Grayson #7 Review

Seeing through the lies.

We seem to come to the end of the first arc of the story, as Dick Grayson, Helena Bertenelli and Midnighter race to stop Tel-Aviv descending into riots.

Some nice spy themes aside, I liked the way Tom Seeley handled the resolutions to most of the conflicts.

SPOILERS FOLLOW…………….

Helena, learning of the Fist of Cain’s plan to send Tel Aviv into a killing frenzy using the Paragon Brain, flies into Jordan while concerned about what became of her partner.

Meanwhile back at Spyral, Dr Netz and Dr Ashmore (formerly host of the Paragon Stomach) are trying to track down Grayson. They manage to get his hypnos back online, which through neural feedback, Helena is able to learn that Dick Grayson is being held by the Midnighter.

Settling for a compromise, Helena uses the neural feedback to send the information she got from Macabre of the Fist of Cain directly into Grayson’s hypnos (which are now in Midnighter).

The Gardener wants to let the Fist of Cain do what they set out to do in hope that this event will shock the world into destroying nuclear stockpiles, but ultimately Dick and a now aware Midnighter are transported to Tel-Aviv.

The Fist though has already activated the Brain through a rock band concert. Dick and Midnighter are able to fight off its effects, and with an affected Helena managing to get things in control, they are able to stop the Fist without any casualties.

Apparently, save one - as Helena is almost choked to death by an old man (‘Fleisher’?) before Mr Minos shots him in the head.

Dick manages to control himself and use his emotions to check the Brain and calm the crowd down. Later on, we see Helena suffering effect of a mind wipe as she seems to have forgotten kissing Dick to remove the effects of the Brain.

Midnighter leaves the Garden, warning the Gardener that he doesn’t like being played around with – and unlike Grayson, he’s not willing to go along with it for a greater good. All this plays out in the narrative boxes as we Mr Minos duplicates running around in his office.

Minos obviously is playing a double game and it was he who most probably mindwiped Helena to hide his involvement at Tel-Aviv. And Midnighter's ominous message may mean Dick is about to get into serious trouble as we move into the second act.

 

SPOILERS END………………

There were some nice thematic moments in this issue and nice resolutions to certain arcs. Most of all, Grayson finally exhibited some continuity. The weird standalone stories were good, but maybe not for a long haul.

The art disappointed a little, as Mike Janin is replaced temporarily by Stephen Mooney – his art is serviceable to the point of good, but not the level this book is accustomed to.

So, I give it 8.0 out of 10.

+Some great themes

+Nice resolutions to mini-arcs for now 

+Continuity helped this story

-Artwork a little below the usual standard for this book