It’s almost Christmas, so let’s give ourselves the gift of comic books this week. We can start with The Pull, a look at my buys, recommendations and curiosities from the week of comics, led by a wild flex for a Big Two comic.

Book of the Week: Nightwing #87

And now we’re back to regularly scheduled programming! Nightwing’s a title that would have made my end of the year lists if it weren’t for a detour to Fear State and the absence of Bruno Redondo for what felt like a million years. But they’re making up for lost time with #87, as Redondo is back to draw an issue that is done as a single continuous image. Not a page! Not a panel! An entire issue where it’s a continuous image!

Redondo and Tom Taylor have been toying around with this for a while, as the continuous image setup is a tool Redondo has deployed from time to time in much shorter form instances. I’ve seen this visual being used for a full issue as a gimmick, but my guess is that person hasn’t read a whole lot of comics drawn by Redondo: there isn’t much he does as a gimmick, as he’s just a stone cold killer of pitch perfect visual storytelling. If they’re doing this, it’s for a reason that fits the story, not just because they feel like making their lives more difficult.

We’ll see what it is, but I’m excited to get back to Bludhaven and to the charitable focus of Dick Grayson’s life after an extended absence from the narrative (with the caveat that I am one issue back on this title). That’s where Nightwing’s heart is, and you could feel its loss of momentum when that thread was sidelined for a few issues.