DC Comics reviews for 3/14/18

Detective Comics #976

No, I’m not all that happy James Tynion IV is leaving Detective Comics. But before he goes, he’s got one final arc that kicks off this issue entitled Batmen Eternal. This is a nice nod to the Batman Eternal series where Tynion first made a big splash in the Batman universe. Given his fondness of classic Batman stories, Knights Fall would also have worked.

This issue continues the fallout from Batwoman’s decision to kill Clayface. It’s great to see actions have real lasting repercussions. Batwoman’s choice has splintered the team and leaving them all questioning their futures.

Batman, who was never much of a long-term team guy anyway, sees this as the perfect opportunity to dissolve the team. Red Robin is of the mindset that he didn’t return from being ‘dead’ to watch all of his hard work squandered.  But if Tim looked around, he would see there’s not much of a team left anyway what with Batwoman recruiting some of the Knights to join her new team. But another returning character has their own sales pitch for Tim that might send him spiraling down the path his future self warned him about.

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Javier Fernández’s art is appropriately dark. It really works well with the tone of this story. Since there is not much action this issue, Fernández laid out his pages to have more subtle confrontations in the exchanges between the team members culminating in the big showdown with Batman and Red Robin. John Kalisz uses a heavy amount of blacks and blues to set the mood and head space of the characters.

If this first part is any indication, Batmen Eternal will be a fitting conclusion to Tynion’s terrific run that’s ending far sooner than many Bat fans would like.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10