Publisher: DC
Creative Team: Tim Seeley, Tom King, Mikel Janin and Jeremy Cox
“The downside of a solo act. No one around to see you do the cool stuff.”
During the events of Forever Evil (warning: spoilers), Nightwing was brutally beaten and unmasked as Dick Grayson by the Crime Syndicate on a televised broadcast to the world. A bomb is then wired to his heart supposedly ‘killing’ him. Batman decides to take advantage of Grayson’s legally deceased status and sends him to infiltrate a secret spy organisation called Spyral, in order to discover the identity of the enigmatic Mr. Minos.
Grayson is renamed Agent 37 and partnered with Helena Bertinelli (previously known as Huntress, now known as Matron). They are tasked with a different mission in each issue, resulting in an episodic feel to this opening arc. These assignments share a common goal: To track down what appears to be body parts known as paragon organs. These organs are implanted in certain targets and each assignment revolves around their retrieval. Frustratingly however, the purpose of these missions and the reason for the urgency of the retrieval of each new organ is never explained.
The nature of Spyral and the purpose of these retrieval missions is a continuous guessing game. It is disclosed that they are actively attempting to discover the true identities of superheroes (apparently Batman has gotten incredibly incompetent at keeping his identity a secret) but what they intend to do with this information is not divulged.
Eventually, the moral code Grayson binds himself to begins to affect his ability to successfully complete his assignments. In particular his refusal to kill results in severe consequences. It’s a genuinely emotional moment as he realises his naivety has irrevocably changed lives for the worse, the opposite of his contributions as Nightwing.
One of the more noteworthy highlights is the return of Midnighter, a character originally intended to be a parody of Batman. Keeping a watchful eye over Spyral, he attempts to prevent them repossessing the paragon organs which results in a memorable fist fight between himself and Dick. This only accentuates the suspicions of the reader as to the motives of Grayson’s new employers.
A noticeable flaw, however, is the fourth and final issue. Rather than move the story forward and create anticipation for the succeeding volume, it halts any momentum the previous issues had built. Dick is chased shirtless by some college girls because, wait for it, they think he’s attractive. Whilst the lighter tone of this comic compared to the rest of the DC line up is appreciated, here it veers into silly territory, which is a bizarre tonal shift when compared with the rest of the story.
Grayson marks the writing debut of Tom King; formerly a C.I.A agent now turned writer. This expertise helps lend an authentic feel to the spy centric action and he writes the strongest two issues of this volume (issue 3 and Future’s End).
The art that accompanies the writing by Mikel Janin is outstanding. Not only can he draw expressive characters and beautiful scenery, he also very competently visually choreographs action scenes ranging from chases to unarmed combat. The layout of panels during throughout the comic are set up to complement the dialogue making them easy to follow. The colours by Jeremy Cox are vivid and bright, distinguishing its visual style from the rest of the DC lineup which usually goes for a dark and gritty colour pallet.
Agents of Spyral is successful in establishing a new and exciting direction for one the more popular Bat family characters. Hopefully by further peeling back the layers of the intriguing mysteries at its core, it will turn into one of DC’s best ongoing monthlies.
Grade: B
Grading System: A (Essential Purchase), B (Recommended Purchase), C (Worth A Read), D (Poor), E (Avoid)
