Detective Comics #32 – Review

By: Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato (storytellers)

The Story: Family can make you do crazy things…

The Review: Manapul and Buccellato continue to give me flash backs to Batman’s transitional periods in the 70s and early 80s in this month’s issue of Detective Comics. It’s not quite hardboiled the way many Gotham yarns are, nor is it as heady as a classic detective story might be, but there’s a groundedness that you just don’t get much of these days.

Gotham may be a bigger focal point of Batman’s stories than ever in the age of Snyder, but Tec puts the focus back on the latter half of Gotham City. It’s easy to see Gotham as some small personal chess board for Batman and the Joker, but there’s a reestablishment of perspective that makes the city feel large and teaming with individual lives, not to mention making Batman feel more vulnerable. The focus on gang violence and drugs also reminds of the late Bronze Age, while a sinister force within Wayne Industries points to a return to the themes of legacy and personal responsibility that often appeared in Bruce Wayne’s more socially conscious days.

But lest you think this was some social-justice noir utopia, don’t forget that this was the era of Man-Bat, Maxie Zeus, and Nocturna, for our writers certainly haven’t. Indeed, the title seems to have a real appreciation for the fading gimmickry of the pre-Crisis period, with Sumo being carted off at the start of the issue and The Squid appearing again towards the end.