Welcome back, fanboys! If you are reading this, that means one thing: Tom Taylor’s latest issue of Detective Comics has hit your local comic shop. The creative team of Taylor and Mikel Janin are leaning on the dark and mysterious as their run carries on. It has been a long time for Detective Comics to return to its roots, and this one-two punch has found the formula. Will Batman solve this case of teen murders? Who is Asema, and what is the grand plan? There is only one way to find cool kids! Let’s break it down like MLB Tonight!
I want to call Detective Comics a breath of fresh air for Batman periodicals, but let’s be honest, this is what this title was always meant to be. Taylor is writing a ground-level story in his first arc, and it’s simple: teenagers are getting popped off, and this needs to be stopped ASAP. A few issues back, there was a lot of controversy when Batman backhanded a teenage boy at the scene of the crime, Batman showing up in time but at the wrong time simultaneously. This issue shows how much Batman cares about Gotham’s youth’s well-being as if they were his own.
Taylor is crafting a near-perfect Batman adventure. Kicking off the book right where we left off with #1093, we see bat gadgets galore from the utility belt to the car. Oracle and Batman devise a plan to get inside information on the old Trojan Horse Way, and Damien is the grand prize winner. Taylor’s Batman monologue throughout the book puts the reader inside Batman’s head. Readers will feel like they are devising this plan themselves. The teamwork aspect of Taylors work should not be short-sighted. Batman, Oracle, and Robin have developed a plan, but when things don’t go according to plan, team Batman adapts swiftly without hesitation. Taylor has been using the Bruce Wayne persona exceptionally well during his run, with only a flirty flub along the way. Here, Taylor uses “the mask” of Bruce Wayne to shed some light on places so dark that even Batman can’t go. This shows you that some of the worst criminals in Gotham hide in plain sight and do not need a gimmick or alias. I wouldn’t call Taylor’s Bruce Wayne clumsy, but this Bruce sure can make you look like a fool at his will.
Is there anything Mikel Janin can’t do artistically? Once again, Janin handles the trifecta of cover art, interior art, and colors. Janin puts on a master class of the color spectrum, leaning towards the cool side of the palate. I love how Janin used purples, pinks, and blues during the mobile med bay scenes—making the reader feel like you are in the Batmobile filled with LED switches, buttons, and monitors. Janin’s Batman is stoic and intimidating, just as you would imagine. Janin might be the only artist to date to give Batman a smirk and not make the character look out of place in his element. Janin’s layouts stand out to me in each issue, like he is putting a puzzle together and seeing what “piece” fits best in a specific spot. Rectangles, squares, trapezoids, borders, and angles galore would make a geometry nerd’s day. Not one page looks like the other in terms of shape or art.
Taylor is telling a fast-paced murder mystery and has now mixed in a Mission Impossible espionage element. The Bat-Family is working on cracking a case of teenage murders in Gotham, and Bruce Wayne is playing his part as the “light knight.” All while moving the story along and delivering a cliffhanger ending that will leave you counting down the days until issue #1095, Taylor and Janin are crafting a vintage Detective Comics story.
You do not want to skip this one, BOFers! – Peter Verra
