Featured Review: Detective Comics #1034

Detective Comics #1034

Writer: Mariko Tamaki; Joshua Williamson

Artist: Dan Mora, Gleb Melnikov

Colors: Jordie Bellaire

Letters: Aditya Bidikar; ALW’s Troy Peteri

Cover: Mora

 The Batfamily comics are in a really good place right now. Batman is telling interesting stories about “poor” Batman, Nightwing had an incredible first issue under its new creative team, The Joker is mediocre but has the building blocks of something potentially special, Batman: Urban Legends is a quality anthology, Tom Taylor and Andy Kubert are launching a Batman-in-Europe miniseries, and Robin has a promising, martial arts-focused series on the horizon. That is a varied lineup covering many of the traditional Batman bases. So where does that leave Detective Comics?

Full Spoilers for Detective Comics #1034 Ahead

Judging by this initial installment, the focus will be on Bruce and creating a new supporting as he adjustments to being slightly less unfathomably wealthy and living in a downtown brownstone. It is a premise that plays to both Tamaki and Mora’s strengths, though they are certainly no slouches when it comes to the superhero-y bits, as this issue demonstrates.

Striking and efficient storytelling

The issue opens with Bruce at a fundraiser for Mayor Nakano that gets interrupted by the Party Crashers, a group Joker equipped with Wayne Enterprises tech during the Joker War. Speaking of, Joker War is apparently the in-universe name the events of the same named storyline. It's so dumb and I love it. It has the exact same energy as calling the bombing of Arkham Asylum in Infinite Frontier #0 A-Day. Peak comic book writing.

Batman handles the Party Crashers easily before returning home. Or near home, rather. He is still building the mini-Batcave in the sewers a few blocks away from his new place. Later, Bruce attends a block party where we are introduced to his neighbors. Lydia, Sarah Worth, her husband Sam, and Deb Donovan. The latter is a reporter that seems to have a preexisting relationship with Bruce. An uneasy one, but one clearly built on respect. It will be interesting to see where that goes.

Batman goes to clean up the Party Crasher mess he left the other day and returns home to find Sam despairing over his missing wife. We as readers discover she was taken by Neil, Lydia’s husband—I think, the exact relationship is not made clear—and one of Mayor Nakano’s top advisors. It is unclear what he is doing, but it likely is part of plan to push Nakano towards instating the Magistrate program, something this issue (And the Future State event) makes very clear is going to happen.

This could have been really confusing.

It would be negligent not to discuss the art in this issue. Mora is an ace when it comes to character expression. Whether it be body language, facial expressions, or the outfits they wear, Mora creates lived in characters. He also excels at using varied and interesting panel layouts. They are complex without ever becoming difficult to follow, something that can be hard to pull off.

The colors do a lot to enhance the art and story being told. From the striking red action scene to the calm, neutral palette of the block party scene. The colors set the mood perfectly and assist in keeping the issue tight and legible. Bellaire, as always, does an exceptional job adding to the experience.

This issue also features a backup story that continues from the one in the latest issue of Batman. Damien has a confrontation with his mother in which he rejects her ideology and decides to return to be Robin. Then he enters a secret martial arts tournament and comes against Connor Hawke. It is all very interesting while be largely unimportant to whatever comes next. It is just substantive enough to create curiosity about the upcoming Robin solo series. The art is a little too light and playful for the moody story in this issue, but is in and of itself, quite good. Hopefully, Robin will blend the tone of the writing and art a bit better.