ComicsHistory
Detective Comics Review:
DC Comics relaunch of the entire DC universe's
superhero lineup hold the potential for major shakeups in
superhero and supervillain histories and personae, but
after reading Detective Comics #1, I am pleased to
report that the Batman and his insanely murderous
arch-nemesis come through the relaunch more or less
intact. At least until the last panel of this book (Ho,
Hooo, Heh, Heh, Heee! To quote the Joker), More on that
later...
As with the opening of Justice League #1, this story
opens with Batman again (still?), hounded by, and being
shot at by, the Gotham City Police. As with many other
storylines in Batman's storied history, he is tracking
down the Joker, who is identified in Batman's thought
balloons as having killed over one-hundred and fourteen
people over the past six year in various gruesome
manners. I won't go over the details of the story itself,
save to say that it is, in many ways, a typical
Batman-chasing-down-the-Joker tale, complete with morbid
and dangerous Joker-clues left behind and a trail of dead
bodies.
What I will discuss is my disappointment at the
seeming familiarity that this story had for me. With the
highly-publicized reboot/relaunch of the DCU, and after
reading both new books,
Justice
League #1 and
Action
Comics #1, which both featured new twists on old
characters and the relationships between them, I expected
something different in a Batman solo tale. Don't get me
wrong, I enjoyed the story, and the sick-minded Joker is
as perfidious as ever in how he can mess with the cops
and with Bats. As with any story in a book called
Detective Comics, there are several good mysteries here,
involving the Joker, a new menace called the Dollmaker,
and the question of who the little girl named Olivia Carr
really is and her connection to the other characters.
And, I wonder, was her name chosen writer/artist Tony
Salvador Daniel with a hidden purpose? Is the old Justice
League sidekick Snapper Carr going to appear as a
relative of this mysterious little girl? And what is the
deal with Alfred and the hologram thing? I look forward
to learning the answers to these mysteries.
Tony Salvador Daniel is both wrote and drew this story
(as well as creating the cover art), and I am very
impressed by both his writing and his art. Batman looks
tough, kicks butt, gets fooled, cops get wasted by Joker,
and, to top it all off, the end of this story is
awesomely gruesome! Now, I would not expect, nor would I
want, "gruesome" in a Superman or Justice League or even
a Green Lantern book, but in a Batman tale, considering
all of the insane and sick Batman villains running around
Gotham, it is rather expected as well as desired. The
ending of Detective Comics #1 is truly cut from a
different cloth as it were, from the other "New 52" books
I have thus far read and reviewed.
Other than the basic similarity to the general Batman
genre of DC's pre-New 52 comics, I really enjoyed this
comic, and am looking forward to reading more of the
Joker, his apparently new buddy the Dollmaker, and the
mysteries presented herein. Oh, and I want to see more of
Batman pummeling Joker. That was fun. Till next
time.