NIGHTWING 7 PAGE 4 SPLASH BY SCOTT MCDANIEL & KARL STORY

While I already own a McDaniel Nightwing splash that could/should be considered a done in one, I could not resist another stellar example from this GREAT run (I came late to the Dixon/McDaniel run on the character but LOVED it).

McDaniel has always been a fantastic storyteller and an immediately recognizable stylist.

This issue begins with a very cool sequence in which we get to see Dick as a child working the trapezes at the circus with his dad while his adult secret ID is beating on the Blüdhaven underground for some intel. A visual dichotomy between innocence and a way of life that forced on him by tragedy.

The page is all about the sense of motion with him jumping of the trapeze in the first panel to lead the reader’s eye to the acrobatics in the one below. I love the attention to detail such as the two trails of magnesia left by Dick’s hands as he jumps away.

And then we get the insane splash with Nightwing doing his usual acrobatics to jump out of the way of a crashing car. I like that he looks both angry and focused as this kind of stunt needs extreme precision for it work. The sense of impact is insane with the two men in front of the car being painfully ejected through the windshield, the front of the car folding in two against the public lamp, which is being unbolted from the ground, the screeching tires and exploding fumes. Everything is done to convey a sense of speed and impact to the scene for amazing result. In terms of storytelling, the figure of our hero overlapping with the previous panel helps leading the reader’s eye again from one action to the other.

Karl Story, an alumni from my beloved Gaijin Studio, provides razor sharp inks as always that really make McDaniel shine.

90s mainstream action comics at its best to sum it up.