Batman The Detective #1

Batman The Detective #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Tom Taylor

Illustrated by Andy Kubert

Coloured by Brad Anderson

Lettered by Clem Robbins

A horrific tragedy in the United Kingdom sends a very personal and deadly message to the Dark Knight—one that will draw Batman out of Gotham City to investigate! From the moment he lands in Europe, Batman will face a difficult investigation and unheard-of adversaries and find the assistance of a partner once more—all in the hunt for the villain known as Equilibrium! New villains! New allies! A thrilling overseas adventure begins for the Dark Knight!

Well I say this one thing and then let it go, Bruce Wayne is unrecognisable and in his steed we have Frank Castle playing the part. I don’t care if Alfred is currently deceased, for now, the look on his is horrendous. Now onto the matter at hand. Tom’s writing one hell of a great introduction to the story here. The opening here is brilliantly done and it’s nice to see Beryl in action even if she’s not wearing the suit as it still grabs the readers attention and makes you want to see what is next.

I do like the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented extremely well. There is some angst in this issue but it doesn’t override the mood, tone or feel for the book and for that I’m eternally thankful. Getting Bruce out of Gotham to the U.K. is a great move, even if Alfred was from there as it allows us to see him kind of rediscover himself a bit. Also the Gentleman Ghost really that’s who that was and not some giant snowman? The character development that we see is phenomenal and its not just Bruce its also in this new Squire and Beryl herself as well. The dialogue is great but the way that we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances fleshes them out even better. The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages dropping hints as we’re introduced to the story it’s easy to see why this would hold so much appeal.

I also like the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story start to take shape. With the way we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it all moves the story forward is really rather quite nice to see.

The interiors here are okay. I’m not crazy about the resemblance to JrJr’s work and it has a much rougher style than I would like to see. The first page gave me hope but when we got to Beryl’s eyes I knew hope was lost. There are a lot of moments that look beautiful and even more where I’m straining to see what I’m looking at and while Kubert is something of a legend this is far from his best stuff. That being said how we see backgrounds being utilised and how we see the composition within the panels bringing us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is impeccable. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show us his eye as a master storyteller isn’t diminished in the slightest. The colour work is nicely rendered as well. I am enjoying how we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work we see.

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I may quibble here and there because it’s my eye for detail that I pride myself on but overall seeing this book is so much fun. I am certainly glad it came in a blank cover variant otherwise I probably wouldn’t have read this. I stand by my observations of choices made and say that overall this is the kind of Batman title that I want to read, that I’ve been craving since Detective Comics became just another Batman title.