Detective Comics #24 – Review

by John Layman (writer), Jason Fabok (art)

The Story: James Gordon totally drops the ball and Batman utterly fails to warn him.

The Review: Like several incarnations of Bane before him, John Layman’s reinvention of the Wrath wages war on Gotham City this month. Actually, that’s not technically accurate. Gotham can thrive or burn, but Wrath demands his  pound of flesh from the GCPD.

There are plenty of anti-batmen running around the DCU. From Owlman, to Black Mask, to Hush, to Lincoln March, to Prometheus, to Batzaro, Bruce Wayne has no want for evil doppelgängera. As Caldwell stands revealed as Wrath, John Layman makes a clever choice not to harp on the similarities between he and Batman. This new Wrath narrows his focus from the law itself down to the more reasonable goal of the GCPD and, to his credit, Layman creates a scenario where it seems plausible that a single man could besiege the entire department.

As ever Detective Comics is the comic for those who long for the sense of wonder Batman inspired as a child. All manner of gadgets and fancy costumes come out of both players’ arsenals, as if begging for toy sales, raising the stakes of combat and elevating it far beyond what two normal men could ever hope to engage in. The characters all have their motives and quirks but at its heart, the issue is a simple one.