Written by: Ram V
Art by: Riccardo Federici, Stefano Raffaele
Colors by: Lee Loughridge
Letters by: Ariana Maher
Cover art by: Evan Cagle
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: February 27, 2024
Detective Comics #1082 continues Batman's fight through a desert of the mind to overcome his first temptation, only to be confronted by the second. Meanwhile, the Question gets help tracking down Fielding's killer.
Is Detective Comics #1082 Good?
Detective Comics #1082 continues Batman's slow, plodding, cumbersome battle to come to terms with who he is and what Gotham would be with and without him. Yes, those questions have been asked and answered many times before, but at least you have some gorgeous art to look at.
When last we left the Dark Knight, Talia left him in the great desert to battle the Azmer still gripping his mind while Barbatos demanded the right to rule Batman's soul. All the while, the mental embodiment of Dr. Hurt goaded Batman into choosing his path and accepting the truth of his existence.
Now, Dr. Hurt shows Batman the first temptation by confronting him with a Gotham that doesn't want to be saved, lecturing Batman for not using his great wealth to help the downtrodden instead of beating up thugs. Batman fights his way through a city of people turned into malevolent clowns to overcome the first temptation to give in. When the first temptation is overcome, Dr. Hurt confronts Batman with a second - the future Gotham where all criminality is met with extreme violence.
In the physical world, Question continues to track down why Nash killed Fielding. Her search crosses paths with Cass Cain/Batgirl when the latter intercepts a group of Orgham mercenaries rounding up the impoverished and downtrodden to make Gotham "clean." With the combined might of their fighting and interrogation skills, Question learns Nash was hired by proxy by Shavhod Erhad.
If I had to read the tea leaves and predict where Ram V is going, Batman would accept his immutable link to Gotham just in time to return to the city after the Orghams have turned it into a forced utopia. Does that make for a compelling journey? At this pace, no, but Ram V is off the book in September, so let's just hold hands, grit our teeth, and get through this together.
What's great about Detective Comics #1082? Riccardo Federici's art is sumptuous. Every panel is a masterwork of form, movement, and detail. To be fair to Ram V, the outcome of the Question's investigation is intriguing when you consider she might be the one to take the Orghams down via a pathway nobody expected.
What's great about Detective Comics #1082? Ram V's plot for Batman is blathering nonsense. How many times will Bruce have to be chastised for not using his money to "do better?" How many times will we be forced to explore the link between Batman and Gotham? How long do we have to wait to find out why the Orghams are so focused on Gotham City and what they intend to do with it once their plan is done? What are the stakes?
A good, proper story should have a journey with a destination and one or more conflicts. After all this time, we still need to find out where this series is headed or why, which is absurd.
Backup Story
The victims of Dr. Hurt's experiments attend a masked ball to confront the psychotic doctor. Unfortunately, the ball turns into a mass killing on both sides of the Dr. Hurt fan club. When only two survivors remain, could Dr. Hurt pull the most painful trick of all?
Sketchy art, implausible scenarios, and characters nobody cares about. You could skip this backup and not miss a thing worth remembering.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
Follow @ComicalOpinions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Bits and Pieces:
Colors by: Lee Loughridge
Letters by: Ariana Maher
Cover art by: Evan Cagle
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: February 27, 2024
Detective Comics #1082 continues Batman's fight through a desert of the mind to overcome his first temptation, only to be confronted by the second. Meanwhile, the Question gets help tracking down Fielding's killer.
Is Detective Comics #1082 Good?
Detective Comics #1082 continues Batman's slow, plodding, cumbersome battle to come to terms with who he is and what Gotham would be with and without him. Yes, those questions have been asked and answered many times before, but at least you have some gorgeous art to look at.
When last we left the Dark Knight, Talia left him in the great desert to battle the Azmer still gripping his mind while Barbatos demanded the right to rule Batman's soul. All the while, the mental embodiment of Dr. Hurt goaded Batman into choosing his path and accepting the truth of his existence.
Now, Dr. Hurt shows Batman the first temptation by confronting him with a Gotham that doesn't want to be saved, lecturing Batman for not using his great wealth to help the downtrodden instead of beating up thugs. Batman fights his way through a city of people turned into malevolent clowns to overcome the first temptation to give in. When the first temptation is overcome, Dr. Hurt confronts Batman with a second - the future Gotham where all criminality is met with extreme violence.
In the physical world, Question continues to track down why Nash killed Fielding. Her search crosses paths with Cass Cain/Batgirl when the latter intercepts a group of Orgham mercenaries rounding up the impoverished and downtrodden to make Gotham "clean." With the combined might of their fighting and interrogation skills, Question learns Nash was hired by proxy by Shavhod Erhad.
