By Zack Quaintance — Like a high-wire performer navigating the tightrope in the circus, The Lost Carnival: A Dick Grayson Graphic Novel pulls off a delicate balancing act that thrills along the way and maneuvers deftly to its destination. For the uninitiated, Lost Carnival is the newest offering within DC Comics’ burgeoning line of comic stories for young readers. Like the rest of the line — the highlights of which include Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, and Teen Titans: Raven — the book takes a familiar DC Comics character, repurposing them for a new generation with a new modern OGN aesthetic. 

This story comes to use courtesy of writer Michael Moreci (Wasted Space, The Plot), artist Sas Milledge with Phil Hester, colorist David Calderon, and letterer Steve Wands. The concept of this story is that we’re going to explore Dick Grayson (also known as Robin, also known as Nightwing) when he was a teen in the circus. There’s no real mention of Batman as well as no real hint of the tragedy that would claim Dick’s parents in the mainline DC Comics continuity. None of that is really the point; we know that story well, and this book is far more interested in giving us something we don’t know and haven’t seen before. What that ends up being is a coming-of-age teen love story set amid a backdrop of other worlds.

And that’s really the delicate balancing act that this book walks. It’s an exploration of what it feels like to be a teenager. Dick in this story is at odds with his parents, and not because of some dramatic or tense reason. Dick is growing up fast and chaffing under the choices his parents have made for themselves and for him as well. He’s grown up entirely in the circus, and his teen rebellion is to want to get out of that, to do normal things like go swimming with other kids his age. At the same time, he meets an intriguing young woman with more than a little bit in common with him, and an immediate crush takes hold. It’s all very familiar, reminding me of my own adolescence in a way that leaves me suspecting younger readers will relate even harder. 

The Lost Carnival balances this relatively familiar story of infatuations and growing up with high-level comic book-ery, namely the existence of magic and other worlds. In fact, I think I caught a nod to Stephen King’s classic Dark Tower novels, with a character homaging the classic line from The Gunslinger, “There are other worlds from these.” So yes, not to spoil anything within this excellent book, but there are other worlds and we get glimpses of them. That sort of multiversal hijinx that is so familiar to regular readers of mainline DC Comics superhero fare is left subtle here. It’s a major part of the plot to be sure, yet the story itself is far more strongly rooted in Dick being a rebellious teen, grappling with feels of both romance and loyalty to platonic friends, and working to find common ground with his parents, whom he loves but is testing to see how far out from under their worlds exactly he can get.

Overall, I found The Lost Carnival: A Dick Grayson Graphic Novel to be an engaging and rewarding read, the way I have found most of these DC Comics YA books. It’s nice to see creators getting an interesting type of freedom with characters we’ve known for decades, using them essentially as comforting lenses with which to explore stories that aren’t generally typical to superheroics. Comic book storytelling has soared in popularity among younger readers as of late (thanks in large part to the work of creators like Raina Telgemeir, Dav Pilky, and others), and this line of comics is designed to tap into that popularity with time-tested characters. That’s certainly what The Lost Carnival sets out to do and accomplishes, making it look as easy as polished trapeze artist at the circus. 

The Lost Carnival
Writer: Michael Moreci
Artists: Sas Milledge with Phil Hester
Colorist: David Calderon
Letterer: Steve Wands
Publisher: DC Comics
Before he met Batman, Dick Grayson discovered the power of young love-and its staggering cost-at the magical Lost Carnival. Haly's traveling circus no longer has the allure of its glamorous past, but it still has one main attraction: the Flying Graysons, a family of trapeze artists featuring a teenage Dick Grayson. The only problem is that Dick loathes spending his summers performing tired routines for dwindling crowds. When the Lost Carnival opens nearby and threatens to pull Haly's remaining customers, Dick is among those drawn to its nighttime glow. But there are ancient forces at work at the Lost Carnival, and when Dick meets the mysterious Luciana and her nomadic family, he may be too mesmerized to recognize the danger ahead. Beneath the carnival's dazzling fireworks, Dick must decide between who he is and who he wants to be-choosing either loyalty to his family history or a glittering future with new friends and romance. Author Michael Moreci and illustrator Sas Milledge will suspend readers from a tightrope in this graphic novel, redefining Dick Grayson for a new generation.
Release Date: May 5, 2020
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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.