Written by: Al Ewing
Art by: Stefano Raffaele, John McCrea, Fico Ossio
Colors by: Lee Loughridge, Triona Farrell, Ulises Arreola
Letters by: Tom Napolitano
Cover art by: Mikel JanÃn
Cover price: $5.99
Release date: April 30, 2025
Detective Comics Annual 2025, by DC Comics on 4/30/25, sends Batman on a mission to find out how and why a tech mogul was murdered in an ultra-secure bunker with the instructions to end the world.
Is Detective Comics Annual 2025 Good?
Plot Synopsis
Detective Comics Annual: 2025 begins with Batman following an off-frequency musical signal that delivers a message in Morse Code: "Batman." He follows the signal to an ultra-secure bunker constructed by tech mogul Cody Morse. When the Caped Crusader breaks into the bunker, he finds Morse murdered. The deceased scrawled out a message in his blood before he died: "Batman, don't solve my murder."
Batman examines the bunker and finds every implement is remote-controlled with gravity devices to let them move autonomously, such as game controllers and cooking knives. Among the high-tech surroundings, Batman finds five books of the same edition, with the same five pages ripped out, indicating Morse didn't want anyone getting their hands on the information.
Batman flies to London to meet with a professor who knows the author's week. Dr. Jenny Sykes explains the author devised a series of equations that could end the world decades ago, but the world didn't have enough computing power to make it happen. Batman leaves to visit the publishing house where he believes a sixth copy might exist, but his investigation is sidetracked by a brief battle with Mr. Mystic, who stole the magical powers of John Dee.
Batman finds the sixth copy, but he's immediately called back by the killer who wants the book and has taken Dr. Sykes hostage to get it. Who is the killer? Cody Morse's business partner, Briar. When Briar forces Batman to turn over the missing pages, Batman only gives Briar one, which he promptly feeds into his smartphone. Unfortunately for Briar, his haste is his undoing.
Backup Story
David Rosales is a seventh grader at Gotham Public Middle School 96. He's also the President (and only member) of the Junior Batman Detective Club. When kids start getting sick and hallucinating their worst fears, David is convinced the Scarecrow is involved and starts his own investigation. David finds a few clues, but his detecting accidentally gets him locked in the boiler room. Batman arrives and rescues David after learning about the uptick in kids getting sick. David teams up with Batman and learns the school didn't receive a proper cleanup during construction to get rid of the toxins from a former Scarecrow lab. Batman saved the school...with a little help from David Rosales.
First Impressions
Al Ewing tries to get cerebral about tech as a killing device but forgets the basics of detecting work, so you wind up with a one-and-done story that's smart and dumb at the same time. I've read worse Batman comics, but you'll be better off skipping this one and saving your money.
Regarding the backup, which was presumably included to bump up the page count and cover price, Joshua Hale Fialkov's short story reads like a Scholastic Book Fair comic strip designed to empower kids to use their brains and show courage. David goes overboard with the heavy-handed pontification about inner-city schools not getting proper funding and attention, but the story does its job. It's cute.
How’s the Art?
We have a large team of artists on tap, so it's hard to know who to credit with what. Generally speaking, the art is fine. Heavy emphasis is placed on Batman's silhouette and otherworldly outline to make him as intimidating as possible. It's not the best artwork ever, but it's good enough.
What’s great about Detective Comics Annual 2025?
Al Ewing's story has an interesting premise at its core - What is there was a mathematical to stop reality? As a street-level hero, Batman works best when his missions keep him on the ground and mix with imaginative tech that could be the source of or solution to his problems.
What’s not great about Detective Comics Annual 2025?
The fantastical elements only work through a series of loosely connected coincidences that eventually lead Batman to the solution. Al Ewing misses the idea of a detective story by not doing basic detective work. Every crime, let's say murder, starts with means, motive, and opportunity. If Batman acted like he had even the most basic detective skills, Briar would have been the first suspect.
I appreciate that Ewing used the opportunity to inject some hometown flair (Ewing is British), but Batman's trip around the world turned out to be completely unnecessary. Ultimately, the reader will feel cheated.
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 Annual 2025 sends Batman around the world to solve a murder mystery connected to a discovery that could end the world. Al Ewing's mix of detective work, super science, and British charm has an interesting idea at its core, but the execution is too rough and sloppy to ignore.
4/10
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