If I had to read the tea leaves and predict where Ram V is going, Batman would accept his immutable link to Gotham just in time to return to the city after the Orghams have turned it into a forced utopia. Does that make for a compelling journey? At this pace, no, but Ram V is off the book in September, so let's just hold hands, grit our teeth, and get through this together.
What's great about Detective Comics #1082? Riccardo Federici's art is sumptuous. Every panel is a masterwork of form, movement, and detail. To be fair to Ram V, the outcome of the Question's investigation is intriguing when you consider she might be the one to take the Orghams down via a pathway nobody expected.
What's great about Detective Comics #1082? Ram V's plot for Batman is blathering nonsense. How many times will Bruce have to be chastised for not using his money to "do better?" How many times will we be forced to explore the link between Batman and Gotham? How long do we have to wait to find out why the Orghams are so focused on Gotham City and what they intend to do with it once their plan is done? What are the stakes?
A good, proper story should have a journey with a destination and one or more conflicts. After all this time, we still need to find out where this series is headed or why, which is absurd.
Backup Story
The victims of Dr. Hurt's experiments attend a masked ball to confront the psychotic doctor. Unfortunately, the ball turns into a mass killing on both sides of the Dr. Hurt fan club. When only two survivors remain, could Dr. Hurt pull the most painful trick of all?
Sketchy art, implausible scenarios, and characters nobody cares about. You could skip this backup and not miss a thing worth remembering.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
Follow @ComicalOpinions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
Bits and Pieces:
Detective Comics #1082 delivers amazing art, an intriguing series of developments in the Question's investigation into Fielding's death, and blathering nonsense for everything else. The major failure of Ram V's tenure is a need for more direction and purpose. So far, Ram V is determined to push that failure to the very last minute.
4/10
I don't even know how long he has been on this title but it definitely feels like yearssss. I wish the run would just conclude already so we can get another writer but you never know with Batman titles, we might just get Taylor or King or God forbid Howard or Sheridan on it instead. The only arc I legitimately enjoyed in Rebirth Detective Comics was Tomasi's Two Face story. It was really well written (minus the bit about Batman performing brain surgery himself but that can be fixed) and the first thing Ram V did was to undo it somewhat. ( and yes, this means I don't think Tynion's run was good either because it wasn't and he writes most batfamily characters out of character. I didn't like his writing for Batman and Robin Eternal and I don't like his writing for Detective comics or anywhere else for that matter for several reasons that is another topic entirely)
ReplyDeleteAlso please would the writers do some research and realise already that no, Batman doesn't just beat up thugs. Look, he has his many faults but neglecting Gotham is not one of them. He has helped Gotham both in philanthropy and in action multiple times in canon and I hate how they keep saying he just keeps "beating up crazies" as if all those people he has saved from those said crazies don't matter just because he hasn't single handedly solved crime already!
DeleteDid I miss Dr Hurt being Dr Hate? This is Evil Raven's doing?
ReplyDeleteSorry about the typo. Corrected.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMy best advice at this point is to simply find something else to read, or create your own fan stories, which is a lot of work, but it is more accessible to this than ever in history. I just got sick of wasting my money being miserable reading something I didn't like with Detective Comics, and after Tomasi left, I would check in from time to time, and see that I was correct. Hopefully things can change after Ram V leaves. But I would not count on it. I have been working on a multiple character story mp4 including Batman and Bat-family characters and other characters from Marvel, Fawcett, Gold Key. I was reading The Spider, Issue #54 (March 1938), and struck by how similar the story concept was to Batman #1 (April 1940) with Hugo Strange and the Monster Men. With the Spider, I have gotten past Issue #55 of the pulp fiction novels by the pen name "Grant Stockbridge" on the character of the The Spider, Richard Wentworth, which began in 1933 and lasted through 1943 (Issue #118). The first author was Reginald Thomas Maitland Scott, but the series was taken over, and truly led by Norvell Page. Part of the problem with the Batman writers today is that they really don't see crime as "bad" or "wrong." Crime is simply misguided, which is why the sci-fi, alternate reality stories play better with DC's writers on Batman these past several years, or perhaps longer than that. There was a silly age in the 1950s like this, but even then at least Batman was still written by anti-crime writers. Today? Meh. And that is the root of the issue. DC believes challenging the "values of crime" is too risky. But how many of their readers, and of course DC itself, would actually "shrug" if they really were the victims of criminal predators? It is a PR series now with the Batman IP. Write blather that won't offend any of the pro-criminal crowd.
DeleteCry babies! Just don’t buy comics and read them online if they are so bad
DeleteLolll. You don't say.
Deleteanonymous - name calling and suggesting pirating issues? Nice
DeleteWe have seen these types of Batman stories many times before - these stories are much too safe.....
ReplyDelete