Scared Little Boy Behind A Mask — Reviewing ‘Detective Comics’ #1105

Who is the Lion and why did they become the latest deadly threat to Batman and Gotham City? The Dark Knight and company are about to find out, and the threat was born within the proverbial house.

It’s an origin story moment as the Lion arc reaches it’s fifth chapter in Detective Comics #1105 from Tom Taylor, Mikel Janín, Wayne Faucher, Norm Rapmund, and Wes Abbott.

There are few things that pump the brakes on a story built on thrills and mystery like a midpoint origin tale. It’s not necessarily in a bad or detrimental way, but definitely in a slowing down sort of ways.

In a story that has already felt a bit too long, this definitely is extending it a bit.

Taylor has good ideas, and I like those ideas more often than not. What tends to be an issue with some arcs that he writes, is the decompression stretch that affects them. He often takes an idea that maybe could fill three, possibly four, issues and turning it into a five to six or more issue piece. Bigger arcs can be a grand way to tell stories in comics, if there is a feeling that each issue is a full complete piece with lots of gems to mine.

Lion’s origin story is kind of intriguing, if a bit cliché in a few areas. I’m not opposed to learning about who this villain is and how they got to this point. What I might have done was end the arc with the reveal of the effect of the gas on the city, then had a one issue origin for Lion, before launching another arc that is the conclusion of this threat. If we need to have these multiple stories in such a format, that is.

Visually the issue is a banger, which is always a given with Janín onboard. Dense moody and graphically pleasing aesthetics that permeate the style. There’s a lot of space to give weight and life to both action pieces and more intimate character beats, especially in the perfectly yellow-toned flashbacks where we get to see more of the Lion, or Leo, as he moved through life.

Emotions are important to what is happening here. So having them so clear on faces and through body language makes it all work. Batman being so bundled up in the hefty suit doubles the uncomfortableness of how cut off from emotion and reason he has become. Faucher and Rapmund add to the weighty dense nature of the art with their accompanying inks on most of the pages.

Beyond the aforementioned yellow flashback palette, Janín really hits a sweet spot with colors each time. He works on all sides of the spectrum while keeping them in a very natural feeling state. It lives in a more natural or neutral tonal environment so that the highs are not too bright and the lows are not too dark. Both are very familiar in their scale and still unique in their power.

Speaking of uniqueness and power, that’s the space that Abbott always inhabits with lettering. He captures the right emotional elements in each word on the page. It gives it the right push with modifiers and placement on the page, so that the words help tell the story while creating distinct voices as well as pleasant visuals.

Detective Comics #1105 is now available from DC Comics.