Written by: Tom Taylor
Art by: Lee Garbett
Colors by: Lee Loughridge
Letters by: Wes Abbott
Cover art by: Mikel Janín
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: May 21, 2025
Detective Comics #1097, by DC Comics on 5/21/25, sends Harvey Bullock into the mean streets of Gotham City to find out who or what is behind the mysterious group called Elixir.
Is Detective Comics #1097 Good?
Recap
When we last left the Caped Crusader in Detective Comics #1096, Batman foiled the conspiracy to use the blood of teenage prisoners for an elite anti-aging treatment. However, the secret cabal, Elixir, behind the medical research company isn't done with Gotham City yet.
Plot Synopsis
In Detective Comics #1097, Elixir's dirty deeds bother more detectives than Batman. We catch up with Harvey Bullock, now a private dick after his firing from the GCPD by Commissioner Savage, examining the murder scenes from the last arc. Ten teenagers are dead and it doesn't sit right with Bullock. Batman encounters Bullock, sees that he's bothered by the case, and offers to hire him to help with the investigation to find and shut down Elixir.
Batman can't find any record of Elixir, but Bullock recalls crossing paths with the group once when he was a rookie cop. When Bullock and his first partner, Sulley, were called to check on an old shut-in, they walked in on Ambrose and two other men torturing the resident. Bullock draws his gun, but Sully pulls him out with a promise to Ambrose that they'll never speak of what they saw. Sulley explains that cops who interfere in Elixir business wind up dead. Elixir left town shortly after.
Now, Bullock meets with every informant he knows who can give him information, but nobody helps. Finally, Bullock visits his old partner, Sulley, who was kicked off the force for corruption years ago. Sulley agrees to give Bullock a file of information for a fee.
Later, Bullock digitally sends the information to a private line Batman provided, one that leads to Oracle. A group of armed men barges into Bullock's office because he's been asking too many questions around town. Batman arrives later to find Bullock missing and signs of a struggle. Oracle hacks the city's network of security cameras to trace the men loading Bullock into a van that arrives at an airfield where a plane takes Bullock to Pokolistan. When Batman races to catch up with the transport and barges in, he finds the man inside the back with a hood on his head is not Bullock but the Penguin.
First Impressions
This is going to sound weird. I like the execution but not the central concept. Batman hiring Bullock to be his private detective is a fun twist on their relationship, and a Bullock-centric issue is a pleasant change of pace. However, yet another secret organization is a played-out concept.
How’s the Art?
Lee Garbett steps in for Mikel Janín to walk readers through a fairly good detective noir story, leaning on long shadows and silhouettes to amp up the mood of the story as it unfolds. Garbett's presence for Batman is spot on, and the panel layouts/composition deliver a high, dramatic impact.
What’s great about Detective Comics #1097?
Tom Taylor dispenses with the convoluted theatrics of the previous arc to present a solid detective story, which is exactly what you should expect in a title called Detective Comics. In fairness, Bullock does all the detective work in this issue, but we'll take it.
What’s not great about Detective Comics #1097?
Sadly, the shortcomings of this issue fall right within the arena of Tom Taylor's bad habits. Bullock does all the work. Don't get me wrong. I like Bullock, but we've seen over and over how Taylor has trouble letting the main character do the heavy lifting, relying on the supporting characters to resolve the conflict. Here we are again as Batman takes a backseat in his own series.
Further, Elixir is just not that interesting, and it doesn't fit within Gotham City because you can only have so many secret cabals before they start stepping on each other's toes. Is Taylor really trying to convince the reader that centuries-old groups like the League of Shadows and the Court of Owls have never run afoul of Elixir? This idea comes off as a weak copy of better ideas.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Final Thoughts
Detective Comics #1097 is a fairly good start to a detective noir story starring Harvey Bullock (?), where the recent damage caused by Elixir stirs up old memories. Tom Taylor's script is a mixed bag of solid execution surrounding an uninteresting mystery. Plus, guest artist Lee Garbett's visuals are on point.
6/10
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The complex layers of the story unfold like a challenging level in blocky blast keeping the reader engaged at every turn.
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