Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Detective Comics #1034 Review





Writer: Mariko Tamaki

Pencils & Inks: Dan Mora
Colors: Jordie Bellaire
Letters: Aditya Bidikar
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: March 23, 2021

It's Mariko Tamaki's writing debut for Detective Comics after a four-issue run in Future State's Dark Detective! I really liked Dark Detective and I'm hoping that trend continues on over to Detective Comics.


So we're now back to today and Nakano is holding a fundraiser for his vision of the future of Gotham. Bruce Wayne is there, and so is some drunk guy acting like a drunk guy. It's not that Bruce is a supporter of Nakano, obviously, but if your tickets are free then why not be there to see the presentation of the guy who wants to stop "the masks"?




Suddenly a group of "Party Crashers" crash the party by coming down through the glass ceiling! They've got a pretty sweet get-up, by the way, with green and purple armor and spiked helmets with a huge smile painted on them. They're leftovers from the Joker War, after all. I like it. I'd join them.

Of course, Bruce is able to split the scene and get into his Batman suit. I'm assuming it was in his Mercedes. But when he comes crashing back in, all the red alarms are going off and there's a great frame with one of Party Crashers just saying "crap". Of course, Batman responds with "Party's over." He just beats them up and gets out of there... in the Batmobile. Did he drive the Batmobile there or call for it earlier?

Later, we find that he's been setting up miniature Batcaves all around the city in the sewer for the last thirty days, and doing it all by himself. No fancy equipment. He and a pickax and shovels and everything. It makes sense to have them all around. He'll always have a spot close. And his apartment is in the middle of Gotham, so they all surround him.




There's a scene of a party in his apartment building that I really liked. We get to meet his neighbors. That includes Deb Donovan, a reporter who dislikes Nakano just as much as him, and he thinks to himself they'd be great friends if she didn't just take the bottle of Scotch he had right out of his hands.

Other Party Crashers had crashed a Gala and steal people's phones instead of jewelry, and Batman is on the case. Meanwhile, something has happened to one of Bruce's neighbors...

Bits and Pieces

Tamaki's debut on Detective is awesome! The art is GREAT and I loved how the story unfolded. Although we're not there yet, we're seeing how and why the idea of the Magistrate is was formed on Nakano's end, and Bruce having to interact with the not-so-common-people but more-common-people-than-he's-used-to is a nice thing to see. I also liked where the Robin backup went by the end.

8.5/10

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