Detective Comics #27 – Review

by John Layman, Scott Snyder, Paul Dini, Brad Meltzer, Gregg Hurwitz, Peter J. Tomasi, Jason Fabok, Neal Adams, Dustin Nguyen, Guillem March, Bryan Hitch, and Sean Murphy

The Bat-Man, a mysterious and adventurous figure, fighting for righteousness and apprehending the wrong doer, in his lone battle against the evil forces of society…

Giant anniversary issues like this are always interesting to dissect. What’s the best use of all those pages? Will it connect to current storylines, or should it serve as a celebration of the character’s history? This behemoth issue tries to have its cake and eat it too, but that’s only a problem if it fails. So the question is: did it?

Let’s start at the very beginning, as I hear that that’s a very good place to start. The issue opens with a story from Brad Meltzer and Brian Hitch that goes by the highly appropriate title, “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate.” This iteration of “Chemical Syndicate” is a clever retelling of the 1939 original. Though it has been updated, it is a remarkably faithful adaptation. The major difference is the addition of Batman’s later character traits and a running commentary from the Dark Knight, himself, which would not have been possible in the original story without spoiling the surprise ending.

Though Meltzer displays an impressively economic writing style, cramming a lot into a short fifteen pages without overcluttering his story, the real meat of this story is in the narration. Basic Batman caption boxes do a fine job of showing up a mysterious and yet inexperienced version of the Caped Crusader. Meanwhile, a series of journal entries posit a number of answers to the question “why does Batman do it?” The answers are a master class in Batman, neither overglorifying the vigilante, nor digging too deep into his neuroses to appear heroic. Particularly over the last few days, I’ve been growing tired of a Batman too damaged to inspire us to anything healthy. Perhaps I’m biased by my recent musings, but I think this story navigated these dangerous waters very well.

Batgirl #25 – Review

By: Marguerite Bennett (writer), Fernando Pasarin (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Blond (colors)

The Story: You may:

1. attempt to ford the city
2. caulk batmobile and float it across
3. wait to see if conditions improve
4. get more information

The Review: I’m going to say this up front: I kind of hate a poorly written Barbara Gordon.

Especially without the development she gained as Oracle, Barbara’s talents can run the risk of becoming an informed ability. After all, Tim Drake, Cass Cain, Stephanie Brown, all needed extensive training with Batman before they were good enough to be heroes, but Barbara stepped out of the library ready to go toe to toe with the world’s greatest acrobat. So especially in a story where there aren’t super villains or costumed alter egos, it will be essential for this story to define our young heroine.

Luckily, it seems that Marguerite Bennett knows Barbara Gordon. I don’t say writes a fine Barbara Gordon or shows a firm handle on Barbara’s character; she knows her. While I’m sure she made a conscious process of it, Bennett’s take on the future Batgirl has a depth and flow that’s so natural that one could easily believe that the story wrote itself.

Detective Comics #25 – Review

By: John Layman (writer), Jason Fabok and Jorge Lucas (art), Tomeu Morey and Dave McCaig (colors)

The Story: Many of his fellow officers considered him the most dangerous man alive – an honest cop.

The Review: To be frank, I was actually considering not buying this issue, as I wasn’t terribly interested in picking up a Gordon-centric tie in. So I hope you’ll forgive me if I take a quick moment to say this: Wow, I forgot how much I love John Layman’s Detective Comics.

While the issue can’t claim a particularly important place in the overall story, what it does deliver is tone. While Layman’s work on Detective has brought an emphasis back to Batman’s forensic tech and deductive prowess, Gordon’s story is simple hardboiled goodness.

While it won’t be replacing any of the classic Lt. Gordon stories that have accumulated over the years, “Whistleblower’s Blues” is a smart take on early Gotham that enjoys a Dashiell Hammett novel from time to time, but isn’t quite as stilted and manly as a Frank Miller story. Layman’s interpretation of Commissioner Loeb, in particular, possesses more grace and care than any I’ve seen. He may only appear for a handful of pages but he has his own little arc, one that says a lot about Gotham, then and now.

All Star Batman and Robin #10 – Review

By Frank Miller (writer), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

I’ve got one word to describe this issue: Yawn.

I literally fell asleep reading this book. I couldn’t even finish it. When I woke up and continued where I left off I really had to push myself to power through Jim Gordon’s excruciatingly boring monologue. With all the crap Frank Miller’s taken from this book, I’ll give him one thing: it looks like he’s actually trying – at least with certain scenes. Batman and Robin are around for a few pages and basically do nothing but go to see a beaten Catwoman. The rest of the story focuses around Jim Gordon and his family – which is a nice change. But all these overly fluffed monologues from Batgirl, Black Canary, and Gordon do nothing more than bloat the book.

What I do like is that this feels much like the Jim Gordon from Batman: Year One. The nuances and the way he talks – as annoying as some of it is – feels somewhat genuine. The rest of the characters, however, are crap – throwaways. The censored dialogue that everyone’s been fussing about is completely overrated. Any kid who’s watched any TV will be able to fill in the blanks with their own set of colorful metaphors. Miller easily could have replaced these words with symbols or other, less harmful words but chose not to. DC editorial is just as responsible for this mess as Miller and that’s all I’m going to say about that. Does the inclusion of these words make the book more compelling or powerful? Nope. It’s just lazy writing.

Jim Lee’s art is incredibly good here and I’m once again saddened to see such beautiful visuals go to waste on such a sorry story. It’s also disheartening to see his art censored here, but thankfully the panel in question hardly hampers the overall issue.  I’ve also been critical on Alex Sinclair’s coloring in the past – especially with last issue where they’re all in the yellow room. Here, Sinclair shows off his best stuff. The coloring in this book is so incredibly gorgeous – one of the best looking books I’ve seen all year. The scenes where Gordon is hanging around the docks perfectly echo the world of Gotham and her foreboding persona. Really brilliant work by the art team.

Ultimately, this book is your standard hodgepodge of good and terrible. Unfortunately, Jim Lee’s art cannot save this sinking ship. Sure, it may be the selling point, but that doesn’t stop the story from being abysmal. To all those who thought this book was going to make a serious turn around after last issue, I’m laughing at you (and apparently, so is Frank Miller). If the readers are anyone in this book it’s Barbara Gordon: we’re so addicted to this awful mess that we’ve ended up in a terrible car crash. And our only hope is Jim (Gordon) Lee.

Save us, Jim. Save us! (Grade: F)

– J. Montes