After spending some time settling the Titans into their new home in Bludhaven, dealing with Blockbusters daughter, and having to deal with Knight Terrors Dick is finally able to deal with a little problem that's been hanging over his head. In issue #99 Dick learned that a mysterious package was waiting for him in The Hold, an almost mystical old pirate ship controlled by the Quatermaster. As this issue begins we learn that the package was in the possession of Ric Grayson (Dick when he had amnesia) and Ric didn't want to open it as he felt it wasn't for him. Leaving it with the Quatermaster, the package has been waiting for Nightwing to return for several months.
Now that he feels he's got a moment to actually breathe he's finally getting round to the issue, though Barbara is having to do a little bit of encouragement to get him out of Titans tower. Unfortuanetle for Dick, The Heartless and Tony Zucco arrive at The Hold first, and kill the Quatermaster. Luckily, the mystical nature of The Hold kicks in, and the shp vanishes from inside its cave, transporting to its new master.
The rest of the issue gives us a fun ambulance chase where Nightwing gets to fight some fake EMT's, and a reveal of the new Captain of the ship that longer time readers of the series will get a kick out of; and that also feels accessible to newer readers who might not be as familiar with them.
There's not a huge amount that happens in this issue, and a lot of it feels like Taylor finally getting back to a story thread that should have been dealt with way before now. I'm enjoying this series, but some of the pacing does feel off at times. Some of it might be down to editorial, having to make room for Knight Terrors for example, and perhaps having to stop the story he was telling to establish the Titans in Nightwing to coincide with the end of Dark Crisis and the start of their title.
The book does also come with a back-up feature, a new one this time, written by Michael W. Conrad, with art by Serg Acuna and Adriano Lucas, that's really rather delightful. It follows Dick as he hangs out with Cass and Steph at the Batgirl loft; training with Cass, teaching her to make his patented pancakes, then hanging out to watch a movie with them. All while some shady guy is following Dick Grayson and spying on him for a mysterious figure. It's a lot of fun to see the characters just hanging out in their civilian identities, having fun and being a family. As someone who misses the Batgirls book it also scratches that itch too. Acuna's art also works really well for this.
That being said, this was an enjoyable read and I'm looking forward to seeing where this particular arc goes; especially with the pirate Nightwing on the next issue's cover.
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