Grayson #14
Tom King, Tim Seeley, Stephen Mooney, Jeromy Cox
DC $3.99
One of the things I’ve really enjoyed about Grayson is seeing writers Tom King and Tim Seeley pull unused characters and concepts from the DC and now defunct Wildstorm Universes . It’s lead to the best use of Midnighter since Warren Ellis wrote The Authority, in addition to a ton of cool toys Grant Morrison created when he had his Batman Incorporated run. Issue 14 of Grayson sees the team of King and Seeley do it again, working wonders on Ladytron, another remnant of Wildstorm Comics, as well as the duo putting their own spin on the Spyral mythos. It’s a cool bit of world building done via a neat framing device, and it results in fleshing out two characters a bit via explaining their origins. The pair have done a wonderful job of building upon material established by other Bat-creators before them, while adding a ton of new content, making the Grayson cast one of the most diverse and interesting casts in DC Comics. Also their take on Ladytron is very much in the same of Machine Man in Warren Ellis & Stuart Immonen‘s Nextwave, which is something I absolutely adore.
Rejoining the writer’s on art duties this month is Stephen Mooney, who does a decent 
enough job on the art side of things. Sadly Mooney isn’t capable of reaching series artist Mikel Janin levels of sexy or psychedelic, but his Bryan Hitch-style art works more times than not. Mooney certainly has good eye for action scenes, and his successfully captures some of the more creepier elements of the books. It’s just unfortunate that some of his art looks rough or even in some panels. Jeromy Cox‘s colors are great as per usual, so at least the art has that going for it when it’s not at it’s best. This is not the worst looking issue of Grayson, but it’s noticeably different that’s what come before it.
Art issues aside, I really like what Tom King and Tim Seeley brought to script/dialogue aspects of this issue. For the most of the book’s existence, a lot of the humor revolved about Dick Grayson being sexy, which is something I don’t mind, but the joke was beginning to become played out. It also doesn’t work as well without the presence of Janin’s gorgeous art. Luckily, King and Seeley went into this issue seemingly aware of their disadvantages and use Ladytron’s dialogue as a source of most of the book’s humor, freshening things up a bit. In addition to that, I really like how they’ve given Spyral a sense of history in this new DCU, giving the organization some really cool origins, and then 
using these revelations to completely change the direction of the book. Granted it’s something the writers have been hinting at for the last few issues, so it does feel like the book is spinning its wheels in place a bit. But we’re also looking at a editorial mandated tie-in issue next month, so I can see why King and Seeley wanted a clean finish for this issue.
This issue of Grayson is far from the best the book has been, but it’s very enjoyable none the less. The creative team produces a book that worth the cover price for loyal readers, but it’s not something that’s going to bring in any new ones. It remains a clever and exciting read none the less, and I’m eager to see where the book is headed next once Robin War is over.
