shiva on hold.

[mrstatham]

What I like is how she basically says she's shit-scared of the Joker and hates the fact that she went from being able to swing around the city to having to use a shower rail, and then promptly says that she's going to bluster off and find him and make him pay. Which.. Yeah, that's not dumb in the slightest.

[littlepunkryo]

You know for all of DC's bluster about her being iconic~ and wanting to really set Babs up as this awesome superheroine, they're sure doing everything they can to make her pretty dang insufferable 90% of the time.

[md84]

I'm really hoping the events of her own series justify why she's being so unpleasant here.

[julian]

This art is... strained.

[lieut_kettch]

I feel a great disturbance in The Source, as if millions (okay, thousands) of Cass Cain fans suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced.

[zechs80]

They've been crying out in terror six years ago the moment Robin OYL. They then cried out in terror at Batgirl vol. 2. This? This is a slap on the wrist compared to that.

[shadur]

What exactly was DC's point of scrubbing the DCNU of anything even remotely referencing either Stephanie Brown or Cassandra Cain in order to "bring back the TRUE Batgirl" when they subsequently go and write her as pretty much unlikeable?

[lieut_kettch]

It's simple. Didio and the DC editorial board are emotional vampires that feed on the tears of fans.

[ablackraptor]

Is there anything else I can say? Babs is pretty off here. Haven't really followed her current series because of the bad press, but she isn't always like this, right?