Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Detective Comics #1019 Review




Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artist: Scott Godlewski
Colors: David Baron
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 22nd, 2020


In Detective #1018 we met a Viking who has a bit of an issue with Christmas, going around Gotham performing Norse sacrifices to the sun goddess. But, as we all could have guessed, nothing is what it seems.

After a brief fight, Bruce is able to take him down when he attacks at the lighting of the Christmas tree in Wayne Plaza. And back at the Batcave he uses DNA to find that this Viking is actually just a modern man named Sorel Rinsdale. When Bruce, as Batman, goes back to the Botanical Gardens where the original murders occurred, he's attacked by the guy who is really in charge of this whole thing. And guess what? It's a cult! Another cult messing with the supernatural! Uuuuuugh. C'mon, Tomasi! The leader was a failing actor that created the cult to pay off tax debt, though. He's not Joel Osteen successful but he looks cooler.


Anyways, Sorel was supposed to be one of the sacrifices by this cult at some point but he escaped and went off on that murder spree thinking that he was some Viking avenger or whatever. I'm guessing the opening scene from the last issue was a delusional memory? :\

You know what? That's a pretty cool concept actually, and I wish it was executed well instead of being a throw-away thing. The cult is able to summon a god through Sorel but it's not the god that they want, because that god does not exist. This huge monster sees that Batman is not one of his followers and admits to him that these gullible people are being used so he can just eat them. Batman of course still tries to save them but fails as they're gobbled up, and the monster disappears back into Sorel's body. In the end, Sorel is alive and will be tried for his crimes.

Bits and Pieces

Art. ART ART ART. I loved the art. The inking especially, as at some points the thick lines make Batman's look kind of remind me of the Brave and the Bold cartoon series. But the last thing we need in this run is another cult story. And even if you need to have this, I'd like to see a few more issues so we could get more of Sorel's story, see how he escaped and how this all happened, and wtf was up with the 1659 beginning. This is exactly like the two-parter with the Spectre from earlier on in this run: great art and atmosphere; not enough story or explanation of details.


5.5/10

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