Detective Comics #1020 Review

The Day, Another Cult

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artist: Brad Walker
Inker: Andrew Hennessey
Colors: Brad Anderson
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 26th, 2020

Two-Face is back in Gotham and the issue starts with him killing the brothers of a black market coin operation. He only takes the coins from 1922, all bullets are from a Browning 1911 .45, and it's pretty obvious that this was his work. But we get a lot of time spent on Batman confirming it, which I don't mind but Bats does get too big-wordy for what it was just to make it more detective-y.

Yeah, it was Two-Face. He ends up getting shot twice by the brothers before he kills them, and I do like the scene where the doctor is trying to pull the bullets out. The struggle between both sides, Harvey and Two-Face, on who makes the decision to do what and the sincerity of Harvey to do the right thing is well done and displayed, but Two-Face ends up killing the doctor and pulling out the second bullet himself. 

Batman is alerted that there have been shots fired at this clinic and when he arrives there are guys in hooded uniforms with scraped coin emblems on their shoulders dowsing the place with gas to set it on fire. The art for this fight is great, but they end up lighting it up in the end. When Batman saves their lives anyways and gets them all out, they push a button that explodes their brains like a more tech version of a cyanide pill.

I just can't spend too much time on this issue because the end just completely set me off. We see Two-Face feeding these coins to followers like they're Catholic wafers as they all say "Two of Us", then we see him with his arms up saying "ALL OF US!" Their faces are scarred and his higher-ranking members have coins embedded in their foreheads. Two-Face runs a cult now. These are not just henchmen. This is a cult. Why? What is Tomasi's obsession with cults in this run? Is this is cultish group #5 or #6 now? I've lost count.

Bits and Pieces

The art is just so good, as well as Harvey in the clinic. And that's my entire score because the reveal of a constant repeated theme in this run at the very end of the issue has finally just worn me out. That theme needs to end.

5/10