4 issue test #1 - Grayson

It’s time to welcome a new feature to the list, the 4-issue test. Where I review the first 4 issues of a new comic and give my opinion as to whether I think the series is worth picking up. We start off with Grayson. Normally I’d put a little background after this, but the comic should be accessible to those who do not know anything, so let’s begin, Spoilers ahead guys.

                                    

The cover is... OK, I guess. But spoiler alert: Dick Grayson does not use a gun in this story

We start with a montage of Dick Grayson's history

Son. Acrobat. The Flying Grayson. Dick. (That’s not fair, I’m sure he was a good kid)

Sidekick. Sensation. The Boy Wonder. Robin.

Hero. Protector. The Dark Heir. Nightwing.

Prisoner. Casualty. The Unmasked Martyr. Dead.

Agent. Mole. The spy reborn

Who did they learn sentence structure from, Frank Miller?

This is fine and it gives a decent idea of what Dick’s past was like (aside his tenures as Batman, but they’re inadmissible) so let’s get onto the actual plot of these 4 issues. We begin on the Trans-Siberian Railway (26km outside of Ulan-Ude, and congratulations if you know where this is, you’re officially geekier than I am) Agent 37 (which is Dick Grayson, who at this point is in disguise) lands atop the train, calling his boss, Matron. Matron says he’s accomplished something any of her girls would be capable of and to meet her inside the train car, if he wants to impress her. After taking down a guy, Dick laments that being a solo act means no-one sees him do the cool stuff (Dick was a solo act for most of his tenure as Nightwing)

A guy across from the train called Black Oak reports of the activities to his boss, Gardener. Dick sneaks aboard the train and is asked for his ticket. He gives some sort of code phrase and is welcomed aboard. In the train Russian man and woman are enjoying a drink, they go to get another one while Matron reports that the target (the Russian man) is showing resistance to the 'narcotex' she slipped into his drink. Dick wonders why she didn’t use her hypnos, but Matron replies that she doesn’t need them.

Dick walks up to the pair at the bar and spills red wine down the lady’s dress, she walks off to change and reports to Maksim, the guy Dick took out on the train roof. She begins to feel dizzy and falls down, with the Matron telling her there’s a paralytic agent on the wine Dick poured onto her chest.

Dick has the guy unconscious and jumps off the train with him in hand. Some guys begin shooting at them from the bridge. Dick says that he’s the guy’s friends (we find out here his name in Ninel) and friends help each other. They run from the incoming fire into (and as we’ll see soon, this has got to be the dumbest place to hide with him.) They enter the silo and Ninel falls unconscious. Dick notices the attacker, who is Black Oak from earlier or at least I think he is because I think he’s using the name Midnighter now. (I assume Night Owl was a code name but if it is, why is he now using his normal name, also I am aware Midnighter is a DC character who was in Stormwatch)

They fight, until Dick dazes him with his hypnos implant. Midnighter deduces that means he’s spiral, and not here to help Ninel, but to put him under mind control to exploit his talents, Nino then blasts him into the wall and begins to charge up with energy. To try and get him to vent his energy, Dick reveals what’s going on and barely avoids the ensuing blasts. Once the energy is vented, Dick picks the guy up and runs out for extraction.

In Spyral HQ, the head congratulates Dick and Matron (who is Helena Bertinelli, because DC can’t leave the race of characters alone – look I get you want to appeal to people who aren’t white, but don’t insult everyone by changing an existing hero so he is, make a new one, this applies to Marvel, although I’m less against it with them, seeing as they’re (probably temporary) replacements rather than the result of continuity changes) anyway. Ninel will wake up in a hotel free of whatever implant tomorrow morning, when they must continue their work.

In St Hadrians finishing school for girls Dick wires a radio to send a signal to Batman. Using code-names Mr Malone (after Matches Malone) for Batman and Birdwatcher for himself, his message is interrupted as Helena arrives. She gets intimate to prove the point of how she doesn’t need hypnos. Meanwhile a doctor in a lab reveals an organ to be part of the paragon protocol, the leader congratulates her, saying she’s just as smart as her father (Otto Netz was a character in Batman Incorporated) and reveals that he’s began to unmask super-humans, having already unmasked Batman and Cyborg.

This cover is more relevent to the story, showing the purpose of the hypnos to erase someone's image from a person's mind, it's also the variant cover I own

Issue 2 opens at the school, the class are learning how to fire a crossbow. The Hood (a character from Batman Incorporated that worked for T.H.E.Y. and then Spyral) arrives but quickly falls to the ground. Batman is fighting a guy who works for the cycles of violence (is that a reference to another comic, I don’t get it) when Dick calls. Dick asks about Alfred and erm Red Riding Hood (Red Robin or Red Hood?) but Batman ends the call warning how they could be intercepted.

