Review: Grayson Vol. 1- Agents of Spyral

Quick Summary

Pros: This starts the story of Dick Grayson joining Spyral in an explosion of action and mystery. It has all of the elements necessary to get readers hooked on the series. The “Future’s End” tie in story is absolutely fantastic.

Cons: The artwork in the “Future’s End” issue isn’t the best.

Overall: This is a solid start for what appears to be a very promising series. It has a compelling plot, interesting characters, and plenty of action. In addition, the collection ends with one of the best “Future’s End” tie-ins out there. Overall this is a really amazing book with plenty of reasons for everyone to be interested in picking it up.

Story

The main portion of Grayson Vol. 1: Agents of Spyral deals with Dick Grayson becoming acclimated to working for the shadowy spy organization, Spyral. It is a great story filled with plenty of action and even more mystery than the last series. It reads like a James Bond movie with a superhero flair, which is a very good thing. All in all, this is a really good story that will be interesting to watch continue.

In addition to the main story, there is also a fantastic “Future’s End” tie-in at the end of the collection. If the main story does not appeal to you, this story is good enough to justify getting completely on its own. It is a fascinating look at a possible future for Dick Grayson that combines romance, tragedy, and intrigue to tell a great story. In addition, the entire story is told in reverse, giving a unique and different reading experience. This issue is so good, in fact, that half of this review is spent praising it, simply because it is deserving of it.

(spoilers start here)

The bulk of this story involves Dick Grayson and Helena Bertinelli going on various missions as agents of Spyral. They start out relatively simply, duo is tasked with capturing random meta-humans and are able to do so. These missions prove to be a lot of fun and are very reminiscent of something James Bond would do, if James Bond had acrobatic training.

Though this main storyline is rather superficial in terms of depth, one does not need to look hard at all to see that there is more here than meets the eye. Almost every issue ends with the mysterious Mr. Minos acquiring an item of immense power and simultaneously discovering the identity of another member of the Justice League. Clearly he is up to something but the story is not quite ready to tell us what.

This is not the only conspiracy though. In addition, Minos suspects that someone in his organization is really a double agent. This someone is Dick Grayson. Throughout the comic he is constantly sending messages back to Batman, reporting on what Spyral knows and what they are doing. Dick’s quest to identify Minos and Minos’ quest to identity Dick gives the reader a great deal of information about both parties and is something which is undoubtedly going to come to a head in a big way.

Besides the multitude of great plotlines running through this book, there is even more to like about the story as a whole. The spy stuff is campy, Minos is weirdly sarcastic, and Dick is funnier than ever. It adds a comedic element to the series which contrasts perfectly with the seriousness of the situation. If this continues to run alongside these already great plotlines, then this series is only going to get better from here.

This collection is topped off with a “Futures End” tie-in, something I had imagined would be as generic and unimaginative as most comic book tie-ins tend to be. Instead, King and Seeley treat readers with an absolutely fantastic issue that digs deep into Dick Grayson’s psyche while also telling an incredibly entertaining story.

The most interesting part of this issue is how the story is told in reverse, starting with the distant future and ending with the distant past. By doing this, King is able to introduce mysterious elements and references into the story which will only make sense after the reader is finished. For example, on one page Dick randomly says “I love you too” to Helena, despite her not saying “I love you” in the first place. However, later in the issue, Dick tells Helena about a coded method of talking. Upon looking back, readers will realize that Helena used this code to tell Dick “I love you” right before he said “I love you too”.

The issue also ends (or begins, depending on perspective) in a deliciously ambiguous way. Dick dies at the beginning of this story, so the entire story is just revealing how he got to that point. However, by putting together all of the backwards clues in this story, there is a strong indication that this ending is not what it seems. At the issue’s conclusion, Tony Zucco is seen applying a special acid to a rope in order to sabotage it and kill The Flying Graysons. At the issue’s beginning, Helena is seen touching the rope, used to hang Dick, in the exact same way. She also says “The roof” in coded language, a message previously designated as meaning “drop everything and go to the extraction point”. Attentive readers will be able to put these clues together in a way that reveals the story’s secret, potential ending.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Mikel Janín, the artist for the majority of this collection, does a fantastic job when it comes to making this book look good. The art is detailed and aesthetically pleasing in a way that should make everyone happy. However, the real treat about the artwork here is the little details.

Trippy visuals ranging from hypnotic spider webs to psychedelic checkerboards make this book a true spy story, with enough authenticity to feel like it came right out of the 60s. Paneling is also on point and is utilized as both a storytelling element and a way to convey action in new and unique ways. In particular, I enjoyed a page where Dick threw a gun forward two panels, only for it to boomerang back another panel.

The final issue in this story is a “Futures End” tie-in drawn by Stephen Mooney. Unlike the rest of this collection, this issues does not look nearly as good. Characters are drawn in ways that make them seem strange, with faces looking particularly weird.

However, the nine-panel-grid style setup for this issue quite nearly makes up for any problems with the artwork. Instantly, this setup is a clear distinction that this story is going to be something special. The rigid structure of the grid meshes perfectly with the logical and precise plot. It keeps the timeline of the story equally divided and ordered in a way that makes reading it much more enjoyable.

Continuity

This volume flows directly out of the events of Nightwing Vol. 5: Setting Son (Review). The story then continues in Grayson Vol. 2: We all Die at Dawn (Review).

This volume also references and continues the stories from other comic books, all of which are detailed below.

• Dick Grayson being “dead” is the result of the events of Forever Evil. These events are referenced multiple times throughout this work.
• Midnight makes an appearance in this book. He was last seen in Stormwatch Vol. 4: Reset.
• The body parts of a being named Paragon play a large part of the story in this collection. Paragon has not made any appearances in this continuity but has clearly made contact with the Justice League at some point in time. He has the ability to replicate the powers of any super-beings he comes in contact with. It seems, according to this story, that he was killed while replicating the powers of the Justice League, which is why the different parts of his body have different powers.

Collection Notes

Every issue found in this collection can also be found in Grayson: The Superspy Omnibus.