Al Ewing has only just started making waves at DC Comics, but lucky us, we get a sense of what he’s after with Batman in Detective Comics Annual 2025. In a story told in three parts, we get to see Batman be a detective of a single crime, fight angels, and save the universe. It’s a wide swath of what Batman can do in a satisfying one-shot story.
Kicking things off is a murder mystery involving a super-rich person found dead in their locked-down safe room. Scrawled in their own blood is a message to Batman: Don’t solve this murder. It’s a mystery inside a mystery that Batman can’t help solve. This leads him to investigate, find clues, and introduce some clever high-tech borderline sci-fi ideas. It’s a satisfying opening act that leads to a clue that sends Batman to the UK.
From there, this story gets a bit more supernatural, but that won’t stop Batman. Fans looking for some superhero fighting get it in this second act with some clever detective work and clues thrown in.
Wrapping things up is the third act that takes this story from murder mystery to stopping a crime that will save the universe. It’s a bit big of a problem to solve, all things considered, but there’s enough setup for it to mostly work. Smartly, Ewing uses this high-stakes climax to show how fast Batman thinks on his feet.
The balance of each act is a little wonky, from discovering high tech even Batman doesn’t know about to punching angels and then saving the universe, but you can’t argue we’re getting essentially three different stories connected by a single thread. It’s a lot, but then that’s something we look for in an extra-sized annual, right?
A good mystery tale starts with a murder in a locked room.
Credit: DC Comics
There are three artists on this issue, each covering a different chapter. John McCrea, Stefano Raffaele, and Fico Ossio each do a great job with what they’re tasked with. Raffaele is tasked with the opening of the safe room mystery, and there’s good detail in the environments to make them realistic and believable. McCrea is next up, and the angel designs are quite trippy, and the depictions of the UK town spot on. Finally, Ossio wraps up the story with an interesting use of light to create melodrama.
If you’re looking for character work, this issue isn’t going to be for that. This is Batman as the detective, the observer, and the resolute. It can feel like it’s missing that personality touch at times, though.
Joshua Hale Fialkov and Mike Norton round out the annual with the story “David Rosales. Seventh Grader.” The story revolves around a mystery set at a young boy’s middle school. The boy and Batman team up, more or less, and try to figure out how people are getting sick. The answers are found, and they’re tied to real-world social issues. It’s a nice all-ages tale, and Norton draws a mean Batmobile.
Al Ewing’s Detective Comics Annual 2025 is a maximalist showcase of Batman as a thinking, fighting force of nature. While it skimps on character depth, it overdelivers on scope, ambition, and pure comic-book spectacle. It’s a wild ride that reminds us Batman stories can—and sometimes should—go big.
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