NIGHTWING, Vol. 2, No. 120 (Jones / Diaz; DC, 2006)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box18) Ohjesusfuck fate, what did I ever do to you?

As disappointed now as I was when this monstrosity of a (thankfully brief, IIRC – a "One Year Later" mercy kill?) run began: Jones's conspiracy-laden horror / X-Files – Mr. Green / Mr. Blue – take on INCREDIBLE HULK ('01-'05) had been so good that the unremitting thud of his NIGHTWING – including, in a textbook example of a great concept (villainous Jason Todd tries to replace Dick Grayson (occasional fashion model?) as Nightwing in a DCU where Batman has been gone for a year) gone sour in execution, the worst take on one of my favorite characters since he returned from the Superboy-Prime-punched / Lazarus-pitted dead, back in the days when no one – aside from Winnick, at that point – knew what to do with him – was a Joker-wielded crowbar to the head.

If writing is all about the exploration of choices, I can't fathom what Jones was thinking (or not) when he made the choices he made here. This was just awful and my shame at reading this back when I was young and stupid has only been magnified to the nth. Thanks, fate.