Detective Comics #880

         I have been so out of modern comics. I have been reading some more Marvel which has been fun, but I love DC and since none of the stories really matter anymore (well... until next month) I have just been ordering old comics and enjoying them thoroughly. Next month might have fewer posts then usual because I will be reading mainly old comics. Also all of my subscriptions are ending because of DC's relaunch but I was still excited to find this comic in the mail, mainly because of it's cover.
        In this issue the Joker escapes from Arkham and Jim Gordon panics because the Joker often attacks his family. He warns his wife but it was too late. When Gordon got to her she had already been attacked. Gordon brings her to Dick Grayson for medical care and she starts to recover slowly. Oracle goes back to her office to await the Joker, and Batman goes looking for him. He finds him in a crypt. They start to battle and the Joker says he wants his old Batman back and not this "little bird." Eventually Batman controls him and the Joker says it wasn't him. Then we see Oracle's brother attacking her.
       I was looking forward to a real Joker story which is not what I got. There have been just random mentions of this villain throughout multiple comics in the past couple months and I think it's finally going to be done next month, right before Bruce Wayne get's his old title back. I did like the portrayal of the Joker here. While I do love the insane (and somewhat lovable) Joker, it is always good to see a Joker like the one in Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum, and a renewed obsession with the old Batman. So the story was enjoyable not great and probably not something that I am going to remember for a long time, except for the part that actually had the Joker, that was incredible and I would buy the comic just for that.. I'm not a huge fan of Jock's work, it's good, but not great, so for me the comic even suffered there. Although the cover was one of the best cover's I've ever seen, and is definitely poster worthy.






Grade: 7/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

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 #875

         Detective Comics is a unique series. Some are very classic Batman, others are dark Batman, and some have nothing to do with Batman at all. Each arc is very different from its predecessor which is different for a series, it has short entertaining arc opposed to long and over complicated and frankly boring series like Green Arrow.
         This particular issue is about James Gordon. He is remembering when he was lieutenant, he got a call from Barbara (when she was his ex-wife) who called to express concerns about James. (James Gordon's son) She says that he has nothing medically wrong with him, but she's taking him for more tests. He remembers all the creepy things that his son did, like killing a bird, and dressing up as the Joker for Halloween. But especially this time when Barbara and her friend were over, and the friend brought a science kit. The friend was mean to James, and then the friend goes missing, and James has the science kit. James Gordon Sr. started accusing the boy. Then everything comes back into the present. The entire flash back had been simultaneously occurring with James Gordon getting a criminal. Batman comes and gets him, and then Jim Gordon leaves while thinking about his son.
         This was a weird, strange and twisted comic book. It was very enjoyable. The story that was going on with the criminal that was running away from James Gordon was really just a space filler and a reason to throw Batman into the mix, so that whole section of the book was kind of boring, but it didn't interfere with the flash back which is really what was going on in the comic. The boy was something out of an Edgar Allan Poe, it wasn't just the thing with the bird, which was creepy, but it was him dressing up as the Joker that really made the character. That has been done by so many people in past Halloweens, but he's a fictional character, not really killing, and tormenting people. The cartoony art enhanced the creepiness of the story. It's hard to describe how, but if you read this issue you'll understand what I'm saying.
Over all this was a pretty good issue, I wouldn't call it a must read, but if you like Edgar Allan Poe, or other things that creepy, than this would be a good issue to pick up.





Grade: 8/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Detective Comics #873

         This is my one year anniversary of blogging on Comic Review Warehouse. What started as just a way to vent my feelings about the latest comic book in a very simple manner has turned into a great thing.
The anniversary review is Detective Comics issue 873. Like in Green Lantern Corps, I read an issue and then never got to the next one, but I got Detective Comics issue 872 and 873. I liked issue 872 and 871 and the last arc of this series was incredible and so far this arc has been pretty good.
        In this issue The Dealer has turned everyone at the auction onto Batman. They start to attack him, and Dick Grayson goes through all the calm down rules of the tightrope in his head. The people at the auction catch up with him, but Grayson wakes up in the hospital next to Oracle. He's missing his legs. Oracle then attacks him, but Dick Grayson wakes up again, and again he's in the hospital, but this time he has legs, and Oracle isn't trying to kill him. Dick Grayson gets dressed as Batman and goes after the dealer. He empties the "cargo" off of his plane. When Batman finally catches the Dealer, the Dealer turns into some weird Man Bat creature, but Batman beats him fairly quickly. When he gets home he makes the Wayne mansion his own, and tells Alfred to throw the Joker's crow bar into the river.
        This was a great issue. Messing with Batman's mind is a constantly used tool in all of the Batman series, and now that there is a different Batman DC focus' on that a lot more. Everyone knows that Gotham is evil, and dark, but this arc took that to a whole new level. Auctioning off the crowbar that Joker beat Jason Todd with is just sick. But it was enjoyable to read about. I'm a fan of reminders of "Batman a Death in the Family" and even the stuff that is done with the Red Hood (regrettably I never read Red Hood Lost Days, but maybe if I see the TPB one day I'll pick it up) and this was great. I wasn't a fan of just ending the arc by making the Dealer a weird Man Bat monster, but I do hope that he comes back again with a whole new arc and a whole new crime. His character could either be great or terrible. If they just make him the creature then he will be boring, but if they make him someone like the Penguin mixed with Man Bat (organizes things, but can be strong) then he will be great. I also liked when Dick Grayson was going through the rules of the tightrope in his head. Bruce Wayne always flashed back to memories of his parents and used their teachings in almost every single case, and Dick Grayson does that as well, but since his background is different, it's a different feel. Dick Grayson is a good Batman, I would like to see Bruce Wayne back in this series, but I'm happy that Dick Grayson is his own Batman and not trying to make him exactly the same as Bruce Wayne.
            This is a good issue, a good arc, a good series, and Dick Grayson is a good character.



Grade: 9/10
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

Detective Comics #867

               I wasn't going to by this issue because of the art, but a friend of mine convinced me to pick it up. I didn't see the writer until I got home and started reading. I have liked David Hine recently, mainly because of his work with Arkham Asylum and the Batman villains, (like I have said countless times before) which is my favorite part about Batman and maybe the whole DCU. (I do like it for countless other reasons, but this is a big part or it) In this issue someone has been making a Joker gas knock off that is only temporary but is addicting so the victims use it again and go on crime sprees. It is revealed in this comic of who is responsible, but this is not a spoiler blog. At the end after many fights with these "Jokerz"  someone makes an imposter Batman and tells people to grab guns and go kill the impostors.
           I really liked this issue, even the art. (After reading it you relize that the art works with the story) I like the idea of the knock off Joker gas, the problem was that is the second time I've seen that in just a few short months. In April and May Batman comics had a "copy cat villain" who went around killing people just like the Batman villains do, and eventually he sprayed Riddler with a fake Joker gas. So DC should have picked one or the other, and they should have picked this one, this story was much more exiting, intresting and compelling than the other.
           I did like how the Joker gas didn't just infect street rats, but instead infected even model citizens. It makes the story much more dramatic and emotional. So overall I liked this comic a lot, there were some not so good moments, but there were a lot of very good moments that made up for those, this arc looks very exiting and I really want to see where it is going. I also wonder if this arc is going to be just another story arc or will affect the DCU even more. It's a long story arc, so I hope it affects something.



Grade: 8/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com