Batman and Robin investigate the death of a young man under their charge, and the mysterious organization seemingly covering it up. Bruce Wayne grows closer to Dr. Scarlett Scott, but her connection to the crimes may be deeper than Bruce suspected. Detective Comics #1,092 is written by Tom Taylor, drawn and colored by Mikel Janin and lettered by Wes Abbott.
As Batman lies wounded and near death, Robin ponders what his life would be like without the Dark Knight, and does whatever he can to save him. Batman: The Long Halloween ā The Last Halloween #4 is written by Jeph Loeb, drawn by Cliff Chiang, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by Richard Starkings.
The League investigates a nest of Parademons while startling facts about the Martian Mahunter in this new era are revealed. Justice League Unlimited #2 is written by Mark Waid, drawn by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain and lettered by Ariana Maher.
Will Nevin: Matt, you know the one thing we *have* to talk about this week.
Matt Lazorwitz: What is that, Will?
Will: Not even a guess?
Matt: Iām thinking if there has been any major Bat or Trek news this week, and I might have missed it with the holidays, but nothing is jumping to mind.
Will: Iām going to drop the link here, and you can react to it for the amusement of myself and the good people.
Matt: Oh, ye gods. Yes, the Harley Quinn Fartacular.
Will: Iā¦what? How? Who? How is that a thing? Why is it a thing?
Matt: Now, hereās the thing, my friend: This is not the first smelly Harley Quinn comic. Check this out. I have it on good authority from a customer at the comic shop I worked at when this book came out, a connoisseur of this particular herb, that the smell of weed in this book smelled like the lowest-grade weed you could possibly find. So while this new one might be worse, it fits with what has come before.
Will: Someone, somewhere wishes that this new book was ārub and smellā as well.
Bruce Wayne Gets Around
Will: Hereās a question for you: On balance, who is more likely to sleep with someone they just met, Bruce Wayne or James Bond?
Matt: Bond, but only by a hair. Bruce is probably the most likely in the DC Universe, though, and number two in Big Two comics, behind Tony Stark.
To be fair, Scarlett isnāt someone he just met, but is definitely someone he has just been on a first date with. And the decision to sleep with someone who you are investigating is not a good one. Thatās some Slam Bradley, noir-detective level bad decision making there, Bruce.
Will: I am generally not for Damian Wayne snottishness, but Bruce has earned it here. Sheesh.
I guess we havenāt gotten any surprises so far in this story, huh? I was reflecting while reading it today on how very different it is compared to Ram Vās saga. And, yes, thatās automatically an unfair comparison, no doubt. But that story had ambition, weirdness and vision. And while I like this more than something like āFailsafe,ā itās pretty clear that this is some standard comic fare.
Matt: We have a mystery here that is pretty much a non-mystery, right? Asema is either Scarlett or her associate, Dr. Forster. And the strange blood in the formula is from the kids that are being killed, thus putting Bruce in a moral quandary. Weāve talked about this a lot on the podcast lately, with the idea that knowing where a story is going isnāt a bad thing, and so Iām not faulting this story for that. Taylor is working in some less obvious mysteries, like who is funding these experiments and how Joe Chill and that flashback with Thomas Wayne from the first part tie in (weird how that took up half the first issue and hasnāt been referenced since). But it is just good superhero comics, yes.
Will: That Chill thing better go somewhere eventually or we wasted a lot of time in the first issue.
Matt: Scarlett is his daughter, but I wonder if that will matter to the main story. It feels very much like a Taylor trope at this point too, since Dick Grayson met his half-sister, whose mother was the later wife of Tony Zucco, under his pen as well. Taylor really likes to tie those foundational events in with his plots, which I am never sure works. It did pretty well in Nightwing, but doing it here again so shortly after feels a bit reheated.
Will: We got a bit this week about how Scarlettās mom is not doing well, and at this point, Iām torn between wanting the family stuff to either fade away or play out to its presumably underwhelming conclusion. In either case, hard to judge it now.
Buy Detective Comics #1,092 here.
But, Reallyā¦ Why?
Matt: After reading this issue, I am still where I was after the previous one. I donāt know what it is about this series that feels off, but something really does. Weāre four of 10 issues in, and nothing really feels like itās happened. This whole series feels so very decompressed.
Will: The pacing is so weird, isnāt it? I think with a little sanding on the edges, this issue could have been a really great standalone story. But dropping it where it is just feels strange and out of place.
Matt: And it violates the form of the previous series and the previous issues: Nowhere do we get the holiday-themed murder or attempted murder. We have often ragged on Tom King for formalism, and I donāt regret that, but I am about to rag on Loeb for eschewing it here. The first 26 issues of the comics set in this continuity had very established rules. And the first three here used them, too. To drop that now seems like a discordant note. And I absolutely agree this was a really strong standalone issue, possibly the best story-wise of this run, but I canāt help feeling like weāre treading water.
Will: Kinda makes you wonder to what extent Tim Sale grounded the whole project, you know? Now Loeb doesnāt have anyone to basically tell him no. And, again, this is not by any means bad ā the Gilda/Grundy moments are particularly beautiful ā but it does sort of leave you wondering why it exists.
