Nightwing #18 Review – New Meaning for My Fair Lady
Thanks to Dollotron Robin (affectionately called the Robitron), Nightwing and Damian were able to escape Deathwing. Now that they know Pyg is behind kidnapping Shawn Tsang, Dick knows they have to attack him with a plan in mind. As he said when they approached Notre Dame, Dr. Pyg is the sickest fucker Nightwing ever came across in Spyral.
Okay, he didn’t drop the f-bomb, as DC hasn’t gotten that edgy just yet. But I know that’s what he was thinking. It’s what he really meant. Tim Seeley totally would have written that in if he was allowed to. Even if he wouldn’t have, he should, because this Dr. makes the other Dr. Pygmalion seem completely sane.
I never fully grasped what Pyg was up to and what he was trying to achieve by kidnapping Shawn. He postured he had some great plan with her and his art and to help her see her true art or something like that. But in the end, that isn’t what it was at all. Pyg wasn’t just creating Dollotrons; he was someone else’s Dollotron.
Pyg’s Dollotrons were once real people with real lives, who have been brainwashed to believe they are the people they now represent. As Robitron talks to Nightwing and Robin, his anecdotal speech blurs between his past life and his programmed one. Both feel very real to him, and as such he feels fairly confident in reading the Batkids the riot act.
Right on, Robitron. Right on, man.
Of course they save Shawn Tsang, and while she and Dick reunite, Robin swallows the throw up in his mouth and runs outside to see where Robitron went. Dick has a broken ankle, so Shawn helps him walk and drag Pyg out the door. On the way out, Pyg screams that he did this all for another who has a darker purpose. Those who paid attention to every little thing Deathwing said during his monologue to Nightwing will know exactly what Pyg was doing.
Pyg didn’t entirely want that, though, and he had a plan set in place to encase him in lead (as an homage to Renaissance painters going mad from lead paint). When Dick kicked over the statue with the liquid lead, he both broke his ankle and heard this lovely squeal from the madman himself:
It doesn’t matter how dark or how sappy Nightwing gets (and this issue had more than enough of both), we can always count on Tim Seeley to bring on the funny.
Our Rating: Yep
Author: Tim Seeley
Artists: Javier Fernandez, Minkyu Jung, and Chris Sotomayor
Publisher: DC Comics
Publish Date: 04/05/2017
Acquired via Purchase
