DC Comics 2017
Written by Kyle Higgins
Illustrated by Trevor McCarthy
Coloured by Dean White
Lettered by Clayton Cowles
I’ll be honest I wasn’t going to really read this or review it after speed reading it at the shoppe. Then someone said how good it was and I thought okay let me go back and do a more thorough reading of it. Also let’s face it Kyle is an amazing writer and Trevor a stellar artist so really the combination of these two men yeah. I am however of two minds for this story and we’ll go through that here.
The concept of this story is one that is strong and well done. I like the idea of someone so trusted in the superhero community going to a dark place like this. We don’t see what motivates him to get to this point but the event that happens to open up the book is dramatic and will cause you to read further.
So in the future a mature and greying Dick Grayson still tries to maintain his youthful vanity with that horrific hair style. So after that little snide remark let’s get into why I just said that. Dick Grayson of all people isn’t one I see doing this and i’m having a hard time in my mind being able to reconcile my idea of him and this reality of him. Someone who wasn’t a great hero I could see doing this more readily, a minor character brought to the spotlight for that action taken would’ve been more believable for me.
Then again using someone like Dick Grayson whose image while not always squeaky clean is still one that seeing this drastic a change is a strong motivator for wanting to know exactly why! It’s a nice flip of the character that we know and love and one that fans will either love or hate there will be no in-between for this one. Also his past relationship with a superheroine makes this doubly weird for me but also makes the dichotomy of his actions and new beliefs to another level.
Love the work Trevor does here though I mean wow! The attention to detail throughout is amazing to see and especially in the backgrounds because that really fleshes out the world around them. The use of page layouts and the angles and perspective being used is great to see. He does such a marvelous job bringing this to life and making it as exciting as it is and that’s a mighty impressive feat.
Aside from the switch in Dick’s thinking, that’s still a mystery to be solved, the narration we get throughout is nicely done and gives an inside look at his son as well as acquaint us about how life is now. Kyle makes this intriguing and fascinating and kind of infuriating all at the same time and yet the concept around it is something that after reading this first issue you want to know more about. The moment that solidifies what this book means is when Dick and Alfred talk at the dinner table.
This is already off to a better and much stronger start than the mess that is Metal. I think that this is DC’s better “event” of the year.