DC Comics reviews for the week of 10/25/17

Detective Comics #967

It’s reunion time as Red Robin is finally back in the fold. This might be the must-read issue of the year for anyone who’s been reading Detective Comics since the start of Rebirth.

This issue is just so good. From Batman’s reunion with Red Robin, a team name finally revealed and some great character moments, this is high-level work on every page.

I love how everything came together here with Tim’s presumed death and return to the team. The readers didn’t get the usual insistence Tim was dead. We knew right away he was still alive, which immediately negated the death for the sake of shock value. Tim’s abduction was the story focus while none of his allies knew to even look.

That made the reunion immensely more satisfying than the normal character X has returned from the dead moment. Writer James Tynion IV earned this by making Tim’s death a major plot thread that wasn’t dismissed for the sake of a new status quo.

And again, showing the great coordination ongoing throughout DC, there’s even a reference to events currently going on in Action Comics #990. That’s not a major deal, but it helps establish this is a real connected world that exists beyond one book. Alvaro Martinez returns for this chapter of a Lonely Place of Living and his pages look as spectacular as ever. With Eddy Barrows and Martinez handling the art for this arc, this is already rivaling the best-looking arc of this run.

Just as good is how Tynion doesn’t rush to make the older Tim an obvious villain. He’s lost his world and he doesn’t immediately start behaving like a crazy madman. He actually acts like Tim Drake. And the final page keeps the shocks and surprises coming.

This is a run, don’t walk or bother putting it to the bottom of the pile. Detective Comics was starting to slide, but this arc — highlighted by this issue — puts the title right back to the top of best in class for DC.

Rating: 10 out of 10