Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Detective Comics #33 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Art By: Brian Buccellato & Francis Manapul
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 9, 2014



Icarus Is Ridiculous


Last issue was full of detective work from Bullock to Batman.  Bullock's clues led him to investigate Bruce Wayne some more and his connection to a missing cargo container.  This led his investigation to the man that signed for the cargo containers, a one Jeb Lester who wasn't quick enough to destroy the paper tray connecting him before the police showed up.  As for Batman, his detective work traced a cell number he found in the dumped car of Elena Aguila to an abandoned Aquarium, where he tussled with a giant squid and eventually found himself with The Squid and his younger brother but all were surrounded by The Kings of The Sun biker gang, who didn't seem too timid about brandishing their pistols.  Let's see how Batman will get out of this one and solve the murder of Elena Aguila.

Explain It!:

Right off the bat....... Ha ha.  Right off the bat it looks like we can say goodbye to The Squid because even though the Kings of The Sun only showed up to get his younger brother Jonny, he takes a bullet and it doesn't look like he'll make it.  So it's a quick fight where Batman whoops some ass and the leader of the Kings of the Sun gets away with Jonny before the police show up.

Elsewhere Bullock is whoopin' a little ass of his own and finally getting information that leads somewhere else besides Bruce Wayne.  This pigeon gives up the name of the dirty Congressman Sam Young who's involved with the mobs and is an all around bad dude.  Bullock also gets information out of Jeb Lester from last issue who doctored the papers at the cargo yard to let human trafficking through and we find out that the missing container is at an abandoned Kane Power Plant.  How many damn abandoned buildings are in Gotham!?  

Okay so Batman is checking some leads which bring him to the super secret hideout of the Kings of The Sun and no it's not an abandoned building, but it is an equally impressive shack outside of the Gotham city limits.  There he discovers that The Kings of The Sun are using Penguin's war against the other criminal families in Gotham (See Batman: Eternal) to set up shop as Icarus manufacturers and dealers.  While Batman investigates he lets us know that The Kings of The Sun have a lot of material from the abandoned Kane Power Plant and have a lot of information about Elena Aguila's death.  Curiouser and curiouser.

So Batman and Bullock both find themselves at the Kane Power Plant where they exchange insults and fistacuffs as the pink glowing dude we saw two issues back makes his way towards the plant.  If only we had the world's greatest detective there he might be able to deduce a strange pink glow coming through the windows but......... Oh wait.  In the end we see the Kings of the Sun show up at Elena Aguila's daughter Annie's apartment with the no good hood Jonny they procured from the beginning of the issue.  Here's a twist for the reader that you'd never see coming simply because it's impossible with the information we've been given up to this point and also it's a little ridiculous.  It turns out that the leader of the Kings of The Sun is Annie's father and he's brought Jonny to her because he's the one that killed her mother.  Now her biker drug pusher father wants her to kill him.  Yeah.  

Well that's a curve ball thrown at our faces.  Make sure you're back next month to find out about the pink glowy dude and what Annie Aguila will do now that she has a pseudo father figure.  Also Batman things.

Bits and Pieces:

When this story began with the Detective Comics creative change to Manapul and Buccellato, I was really excited about the type of stories these two would offer this title.  Now we're only four issues in and I'm terribly bored.  I dig the fact that we're going after a more detective feel to the book than a simple Batman fights villain story, but it's taking it's sweet time to get nowhere.  We've got a designer super drug, a murder mystery, corrupt politicians, biker gangs, dudes that glow pink, a giant squid and Bullock kicking ass.  There should be enough here to keep me entertained, but maybe it suffers from too many things crammed into one story.  At least it looks great doing it.

6/10

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