From the Batcave: Spyral

Morrison's Batman run ends with Talia getting shot by Kathy Kane and delivering a warning to defeated Batman. No surprise that DC decided to follow up this Kane (and her organization, Spyral) plot thread left by Morrison. But did it work?

History of how we got Grayson ongoing is rather weird. After Forever Evil and Dick Grayson's "death" DC was looking for new direction. Supposedly someone hired Seeley to write it and someone else hired King to write it. So people in charge figured what the hell, let them both write it. As a result we got one of the best Dick Grayson runs that heavily focused on Spyral and Kathy Kane to lesser extent.

Now, New 52 was funny time and King is a writer who likes to do things his own way so Spyral obviously does not map 1:1 with Morrison's version. But on the other hand I think that, in spirit, it does feel like a continuation of what Morrison started. Creative team of Grayson really fleshed out the organization and it was "hot" property for a while in DC universe. So all good on that front.

Sadly same can't be said about Kathy. We do get more info on her and her "story" get a resolution, but it really doesn't feel like the same character. It is not that some details don't match here and there, nothing really clicks. So my personal head-canon is that this wasn't same Kathy and with how Spyral operates it is totally believable theory.

DC liked what the creative team did here and they got assigned bigger projects for Rebirth relaunch. As a result this ongoing was finished by a filler team who managed to do a respectable job all things considered. So anyway, want to read some good comics? Pick up Grayson. Want to read more about Spyral? Pick up Grayson. Want to read more about Kathy Kane? Oh well, better luck next time.

So anyway, Rebirth hits and Seeley gets to relaunch Nightwing ongoing. Naturally he continues some of the plot points that he and King established while working on Grayson. And some of this stuff  (first collection "Better Than Batman" in particular) is great and touches a bit on Spyral. Unfortunately there is also lots of stuff that doesn't work (like whole Bludhaven and Blockbuster thing) and towards later half it gets kinda bad. I don't know what was happening behind the closed doors, but I did get the feeling that Seeley was not happy with the direction he had to take the series and ending of his run feels a bit mean to me.

So yeah, Better Than Batman is really good. And I'd also recommend issues #15-20, they don't feature Spyral, but they got another Morrison's character - Doctor Hurt! Everything else is mixed bag.

I have mentioned Midnigher by Orlando in my other posts as worth reading and I'll plug it here again. Midnighter re-debuted in Grayson ongoing so naturally his own short lived series played with some Spyral elements as well. Nothing major regarding Spyral but worth reading anyway.

Spyral kept appearing here and there till Bendis did his Leviathan thing that killed various agencies in DC universe to do some new status quo that nobody cared about. Various stuff that Bendis did has been walked back since he left, but Spyral is still gone.

To end this with some positivity, Grayson series has had multiple omnibuses printed showing that there is still interest in it years after it ended. As a whole that era of Dick Grayson is also well regarded among his vocal fans so it is probably only a matter of time before Spyral returns in one form or another. DC might have fumbled Kathy Kane, but they sure delivered with Spyral. Easily one of the better continuations of what Morrison started.