A Not So Dynamic Duo Emerges — Reviewing ‘Detective Comics 2026 Annual’ #1

Lobo, Lobo, Lobo. The self-proclaimed main man seems to be everywhere these days. That includes appearing on the big silver screen. Not satisfied just crossing (multiple) paths with Supergirl, the regenerating space bounty hunter has his sights set on Gotham City and its main protector.

It’s a team-up of unlikely proportions in the main story of Detective Comics 2026 Annual #1 from Tom Taylor, Nicola Scott, Annette Kwok, and Wes Abbott. There’s also a Professor Pyg story from Dave Wielgosz, Fran Mariscal, and Becca Carey.

-Spoilers Follow-

One of the things that remains true about Taylor’s run of Detective Comics is how solidly he writes both Batman and Bruce Wayne. He delivers a very stern-seeming character who is prepared for most scenarios, but with a softer edge. This is befitting a character who isn’t fighting a war on crime alone. He has a bunch of children and allies both super and not super around him almost all the time.

Lobo provides a good mirror of sorts as a very deadly and brutal character who also has a bit of a softer edge, but only because he enjoys what he does. That, and being around cosmic dolphins.

Overall, the story is kind of too familiar. It features the Black Mercy and even repurposed the title of the famous Superman story where the dream giving psychic parasite first was utilized. Their banter is fine and the direction that the story takes are also fine.

All in all, it’s just story that has a bit of fun to it despite how much it plays off things we’ve already seen before. There are some elements here that we regularly see in Taylor’s run on the title and others that I would like to see more of in that series.

Scott’s artwork is always a delight as it really knows how to bridge the gap between softer whimsical and rougher harder. Her lines flow with a lot of action and power across the page, screaming superheroes with each and every flick of the artistic tool. All of the spaces these characters occupy have a true sense of scale and weight to them. Nothing ever feels static or stagnant in presentation or within the energy levels that are present through and through.

All of that pairs nicely with the rich color palette Kwok brings to the page. She utilizes very vibrant and lighter color tones that befit the very bold and heroic tone of the story. Some darker colors do play into it all as the two main characters embody them as do some of the story aspects. Overall, though, it’s very bright and shiny in various respects. Much of the same overall energy of the other art is found in the lettering that Abbott crafts.

A perfect counterpart to Taylor, he has brought the dialogue and other sound onto the page time and time again through their runs together. The presentation elicits the right tone, volume, and emotional resonance which is necessary in the moment.

Our secondary story is a very much different one.

Visually, it has a lot of rougher textures to it with the style that Mariscal has created. Much of the brightness here comes from the overall colorful filters, from yellow to green to red and beyond, which permeate the whole story. Those color tones shift from more to less intense along the way without changing much because of the unifying filter angle. Mariscal creates a dense feeling with plentiful, but not overwhelming, levels of detail.

An eeriness echoes throughout, as the mystery and darkness of the story is almost tangible in the artwork. This gives that perfect mesh of horror and detective story that befits the usage of a rogue such as Professor Pyg.

There is something intriguing about seeing these demented rogues try to blend in to society while still working to infect it. Pyg goes by Sty here. Well done, sir. He infiltrates an apartment complex dedicated to artists. He wants to tear down others because he believes himself to be a misunderstood artist, buying his way into an art community. All while, he stays obsessed with, and eventually kidnaps, Batman.

The way the story is told through mostly captions at first. Utilizing the point of view of the artists is the perfect touch. I love a good Batman story that isn’t centered on Batman himself, in favor of the people that are in the city he fiercely protects. He allows them to be heroes of their own stories, and even rescuing him.

As mentioned, there are a lot of captions at first before the normal dialogue takes over more. Carey gives it all color, pop, and power through the pages, matching the visual energy of the rest of the artwork when crafting the voices. Each of the characters having little distinct unique boxes to tick along the way.

Detective Comics 2026 Annual #1 is now available from DC Comics.