It’s All In Your Head: Reviewing ‘Detective Comics’ #1074

Gotham City beware, Batman is on the warpath. Broken and possessed, the protector becomes the attacker as the city trembles.

At long last, Detective Comics has returned (it was only two months, but still). Ram V, Dustin Nguyen, John Kalisz, and Ariana Maher are ready to begin the next portion of Gotham Nocturne’s second act. They are joined by a one-shot backup story from Dan Watters, Hayden Sherman, Triona Farrell, and Steve Wands.

At this point, we’re fourteen issues into this long-form story, with more parts to go. Yet, even with this being the fourteenth chapter, it feels like a solid new reader jumping on point too. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of pieces that connect to what came before but it’s fluid enough and the focus makes it easy to follow.

Essentially last we saw Batman had been possessed by one of the Azmer demons from the Orgham family (an ancient family trying to remake Gotham in their own image). Strong-willed and boosted by his own personal demon, the Bat God Barbatos, the vigilante is cutting a swath of violence/terror through the city.

How does Ram make that reader friendly, you ask? Easy. The story is broken into two very easy-to-follow focuses. One of them is two detectives tracking Batman and his attacks are being regaled to them by those who survived (showing the moments in cut-away flashbacks). The other half is Batman’s internal struggle as the Azmer tries to warp and destroy any memories/relationships that keep him going.

It’s quite a rough story in many respects and Nguyen and Kalisz feature that in the artwork. Naturally, Nguyen’s style has a sharpness to it, with various aspects feeling rough and very grounded. Other elements are meant to feel big and bold, which works here. One of the neat things I liked is how the memory moments take on a somewhat smoother feel to them, making them stand out from the real-world moments.

Heavy colors are found on the pages making sure every moment has a punch and weight to it, relying heavily on shadows which are natural to Gotham. Various elements like fire and some supernatural beats are used to provide the counter brighter/more vibrant pops. Again, it’s the cutaways that feel different because those memories feature brighter/lighter color schemes to them. These are the standout moments of Bruce/Batman and keep him going in some ways and they are being threatened.

It all ties together because any space that is a memory being attacked is a place where the possessed Batman is striking in real life. Memory and reality are spilling over, and it creates a tense narrative. We know that Batman will likely find a way to get out of this, but what the overall toll/cost will be is the question.

Stories that go on for this many issues, even if they are cut into sections, are hard to pull off in comics. The monthly wait, in this case including a two-month event-fueled hiatus, can really slow things down. Building things up can lead to impatient readers because too many issues without answers or reveals can dilute their power.

That’s never a worry here because Ram just knows how to weave a story. Sure we get plenty of reveals and the overall plot keeps moving, but what makes it work is the way Batman is being explored. Even with all the supernatural elements and the way Batman bounces back from a beating, he’s just a human man here. One that is fallible, beatable, and finding that he’s slowing and aging. This is the Batman I prefer to read about, he’s not some fifty-steps-ahead mastermind who can beat anything and anyone.

I know that come the end of this story, or at least at some point, Batman will get out of things fine and be the same old guy. Yet, Ram’s wonderful writing puts enough of a nugget of concern there that makes one think that just maybe this could be a finite final Batman sort of story.

Achieving that with an ongoing shared universe story is powerful.

Lettering is such an interesting part of comics, and it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. When Maher is the letterer, you know that things will go above and beyond just putting the dialog/captions/SFX on a page. There is true feeling and emotion in each letter, tone and volume are clear as we begin to truly hear the character’s voices.

Not only is it robust in that way but Maher knows how fun comics are and should be. Even if the tone is grimmer or heavier, there are still ways to add pops of color, personality, and more with the letter choices. Little flairs here or there that make certain words or bubbles stand out more than others. Just the caption boxes alone, styled to match each character, are a true delight to behold.

Throughout this run, the backup stories tend to allow ways to share focus on certain characters in a way that furthers the main story’s narrative. They also allow a chance to have some fun and explorative moments with various interesting or supporting characters. We get both within this month’s entry.

Watters returns to the character of the Ten-Eyed Man he tackled in the Arkham City: Order Of The World miniseries in 2021. We’ve seen the character in this run so far, when Two-Face took a beaten Batman to get help and they came across the character in the apartment of a doctor they sought. During that encounter, we saw the Ten-Eyed Man take off into Gotham.

Here we find where he got off to.

This is just such an interesting story because being from the Ten-Eyed Man’s warped perspective means the story will be unique. Much like the first story had people recounting Batman’s moves to the police detective, this one has the Ten-Eyed Man narrating his own movements to Commissioner Montoya.

This allows Sherman the ability to really cut loose and go wild with the artwork and it’s a delight. Pages have panels set between the massive set of Ten-Eyed Man’s fingers, panels take on odd shifting shapes, and more. There is a fantastical rough energy to Sherman’s work, allowing the heavier and more graphic moments to shine while also feeling animated for lack of a better term. Gotham here feels like a true character as it is warped and feels eerie, but that’s because this all feels like it’s from Ten-Eyed Man’s unique perspective.

Farrell pulls in a ton of heavier color choices, framing things with shadows and darker tones. All the pages are also infused with lighter toned-down colors that feel close to black & white but aren’t quite there. Pairing them with other panels where greens, yellows, reds, and others are given a boost in vibrance was a smart move. Eerily beautiful is a perfect way to describe the effect this creates.

One of the stalwarts of backups for this series, even before this run, has been Wands on the letters. He gives his all to make sure that all those pieces feel unique to the characters that populate any given backup story. All the narrative boxes are wavy with undulating font, giving Ten-Eyed Man’s ‘voice’ a sort of lyrical feeling, which fits this version of the character so much. We get a couple of SFX when the pizza man has his head poked into, and they are sufficiently disgusting in display to add to the grossness of the moment.

Detective Comics #1074 is now available from DC Comics.