Nightwing 2021 Annual #1 Preview

[Hypo]

Nightwing 2021 Annual #1 Preview
Writer: Tom Taylor
Artists: Cian Tormey and Daniel HDR

[Frontier]

I'll be interested to see how Taylor writes Dick and Jason together.

[Blue22]

I'm not really looking forward to this kind of plot or the worst costume that Jason's worn since his supervillain days. But hey. It's Taylor's Nightwing and he's rarely let me down with this title. So we'll see how it goes.

[Frontier]

I'm not really looking forward to this kind of plot or the worst costume that Jason's worn since his supervillain days. But hey. It's Taylor's Nightwing and he's rarely let me down with this title. So we'll see how it goes.

Which one ?

[Pohzee]

Oh I thought Nicola Scott was doing the interiors on this too. Shame

[Claude]

I'll be interested to see how Taylor writes Dick and Jason together.

Ditto - I always think a properly written Dick and Jason should tolerate each other at best, and are more interesting when in opposition.

But they seem to be shifting things to be a bit more nicey-nicey, which... Is fine, if done well!

[DisneyBoy]

This series has really had some eye-catching covers...

[Iclifton]

Ditto - I always think a properly written Dick and Jason should tolerate each other at best, and are more interesting when in opposition.

But they seem to be shifting things to be a bit more nicey-nicey, which... Is fine, if done well!

Agreed, I’m not overall a fan of Jason being this close to the family. I miss him having some edge.

In regards to the preview itself, art looks good. I know it’s probably a bait and switch but I truly wish that scene was the real Jason. Pretty cool scene.

[thwhtGuardian]

See, I love Jason and Dick as brothers and this was a great exploration of that relationship!

One thing I thought was weird though was why did they use Preston Payne as Clayface here? Is Basil unavailable for some reason?

[Zaresh]

See, I love Jason and Dick as brothers and this was a great exploration of that relationship!

One thing I thought was weird though was why did they use Preston Payne as Clayface here? Is Basil unavailable for some reason?

Basil is a reforming, reformed, rogue right now, I think.

[Fergus]

Enjoyed the Annual. I enjoy when the batfamily team up.

[Frontier]

See, I love Jason and Dick as brothers and this was a great exploration of that relationship!

One thing I thought was weird though was why did they use Preston Payne as Clayface here? Is Basil unavailable for some reason?

Basil is a reforming, reformed, rogue right now, I think.

Yeah, although if they wanted a classic villain Clayface, they should've brought Matt Hagen back.

[K. Jones]

Yeah, although if they wanted a classic villain Clayface, they should've brought Matt Hagen back.

I didn't have any issue with the use of Preston in particular as the Clayface used, I liked the bit about being in pain and therefore beholden to this drug dealer for a favor. But if you're going to use Preston, even add the kind of Hagen-Era, or TAS style Clayface powers, you still want to put those specific Preston Payne details into the depiction so it's not just some "Generic Clayface" that they stick the Payne name on to avoid "confusion" about why Basil is has been reforming since Tynion 'Tec and up through Catwoman presently. Nothing screams Preston like a bubble-helmet and a melty Kelly Jones face. You make him pink and melty-faced and I'll completely forgive the lack of crazy blue containment suit with cape.

Other than Lady Clayface, Clayface ... uh ... usage, has just been weird for a long time. Like y'all talk about how there always seems to be two different Poison Ivys at any given time and they have to turn that into a plot point in-story just to fix it ... Basil Karlo has been running around with Matt Hagen's mystical powers for years, and Preston periodically pops up depicted wrong, and Cassius turns up every once in awhile, and I think there's even been rando one-off Clayface VI and VII appearances with no explanation. It's a little bit of a toughie for me ... because I do believe the malleable shape-shifty "monster" nature of Clayface is really bespoke to the Basil Karlo origin story, the man of many faces, classic Universal Horror "actor" dynamic. But I miss Matt Hagen and want to know more about that guy, Silver Age Adventure Hero Clayface. And Basil was a killer ... so how does he get the redemption arc? And so on. The side-effects of streamlining things to sync up with The Animated Series, except in the Animated, it was Hagen, they just gave him Karlo's origin. Then there's the whole Mud Pack thing and the "let's give Basil the Clayface Powers!" thing and it's all kind of a big mess.

But it was nice seeing Clayface III used in a way that wasn't like, ultra-reductive, for a quick and easy mystery with a kind of novel, organic rationale for why he would even be there doing anything. I haven't a ton else to say about the issue. The art was pretty sharp, current status quo Jason is maybe not as edgy or cool as Edge-Lord DC Punisher Jason but it's been 18 years since he came back already, and plenty of stories can still be told about how he was Edgy in the past and now that he's redeemed himself, his past still comes back and bites him in the ass. That's the bread and butter of all violent-vigilante stories. Dick taking the piss out of Jason and Batman constantly was lovely, as well as acknowledging himself that like ... Dick Grayson's reasons for kicking the crap out of bad guys isn't exactly that much purer of heart than Jason's was. He was a good couple years younger than Jason when he was going to murder Zucco the first time.

[Aahz]

I think it would have made more sense to go with the Jonathan Williams version of Clayface. He was the one who transformed into Jason in Hush.

He was a good couple years younger than Jason when he was going to murder Zucco the first time.

Typically Jason and Dick were about the same age when they started as Robin.

[Aahz]

I allready wrote my thought about this annual in the Red Hood thread.

Jason has been written worse in these type of team up stories, but how Taylor wrote Dick and Jason felt still pretty unbalanced.

In a team up like that I feel you should highlight at least something cool about the guest character, and have him at least contribute something that ideally the main character can't do. And that was imo not the case here. Jason didn't really contributed anything to solve the case and Dick could have easily done everything on his own.

The whole thing comes of a little like Jason needing the help of his big brother Dick because he has no idea how to solve this case on his own.

In contrast Tim and Barbara appeared sofar in Taylors run because Dick needed their help.