Grayson #1 Review: Secret Agent Man

Dick Grayson is too popular and too interesting a character to ever leave collecting dust on the sidelines. That much is made abundantly clear every time there’s a rumor about killing him off — normally fanned by Dan DiDio, who often appears to have some sort of personal grudge against Dick — or when Nightwing gets canceled, which it was not long ago.

In Grayson #1, writer Tim Seeley (assisted by Tom King on the plot) and artist Mikel Janin re-imagine Dick as a secret agent, albeit one who is just learning the ropes for his spy organization of choice, Spyral. The group doesn’t have a long history, having been invented by Grant Morrison for use in Batman Incorporated, and it appears to be under new leadership.

Batman obviously doesn’t trust Spyral, or he wouldn’t have asked Dick to join the group to spy on it from the inside. The problem with that set-up is that you need some knowledge of comics outside of this debut issue to understand what’s going on. There’s one scene that shows Grayson reporting back to someone, but otherwise this is a pretty unfriendly debut for new readers. It’s cool for a first issue to raise questions, but there are so many here (What’s the deal with the hypnos? Shouldn’t that female agent be the Huntress? Why is that guy’s face all swirled up?) that it’s easy to imagine someone throwing up their hands and saying it’s not worth it.

What Seeley and King do pull off is showcasing Dick’s unique combination of talent, heart and quick thinking. So Grayson #1 gets the core character right, it’s just everything else around him that’s dicey. This could be a book where patience or an undying love for the main character — or both — are necessary.

SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!

After an opening sequence that is classic spy movie fare, Dick find his target, a man named Ninel Dubov. Turns out this guy has super powers, and while other people are trying to kill him, Midnighter is also looking for him. Dubov’s timely intervention bails Grayson out of his battle with Midnighter, and with some help from fellow Spyral agent Helena Bertinelli, his first mission is a success.

Why does Spyral want Dubov? To examine him, it seems. Under the direction of the mysterious Mister Minos, the organization has been dissecting super-humans with the goal of … learning the secret identities of the rest of them? It’s not really clear how one of those things lead to the other.

Janin draws pretty nice people, though there are a few panels in the Midnighter fight where the poses are weird. The action sequences do flow pretty well, though, and that’s a good thing for a book that wants to mix spies and powers into a high-octane stew.

And what of Helena? She tries making a move on Dick just to see if he’ll give in, but he sticks to the old “relationships are forbidden” edict that Spyral has in place. We’re supposed to assume that she’s not in on Dick’s true mission, I’m sure.

Favorite moment: Midnighter compares Dick’s fighting style to jazz. That’s an apt description.

Final thought: Giving spies Jedi mind tricks sort of seems like cheating.