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.

Detective Comics #26 – Review

By: John Layman (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils/inks), Art Thibert (inks), Blond (colors)

Ever since Detective Comics #19 John Layman has been hinting big things for Man-Bat. When his departure from Tec was announced, just before New York Comic-Con, a Man-Bat series was practically expected, sitting comfortably on con predictions as reliable as Bleeding Cool’s. Obviously that series never came to be, but the inevitable end to Layman’s Man-Bat saga is here.

Layman has already proven himself to be an adept of the near-forgotten art of the single-issue story. Building from the backup in last month’s Zero Year tie-in, Layman quickly sets up the action for this issue and provides the Man-Bat v. Batman action his readers are undoubtedly looking for.

While there isn’t a lot of hard detective work in this issue, Layman does continue his work of returning the cerebral elements of the “world’s greatest detective”. While Man-Bat is not usually a foe who can challenge the Dark Knight on an intellectual level, Layman’s old-fashioned, heroic Batman insists on saving him, requiring him to cure Man-Bat without endangering innocent lives. Batman comes up with a couple of clever methods of dealing with this problem, but I can’t help but wonder if the final plan that he puts into action was really the most effective way to handle things.

Indeed, while Layman’s story is an impressively economical one, it’s a highly protracted ending to a fairly long running subplot. Given Layman’s track record and the clear teaser for his Gothtopia cross-over, one has to wonder if the story was originally going to feature a more naturally paced conclusion. Alas, I have to review what is, rather than what could be.