Dick is soon called to action. In the Light Batcave, Midnighter laments how he can’t read the kids face (because of the hypnos thing) and can’t see it through the drones. Midnighter wants to experiment on himself to try and see past the hypnos but is advised against it. Midnighter reveals that he was programmed so he could see every scenario in a fight, so he can pick the right option but he’s haunted by this development and needs to see it through. He sees that whatever scenario comes up between him and Dick again, won’t come out pretty.

Mr Minos (the head) tells that the hood was sent to retrieve a device known as the Biometric Digestive Processor, it had been tracked to Leicestershire but the Hood was attacked and slipped into a coma (he’ll recover, minus a few body parts) Dick and Helena are assigned to continue the mission. They arrive in Farmington, where the supposed weapon is and Dick finds a girl who seems to have super-speed, she beats dick up and until Dick shoots a flare stunning her, her skin appears to be aging and she runs off.  Helena arrives and asks what happened.

Dick reveals that he has met her at a bar (where he meets all his women) and was told to follow her to the basement of an old church where he was attacked. They find an old bomb shelter where several bodies are displayed, each wearing a uniform of some espionage agency. Helena finds out that her names was Poppy Ashemoore and she was an employee of T.H.E.Y. and killed these guys to protect the mechanical bowel, then ate them.

Poppy reveals that she hid the device to protect it from human crises, she used herself as a test subject but then she needed a lot of calories to stop herself from ageing. Dick says he can handle her, but Helena orders him not to strike, wanting to keep Poppy as an agent. Dick objects to this but Helena uses his hypnos implant to knock him out. Doctor Netz easily removes the stomach from her and fitted it with something that doesn’t demand the extra calories. Dr Ashemore and Dr Netz will be working together.

Ninos wonders who could’ve given it such power, looking at the list, and having unmasked the Flash as Barry Allen. Dick gives a brief report (Red Riding hood is Barbara, OK, that makes sense, but you can see why I could’ve gotten confused) and so ends issue 2

Another rather good cover, showing Helena and Dick fighting, spoiler alert, I don't think Helena fights in this issue, but it does play to the mistery of Ninos identity in the background

Spyral has been tracking down the Paragon organs (remember the thing back in issue one, the stomach’s probably also a paragon thing) they used a man named Barton Tyre because he has the eyes but he was killed by someone called ‘The old gun’ and the eyes were stolen. The Old Gun’s real name was Tanner, he was at his children’s school where a madman was shooting, Mr Tanner was shot in the face but survived, that can’t be said of his two children. His eyes are then connected to his guns, and began a career as an assassin.

He’s meeting up with someone he trusts in Malaysia, and Ninos wants Dick and Helena to intercept. As the Hypnos have no effect on these eyes, Agents 1 and 8 will be joining them on the mission. Dick is at a firing range and is not particularly good with a gun (supposedly), Agent 8 tries to help him shoot and through a hypnos shot they’re suddenly in bed together (of course) to be fair, we see more of Dick’s physique than we do hers

In Malaysia Dick finds the Old Gun and attacks, Agent One reveals that he’s still armed and he cuts the rope that Dick was using to swing on. They land on a rooftop where Agent 8 skims the Old Gun’s shoulder with a sniper bullet. The old gun simultaneously fires shots that hits Agent 8 and brings down Matron’s helicopter, which was circling the scene. Dick draws a gun but is hesitant to fire, instead trying to appeal to him by bringing up his boys, Agent 1 knocks the Old Gun out before carrying Dick to safety but left cover to do so, they have to leave the Old Gun behind.

Agent 8 berates him for not using his gun, pointing out that superheroes would easily fire lasers, arrows and bata-thingies but not a gun, never a gun! Dick reports what’s just happened to Batman, seemingly confirming that she knows something about Batman’s secret. He asks Bruce to help him track down the Old Gun and reveals he has a son starting pre-school.

On a roof opposite the school, Dick tries to talk to the man again, the guy says that eyes won’t work for him and relinquishes them, he wants to see his child up close, but is shot by Agent 8, the Old Gun then shoots Agent 8 as they both fall to the ground, dead. Minos now has the identity of Aquaman (which he never uses to my knowledge, so ultimately pointless) and has detected a radio transmission from within Spyral, Helena is tasked with finding out who it is.

The art is actually quite good for the whole series. The cover is weird, but this series kind of edges itself towards the weird anyway.

