Welcome back BOFers! We gather around the old Bat-website for another installment of the granddaddy of them all: Detective Comics.
Issue #1113 is written once again by the struggling Tom Taylor, with Jeff Spokes handling art and colors. A backup tale, written by Nightwing writer Dan Watters, features art by Scott Hepburn. This issue also ties into Bad Seeds. There is a lot to break down on this one; let’s get into it!
Ok, first things first, this is a Batman event. There are tons of tie-ins, naturally interconnecting all Batman books. “The Bad Seeds” part of the book requires a bit of piecing together. Taylor plays well in the overall structure of someone else’s story; this might have been just the thing to get him back on track. Batman’s characterization is greatly improved from the previous story. Batman is acting like Batman once again, the star of his own title, the hero we pay to read. There is a bit of 70’s flair to Taylor’s writing; Batman isn’t overly cheesy, but at times he may talk more than I generally prefer. Batman in Gotham hits different; it’s wild to write this out because it’s obvious, but this is where he belongs, in Gotham City.
Jeff Spokes’ art is filled with fun panels and great action. Spokes illustrates a slenderer Batman with a vintage feel. I can’t say I’ve ever seen a combo like this before; it’s like Spokes has a bit of Alex Ross RIP, mixed with athletic Adam West and an All-In suit. A big Bat across the chest, similar to what we are seeing in Batman, with a pouch utility belt and trunks. No two pages are laid out the same; squares, rectangles, horizontal, vertical, every shape and size is used on Spokes pages. The colors in this book are also perfect; nothing is bright, but nothing is dark or dull. The blue background makes the characters stand out, but at times the backgrounds blend in with ease, like something out of BTAS. As I have been saying for weeks, art on Detective has never been the issue.
There is no writer hotter than Dan Watters right now, so when I saw his name in the credits of the backup, I was pumped up. Sadly, Watters didn’t grab me with this one. It’s not written poorly, but I just found this new character uninteresting. As is the case with most new villains, especially in the Batman corner of the DCU. Rhetoric didn’t come out of nowhere, in a way; after some Googling, the character was created by a fan as the result of a LEGO Batman contest. So not even Watters’ own creation. I’m willing to see how this unfolds, but I wasn’t blown away and was a bit underwhelmed by Rhetoric.
There is a lot to love about Detective #1113. It does a wonderful job moving the Bad Seeds story along; you will need to do some reading to get the full picture. More importantly, Taylor has returned Batman to glory and redeemed himself from that sidekick arc. This is more in line with what fans expect from Taylor. This issue is a wonderful rebound; let’s hope his momentum continues. Next time we see each other, we will be even deeper into Bad Seeds. Batman, Ivy, Mr. Freeze is it 1997 again? – Peter Verra