Detective Comics #876

            Sorry for my lack of posts, but recently I've gone through a phase of reading the old comics so I haven't really kept up with the new issues and haven't had anything to review. I do have a couple that I will be reviewing over the next couple of days. Detective Comics is one of my favorite series, each arc is just so different from the previous one. I am a little upset that Snyder is taking a break from the arc with Commissioner Gordon, but it will be good to see how Jim Gordon acts through out this arc.
          In this issue a killer whale was found on the floor of one of the biggest banks in Gotham.  Gordon and Grayson investigate and find a woman in its stomach. Although while they are dissecting the whale Commissioner Gordon tells Dick Grayson that the head of the bank is the daughter of the man who killed his parents. Gordon also tells Grayson about his son being back in town and asks Grayson to meat with him, because his eyes aren't contaminated. Batman goes to check out the owner of the bank. (The woman found in the stomach of the whale was her assistant) Sonia Branch, the owner of the bank and daughter of the murderer who killed Batman's parents, didn't want to talk and told Batman to leave. But then she calls someone and says she will do what ever they want. Batman heard this with a listening device. Batman races off to where the call was made but starts getting attacked.
         Scott Snyder missed the mark with this issue. He was trying to make it creepier then it turned out to be. It had all of the elements:  woman showing up inside of a whale, Gordon's son, daughter of the man who killed Grayson's parents, and a death trap. Mainly the problem was the art. While Jock is a good artist, and there was nothing wrong with the art, I just don't think he has the right style for this arc. Anyone with a darker approach to Batman would have been better. The story on the other hand was somewhere between okay and good. I really do like creepy Batman stories, but again the story wasn't quite creepy enough. I predict that the level of creepiness will rise as the arc goes on, based off of the short descriptions DC offers about up coming comics. (I don't want to give those away incase people don't want to see them, but they are on DC's website if you want to see them) So over all this was an okay comic, but I do think it will improve as the arc goes on.




Grade: 6.5/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Detective Comics #871

           The last arc in Detective Comics was really good, and I'm a little sad to see David Hine leave the series, but I am hopeful that Scott Snyder will really make Dick Grayson his own Batman, with some of the old villains, and some new ones.
           In this issue Dick Grayson is worrying that he's not worthy of being Batman. Then Jim Gordon uses the Wayne's forensic lab. A boy attacked any other kids at a pool, and he had the Killer Croc mutagen in his system. Gordon came to compare the one used on Croc, and the one used on the boy to see if the two are "from the same batch," Which they were. Batman goes and talks to the families butler. The boy, who is now in a coma, was practically raised by his butler. When the butler is about to say something, the mother comes in and shoots him, then she runs out of a window and dies. Batman finds the mark of the Mad Hatter on her neck. Commissioner Gordon sends Batman to an ex-cop who had a record of stealing evidence. Batman goes there, but when he is interogating him, a tree grows out of his mouth and kills him. But before he died he did say he was working for some one called "The Dealer."
            This issue had a lot of build up. It had the previews in the back of many comic books, it had the letter "As I Write This There Is A Batman Costume Sitting In A Box Beside My Desk," where Scott Snyder said "We'll be introducing a lot of new villains in the coming year." Essentially this is a copy cat villain, I've seen these many times recently. I've seen them in Batman #698, and I saw one of them in the last issue of Detective Comics, I can hardly see this as a new villain. Although if this is the same villain we saw in Batman #698 that would be much better, it was never really clear what happened and this could clear it up, but if "The Dealer" is a new person then it would just look like DC is running out of ideas. When I first saw Dick Grayson wondering if he was worthy of being Batman, it was a very "oh, this again" kind of reaction, but as soon as he said "I actually sleep worse in this place now that Bruce is back," it came across as a different approach. When Bruce Wayne was travailing through time it seemed like every one was wondering if they were worthy of being who they were, and now that Bruce Wayne is back all of those feeling stopped abruptly, and now Dick Grayson is still worrying about this which is interesting and could be a constant theme for a while. So this was a very decent issue with a few flaws, and the problem with the Copy Cat villain could go either way, but I do have to admit that I am doubtful.





Grade: 6/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Batman and Robin #13

                 13 is an unlucky number, even for Batman and Robin. All right, I know I usually have an introduction about the series right here, but I have a lot of angry venting to do so I'm going to dive right into the synopsis. Joker reviled himself to be Osborne Sexton. That is what happened in issue 12 that is very important to know. This issue started off with Thomas Wayne coming back, apparently he hired someone to kill his wife and then he disappeared and then came back and killed Dick Grayson. The comic then flashes back to three days earlier. Commissioner Gordon and Batman apprehend the Joker after through a monologue about how careless he was in leaving his clues, which he apparently likes to do. Okay clues are Riddlers thing. Turns out that Joker killed Osborne Sexton and took his identity so that he could help Batman, and be a good guy? You can't do that to the Joker it just doesn't work, unless you have some devious plot for later on. Then there is something with Professor Pyg doing something with addictions. But back to Joker, he asked to see Robin. Robin is not convinced that Joker is on the straight and narrow, so he tries to beat the truth out of him with a crow bar.
               I like the crow bar thing, beating Joker just like Joker beat Jason Todd, but that was the only good thing about this issue. If Morrison makes Thomas Wayne come back, he would have killed off the real Batman (Bruce Wayne) and ruined what Batman worked for. (avenging his parents) So if you put those things together: No more Batman. Grant Morrison would be responsible for finally killing Batman. My main problem with this book is the art. I do not like Frazer Irving. I think he should draw horror comics, not Batman. I had the same major problem with Bruce Wayne Returns #2 and guess what, it was also drawn by Frazer Irving. I liked the old artist Andy Clark, he made this series different, but his art was still good. I also like Frank Quitely, If it weren't for his cover I doubt this issue would have sold more than a hundred copies (an exaggeration I know). If I were buying this series at a comic store this would be my jumping off point, unfortunately I have to wait for my subscription to end, which will be soon.  I have read other reviews of the same comic, and I know I'm in the very small minority (if it even exists beyond me) but I stand by what I said. At IGN they loved the art and said it made it creepy and powerful, I thought it looked like it was being forced to be creepy. If it is over done, it looks fake, and it did. There were a couple pannles that I thought were really good, but the rest of it was contrived.

Grade: 1/10
Do Not Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com