As a huge Batman fan, being given the opportunity to review DETECTIVE COMICS #35 was a real treat. Benjamin Percy, John Paul Leon, and Dave Stewart did a great job of creating a refreshingly out of the box Batman story. It is exciting to see Batman dealing with such topical issues like terrorism and the Middle east.
DETECTIVE COMICS #35 opens up with Bruce Wayne immersed in his usual brooding on his way to the airport for an uncharacteristic vacation. Meanwhile, a flight is coming into Gotham airport alarmingly fast. Upon hearing the news, Bruce jumps into action just in time to investigate the airplane which soon crashes into on of the Gotham airport terminals. The story then cuts to a Port Authority agent who goes to investigate the plane himself and witnesses Batman discovery of what must have caused the crash. All the bodies on the plane look like they have been “entombed for a century” and the only one left alive was the pilot who dies before saying anything useful. Batman realizes that the whole situation must be the result of some virus and, given that the flight from Frankfurt is 8 hours, they only have 8 hours to find a cure before the virus kills them. A quarantine quickly comes into effect and the comic flashes to a news story where Eco terrorist Magnus Magnuson takes responsibility for unleashing the plague upon Gotham. The final line of the comic is “The enemy of earth has declared war with the earth, so I am going to war with America.” (insert cartoon “bum bum buuuuum”)
THE GOOD:
One of the things that can take good comic books and turn them into a great ones is a connection to current events. Many comic book heroes were used in WWII as propaganda and quickly became American icons.
Other comic books like “The Dark Night Returns” which has strong illusions to the 80s Reaganism and “Watchmen”, which dealt with the cold war and the death of American idealism, were made famous partially by the politics associated with them. With the rise of Ebola and of extremism in the middle east, this is the perfect time to have Batman stop the spread of a plague let loose by an Eco terrorist. DETECTIVE COMICS #35 didn’t reveal many details, but this plot is going in a very interesting direction.
Look, I will be honest. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the art in DETECTIVE COMICS #35. However, the number one artistic requirement of a decent Batman comic is to keep it Noir, and this issue certainly nails it in that respect. Every frame is almost monochromatically orange and black and the dense artwork certainly relays the feeling of claustrophobia and urgency that you would want in a plague story.
I also loved the plot element of that plane crash. I have no idea if this was an intentional nod to the plague zombie movie WWZ, but regardless, who doesn’t love a good plane crash
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THE BAD:
The art was really cramped and underdeveloped. I know I always go on about backgrounds in my reviews, but there is a good reason for that. If you try to throw too much into your background, or you don’t create a strong gradation between your background and foreground, you end up with this crunched up mush.
The artists of this issue really missed an opportunity with their use of color as well. In previous issues of DETECTIVE COMICS the color was inspired. I understand that you want to punch up that darkness in a Batman comic, but even DETECTIVE COMICS #34 showed us that you can be dark and have really good use of color as well.
The artists of this issue really missed an opportunity with their use of color as well. In previous issues of DETECTIVE COMICS the color was inspired. I understand that you want to punch up that darkness in a Batman comic, but even DETECTIVE COMICS #34 showed us that you can be dark and have really good use of color as well.
This issue was a step backwards in this new, modern approach to the darkness of batman.
This issue was a step backwards in this new, modern approach to the darkness of batman.
VIRDICT:
While I think this comic was lacking in both the art and story department, it had some good elements and it makes me excited to see what is coming next. I would pick it up and give it a quick read-through. I think a great story ark is going to come out of this.
RATING:
