DC reviews 2/8/22 – Detective Comics #1052, The Joker #12

Detective Comics #1052

The Tower arc is getting dangerously close to feeling like it’s dragging on. Writer Mariko Tamaki slows the momentum down from last issue spending too much time replaying events from last week through a different perspective.

This takes up valuable space in moving the story forward. For this installment, it’s mostly Oracle, Batwoman, Orphan and Spoiler trying to piece together clues from the riot. What they don’t know is Psycho Pirate and Dr. Wear are running a scam that nearly unraveled. Tamaki hasn’t done enough with Nightwing in this arc and he’s largely sidelined this issue again.

While Ivan Reis isn’t back on art this issue, Max Raynor holds the artwork down strongly. Raynor does some creative layouts with Psycho Pirate’s emotion controlling powers and letterer Ariana Maher also gets to join in on the fun.

The Tower is heading towards its seventh installment and needs some significant advancement to get back to its previous lofty heights.

In the House of Gotham secondary story, writer Matthew Rosenberg keeps the twists coming as the main character starts to question his employ with Penguin while his friend Elliot starts plotting some major moves. Rosenberg works in a great twist midway through that further sends the main character unraveling.

Artist Fernando Blanco elicits convincing emotion out of the characters as the intensity heats up. Jordie Bellaire’s color work continues to be flawless especially on the final few pages cast in mostly red. House of Gotham has overtaken The Tower as the stronger of the two stories, but it’s a win for Detective Comics readers given the quality of both stories now.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Check out Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 6: Road to Ruin now on Amazon. 

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