Originally published on Patreon
Blockbuster is dead. That's very quickly confirmed this issue, though laying on the ground with your heart ripped out at the end of the last issue kind of made it seem like it was pretty much confirmed. But yes, he;s dead, his heart is gone, and the people protecting Bludhaven are aware that he's dead. In response to this, some of the members of his criminal empire are now willing to talk; but are too afraid to do so in the city as the last person who was about to talk was shot and killed whilst in police custody.
So, with the help of the GCPD, it'd decided that Maroni will be transported out of Bludhaven to Gotham, where he can be better protected. Though with what we know of Gotham city that feels like an odd promise to make as it's one of the most dangerous cities in the world for sure. When his transport comes under attack in a pretty spectacular and violent crash he gets rescued by Nightwing and Batgirl (the Barbara one), and they head off into Gotham woods to try and lose their pursuers.
After some cat and mouse in the trees, where Nightwing gets to act like Batman and pop out of the shadows taking people out one at a time, the three of them arrive at a secret hideaway that Batman has hidden in the woods. The three of them spend the night there, with Maroni knocked out and tied up, and the other two having some fun together upstairs, before heading out in the morning to take Maroni to Gotham. There's one problem though, there's a taxi sitting outside. A taxi in the middle of the woods. Heading out to investigate, Dick finds that the cab is being driven by....Ric Grayson.
Huh, so that's an interesting twist. Everything before this moment is pretty standard fare for this series. We've got intrigue and criminal schemes going on, with people trying to get into positions of power now that Blockbuster is dead, and it's all done with the same level of quality that I've come to expect from the series.
This is an decent issue of the book, and it has some strong writing, but it's the final moments that is by far the most interesting. It feels completely unexpected, and comes kind of out of nowhere, and it leaves the issue feeling like anything can happen next. I know some folks have been waiting for the Heartless stuff to pick up, and were probably hoping that that was going to happen now that Blockbuster has been dealt with, but it's not clear if that's what's going to happen here, or if the new villain will continue to prowl around in the background.
The relationship stuff between Dick and Babs is a lot of fun too, and it's great to see some of these heroes, who normally have to deal with dark and dour stuff, actually having fun and enjoying themselves. It feels like a realistic relationship, where they're just trying to have as much fun as possible, sneaking off to have sex whilst the criminal is tied up downstairs. Okay, that one might not be the norm, but it is for these too.
This issue feels like it could be the start of something interesting, and it seems like it could go anywhere at this point.
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