Matt: The Gilda/Grundy scene was one of two highlights in this issue. The other is the splash when Batman finally comes out of the coma heās been in and we see Robin just hugging him. Itās a great moment.
I absolutely agree that Sale had a lot of say in how these books came together, how they were paced and probably quite a few of the story beats. And while I think Cliff Chiang is a heck of an artist, and this book looks really nice, he isnāt Tim Sale and his style is much softer and less surreal than Saleās. And next issue we go to the other extreme with Bill Sienkiewicz, who is even more expressionistic than Sale.
Will: Do you think this is a consequence of just spending too much time in this universe? Like, is any maxiseries destined to sag under the weight of its own story?
Matt: I think thatās definitely part of it. I think there is the possibility this could have worked as a trilogy if it felt like there was something being said here. Maybe Iām working out my feelings right here in the column, but what Iām feeling is that, in the previous two stories, the Holiday/Hangman killings were the central mystery, the central driving force. Here, we donāt have that. The masked shootings of the freak villains are supposed to be similar, but since nothing is really coming from them, and we had the central mystery that Batman was focused on in the first three issues being the kidnapping of James Gordon Jr., we donāt feel the stakes are high enough.
If this was a run on a series, with an indefinite end point, where I felt like Loeb was telling a story that he had time to play with, to tease out, then it might not bother me as much. But I know weāre just shy of the halfway point, and now we have an Arkham breakout at the end of this, and Joker showing up, which are plots that I donāt feel like are going to play into the overall narrative either. This book feels like itās missing the vision that the first two stories had.
Will: Those are plots that donāt feel fresh or interesting either. This is better than the second and third chapters of Dark Knight Returns, and that might be the most damning with the faintest praise I have ever done.
Matt: These are not bad comics. But when youāre dealing with the third chapter where the first two are numbers 5 and 17 on The Big Board, anything short of exceptional is going to feel like a letdown.
Buy Batman: The Long Halloween – The Last Halloween #4 here.
A Martian Mystery
Matt: I can understand this book being a bit much for some. Thereās a lot going on, and itās setting up stuff for other books. But I donāt feel like that setup is intrusive, and Waid does such a good job of balancing the plots, the action and the character that it feels like a great central point for the current DC Universe.
Will: Look, you canāt promise a book featuring possibly every damned hero in the DC Universe without it getting a little busy, so I donāt mind that at all. Whoās this Dr. Occult fella? He seems interesting.
Matt: Dr. Occult was a Golden Age character, created by Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster. He was Sam Spade but with magical powers. Modern times have added a twist: his body is a timeshare. He and his partner, Rose Psychic, switch places, so only one can be in the physical world at a time. But Waid focused more on the basic original concept without adding the complexity, which for a supporting role here makes sense.
Will: Shit, I wish my body was a timeshare ā Iād love to clock out and let someone else have a ride for a bit. But, yeah, you got the gist of who he was there on the page, and it seems like a natural choice to pair him with Martian Manhunter, who, as we learn here, is not having a good time at all. Weāve said this before with Waidās return to DC, and Iām sure weāll say it again, but the key to making superhero comics is giving us lots of explosions and nonsense but also a reason to care about these characters. He does that here.
Matt: Having one of the Magnificent Seven, the core of the JLA, be one of the beings suffering from the power loss/power swap adds heavily to the stakes of that plot, and Jāonn makes the most sense as heās the only one who isnāt currently or about to carry his own mainline book (Side note: I am super excited for Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguezās Absolute Martian Manhunter).
Will: Bit of an odd call for that to only be a six-issue mini, innit? But I share the excitement nevertheless.
Matt: And for the power that is missing to be his telepathy is a huge blow. It would be just because he is the DCUās premier telepath and the telepathic switchboard for the League. But on a more personal level, telepathy was the way Martians communicated. Losing that power costs him a deep connection to his past and something fundamental to him. Itās no wonder it is affecting him so deeply.
Will: And as weāve seen with other famous telepaths (*ahem* Troi), thatās a sense that fundamentally powers how you interact with the world around you. Without it, heād naturally be on edge. I hope this is a plotline that really gets some time to breathe.
Matt: Yes. I know we can get the entire DC Universe here, but a book with a central cast of Mr. Terrific, Red Tornado and Martian Manhunter as your emotional crux would really work for me.
Aside from all that, we get some mentions of the mystery of Inferno, and we see just how fucked Apokolips is going to be without Darkseid. Darkseid left all of these plans behind, and now heās not there to watch over them, so I have a bad feeling across the DC Universe we are going to see a lot of stuff going wrong that Darkseid was keeping in check.
Will: If nothing else, itās a much stronger thing to build a relaunch around than The Button. Logical consequences should flow from universe-defining events. I want to see more of them.
Buy Justice League Unlimited #2 here.
Bat-miscellany
- For our Christmas week episode of the BatChat podcast, weāre joined by Patreon backer John Wickham to discuss three of DCās holiday anthologies.
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
