Batman The Detective #3

Batman The Detective #3

DC Comics 2021

Written by Tom Taylor

Pencilled by Andy Kubert

Inked by Sandra Hope

Coloured by Brad Anderson

Lettered by Clem Robins

Henri Ducard is a man of mystery with a checkered past and a complicated existence…but what deep connection does he have with Bruce Wayne? What lessons did he teach the man who would become Batman? Can Batman use these lessons to save Ducard’s life? Or will Equilibrium strike again?

I am so into this book that I desire this to last longer than a mere six issues. I want to see Batman travel all over Europe and seeing his hideouts, hideaways and spare caves and such as he has to solve some mysteries and face off against old, see brand new, villains and deal with the likes of the Global Guardians and such. I mean how great would it be to see Thunder & Lightning return to the DC Universe in a Detective story? Regardless of my hopes and dreams this is being so well told and so inherently interesting in ways that I wasn’t expecting to see that I simply cannot except that it’s almost over.

I am over the moon with 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 exceedingly well. The character development is bloody brilliant thanks to the dialogue, character interaction, narration and of course how they act and react to the situations and circumstances that they encounter. The pacing here is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story you cannot help but be in a kind of awe over what it is we’re actually seeing.

I love how we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to grow, evolve, strengthen and newly emerge. It is here in the layers where we see different avenues open up that work in concert with the main arc but remain separate adding such depth of complexity to the story in some unexpected ways. I love the backstory and how that plays into this as well. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as moving the story forward is superbly achieved.

I am actually impressed with the interiors here. The linework is strong and how the varying weights and techniques not only create the detail work that we see but brings out this different sense of style we’re not used to seeing and it garners intrigue for what’s going on. I love that Sandra is so good at what she does that we see this seamless look and feel from Andy’s pencils. The backgrounds we see are absolutely bloody incredible and then to see how they work within the composition of the panels to bring us depth perception, a sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is exceedingly well done. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling. The colour work is fantastic! The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is so beautifully rendered. This demonstrates a superb eye for colour and how it works.

​

Having never been much a fan of Batman’s, Dick Grayson’s Robin and Batgirl yes but Bruce not so much, however, if we’re going to get stories like this one it may just make me a complete convert. There is something about seeing him in his teenage years and his present self and seeing how he’s grown, changed and taken Henri’s words to heart. This is a phenomenally well written book and it’s got some stupendous interiors to match that and it will make anyone of the man inside the suit.