The Shadows Sure Are Crowded — Reviewing ‘Detective Comics’ #1097

There is a mysterious shadowy evil force at work in Gotham City. No, not that one, or the other one. This is, naturally, a whole other malevolent hidden organization. There sure are a lot of those for Batman to deal with.

Guess this is just the lot in life for the Caped Crusader.

A whole new arc begins with Detective Comics #1097 as Tom Taylor, Lee Garbett, Lee Loughridge, and Wes Abbott deal with the fallout from the previous story.

A cursory scan of the previous arc’s reviews would reveal my feelings about this run so far. My emotions are very up and down, the epitome of a roller coaster. How does this issue fare?

It’s kind of a mixed bag as well.

Let’s start with the things that worked.

I love Garbett’s artwork. Seeing him over here doing some Batman was very nice.

His style really straddles the line between the firm and whimsical. It’s really smooth, slick, and kinetic at all times. Each panel choice really emphasizes how the characters move and emote, creating a great action flow from start to finish.

Even the quieter scenes with investigations just really have impact and weight. It’s boosted by the level of detail that is brought in each page. There was a grotesque torture scene, mostly kept off panel that hit even harder cause of this lighter meets heavier style.

Most of the same can be said, in a way, about the color palette. Loughridge delivers color styling which mostly dabbles in a midrange natural color style, keeping things kind of toned down so that they feel heavier in many respects. This allows some pops of color to wiggle their way in where they are needed.

Balancing between the writing and artistic side once more is Abbott, a master at turning these stories into really well crafted lettering displays. He showcases the right amount of emotion, volume, tone and more in each letter we see on the page, allowing the bubbles and captions to slide around the page in order to best capture the flow and feeling.

What about the story itself?

That’s where the up and down comes into play. Positively, I like to see a story centered on Bullock doing investigative work. Pairing him up with Batman is kind of fun, since they don’t bounce off one another as much as Batman and Gordon. Seeing Bullock picking up after being kicked off the force again, doing good, is nice.

Taylor writes them both really well here. I do enjoy the overall way that he writes Batman as a character. He really delivers a version that is mysterious still but also far more personable, both as the vigilante and Bruce Wayne, compared to others.

A whole story about another mysterious group that has a fist of rule over Gotham feels kind of boring. They’re not as large and powerful as the Court of Owls or the Orghams (from the previous run) but still have some control. So far, there isn’t much interesting about them because there is no specific hook. Just some folks who work outside the law, flashing (fake?) badges, and doing whatever they want while having the police and others under their thumb.

Like the last arc that introduced part of the concept, things just kind of feel too common. Very been there done that and not really adding much new.

I’ll give it a bit to see where things go. The character stuff really helps, and the surprise reveal at the end bought the story a bit more time as well.

Detective Comics #1097 is now available from DC Comics.