In issue 4, Minos reveals that a hard drive originally belonging to the paragon project has fallen into the hands of checkmate, and within 3 pages they’ve retrieved it. (4/9 of which is a single panel) Back at the school, some of the girls are arguing over sharing some of their possessions, a girl named Lotti arrives and reveals she’s taken pictures of Dick (no, not like that, I mean Dick Grayson) but they can’t see his face because of the hypnos implant.

Dick reports to Batman, he’d sent him a lollypop that he was sucking on so much earlier that Helena knocked it out of his hands. Batman has analysed it and found some microscopic robots programmed to ensure no trace of Ninos’ identity exists. This is a worrying development as the robots could be anywhere. He hears something outside and goes to investigate

In Dubai, the Midnighter is interrogating someone named Jai, as “the heart” came down in his back yard, some superhero (he’s from Stormwatch, it’s not a comic I read, so would it have killed them to mention his name?) OK, research tells me he’s Apollo, and they’re boyfriends. Good to know, Midnighter drops Jai so Apollo can rescue him, knowing he’d be gone before Apollo returns.

Meanwhile, the girls are out looking for Dick (sort of in both senses of the word.) Dick finds them and watches from above. He likes the idea of being chased by college girls, so ends up showing off his acrobatics and allowing the girls to chase him

Helena is told Agent 8 might have had contact with outside agencies when she lived, Helena searches Dick’s room and discovers the radio. The girls continue to chase Dick until Helena brings the proceedings to an end. Ninos is disappointed Dick’s cover at the school is blown. As punishment, his new identity will be a gay French gymnastics teacher.

Helena reports to Ninos that she found remote cameras around the school, and those were the sources of the transmission, she tells him she has a suspect from the school, and Ninos tells her to discipline her as well as the girls that were out past curfew chasing Dick. Helena awakens Dick, saying she knows why he’s here, she knows that if the world knew he was alive, his loved ones would be targeted. Helena wants Dick to try and chase her.

So, we’ve looked at the 4 issues, is it a series worth picking up, let’s have a more indepth analysis and find out.

A lot of the initial concepts set up here are really good and the book really differentiates from other books on the shelves right now, by having stories all being relatively self-contained. They have a decent ongoing mystery with Ninos and his plans to unmask superheroes, and the paragon project. The artwork is excellent, I disagree with a couple of the stylistic choices but that's not the fault of the artist.

It isn’t without its issues however. The story fails in giving us background on SPYRAL. If you’d never heard of Otto Netz you would be lost on the relevance of her role in events, in fact, you get little information about SPYRAL that was established in Batman Inc. (Reckon we’ll see the original Batwoman again?)

The mission seems doomed to fail. Dick is checking in with Batman way too often, which is just asking for someone to find out, I suppose this is the problem with self-contained issues. We also don’t really know what Dick Grayson’s mission is. That should’ve been covered in the first issue, but it’s actually in Nightwing #29 (which is not a very good issue, for reference)

Issue 4 is by far the weakest of the issues. The actual interesting part of the book ends in 3 pages, then it just tries to develop some sub-plots for the rest of the issue. Helena faking the reason for the signal was interesting but her motivation for doing so isn’t clear at this point.  The chase between the girls and Dick is just not interesting to read. I don’t care about random girls from the school. (And why are they there; wasn’t that the same school where Talia was training Leviathan agents?) the change in his identity in the school was not interesting for us, as we never really saw what his previous one entailed.

The Hypnos thing is interesting. But it does beg a few questions. Why wasn’t Kathy Kane wearing one when she shot Talia? Why does the Hood need a mask if he could hide his identity with a hypno?

Issue 3 was my favourite issue for me. The issue was a direct argument over Dick Grayson using a firearm, my personal opinion as that he shouldn’t under any circumstances (despite using one to detonate a flash bomb in issue 2) the fact that those who started shooting in the issue both ended up dead is an interesting lesson to the story. Although we never really see the reaction of agent 1, who was the partner of Agent 8

Ratings:

#1 – 6.5/10

#2 -  7.5/10

#3 – 8.5/10

#4 – 4.5/10

Average: 6.75/10

Recommendation: I wouldn’t recommend this to casual readers. However, to anyone who knows what happened in Batman Incorporated, Forever Evil and Nightwing #29, this might be worth picking up. As for me, I’ll pick up the issues that define the first trade, and should they tempt me, I may continue to pick this series up.

Side note: I am aware that Grayson had a Future’s end tie in. And I don’t care what the comic says, he’s not still gonna be working in Spyral in 5 years time, so I’m not reviewing it.

To end this particular one on a comedy note: 

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Images used in this review are from Grayson #1-4 (and promotional ad) and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use.