With one less Batman book on the shelves now that Batman & Robin has ended, it’s up to Detective Comics to pick up the mantle of “the other Batman title” after Batman and Absolute Batman. Luckily, the long running title for the Dark Knight Detective has been on a pretty stellar roll for the past year under writer Tom Taylor. Known for his excellent characterizations on books like Injustice and Nightwing, Taylor’s Detective Comics has been a book that isn’t afraid to home in on the mysteries that fuel the world’s greatest detective, but this has kept the title as a largely solo showcase for Batman. But all that changes in Detective Comics #1107 with artist Pete Woods, which takes the promise of the next phase of All-In and brings two new allies onto the book: Black Canary and Green Arrow!
Someone is killing ordinary citizens in Gotham City. The only problem? All of the killings are people dying of natural causes. As Batman looks further into the mystery, Green Arrow has arrived in Gotham City, setting up a new office for himself as Queen Industries is set to be taken over by Klep Corp. That same company has had nearly everyone who’s threatened to whistleblow on the company die of “natural causes”, and since that overlaps with his current case, Batman is determined to solve it. After warning Green Arrow of operating in his city, they later meet up at Wildcat’s gym to go over a routine training round with the rest of the Batfamily, with Canary leading the session. The next day Batman, Black Canary, and Green Arrow visit of the grave of Prion, an old ally with a mysterious past. When a young girl arrives to pay their respects, it starts yet another mystery into the fold, because as far as our three leads know, Prion had no family…
Detective Comics #1107 is a new jumping on point, but a lot of the moments in this issue felt extremely disparate from one another. While I’m sure Taylor has something up his sleeve that will connect this Prion mystery with the Klep Corp killings, there isn’t enough here to really make one see any connections at this time. A lot of the issue feels like three separate sequences designed for a Batman Family anthology book that were then stapled together as a single issue and packaged off. Speaking of the Batfamily, as fun as it is to have them fully referenced in a Batman title, they really serve no purpose here other than being background extras. You could easily have the scene in the gym be just Batman and Black Canary and it would play out largely the same.
DC
That all being said, Taylor’s knack for character is on ready display as always here. Despite both being rich vigilantes, Batman and Green Arrow have distinctively different methods and personalities, and watching them butt heads is the highlight of the book. Is Oliver Queen a little arrogant for jumping into Batman’s territory and stirring things up? Sure he is. But without it, the book doesn’t have the character spark that’s definitely needed, especially when Dinah Lance doesn’t have nearly as much to do in this issue (not that the page count helps her either).
Pete Woods’ style is darker and heavier than other artists on Detective, but it suits this particular story well. Woods has a great sense of design and layout that’s put to great use in the big splash page of Bruce and Dinah sparring in the ring. I’ll admit to being confused over their “knockout, no hits” rule, but once I saw it drawn out by Woods, I completely understood it. Woods also uses his panel layouts for some surprisingly funny moments in the issue as well, with one great visual gag over Batman’s constant decree of Gotham being “his city” that had me chuckling. While his style is a little looser than regular artist Mikel Janin’s, it works well for this moodier aspect of the story, adding a great noir tinge to the proceedings.
Detective Comics #1107 isn’t quite the knockout opening installment I was expecting it to be, nor is the mystery all that clear or engaging just yet. But Tom Taylor has yet to steer me wrong, and I’m hoping that what comes next will offer some more revelations into this missing piece of Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary’s past and why I should care. With Batman & Robin finished, Detective Comics is the next Batman title poised to claim the “underrated Batbook” crown, and I’m rooting for it. I just need a bit more to fully start that campaign.
You must be logged in to post a comment.