Detective Comics #2 Review

 

Writing: Tony Salvador Daniel

Inks: Ryan Winn & Sandu Florea

Colours: Tomeu Morey

Lettering: Jared K. Fletcher

Cover: Daniel, Winn & Morey

 

Although quite a striking and cool depiction of Batman I found the cover of this second issue to be decidedly underwhelming. It’s not really the covers fault; it simply followed what I found to be an amazing cover with issue #1; with the Joker staring insanely at the reader which was a hit with me. The main highlight for me is the use of lighting, with the glow of the dashboard and controls glinting off of Batman’s utility belt. Also the use of shadow is quite cool with parts of Batman’s chest being obscured and the majority of his exposed face. This suggests to me that the Batman persona is more prevalent and the true personality rather than the Bruce Wayne persona, but hey I may just be thinking too deeply into it all.

I really enjoyed the plot within this issue, although I did prefer the Batman elements to the Bruce Wayne ones. I found the bits with Bruce to be slightly uninteresting but I am more than willing to sit through them to get to the Batman bits. The momentum of the issue got off to a slow start by once Batman was up and about the pace never slackened. I love how dangerous and mysterious the villains seem in this series so far, even more so in regards to the Joker and what he allowed to have done to himself at the end of the last issue. The final page of this issue was of course less shocking and amazing then issue #1’s was but that was always to be expected. However, it was still in my opinion a riveting ending and makes me want to know immediately if Commissioner Gordon is going to survive this and if so if he will ever be the same again. I guess that any ending that raises those types of questions has to be classed as a good finale in anyone’s book.

The interior art overall is of good quality, I don’t think it ever becomes amazing but it is perfectly fine. I do have to admit that I love how Commissioner Gordon looks now, I have only ever seen him as an older man and to see him much more youthful is enjoyable. I also like the lighting and mood in general that this creates; it’s a good fit for this noir series. At times within the issue some of the faces look a bit wrong, such as when Batman is on his motorbike on the two splash page, his face looks really odd and his jaw is massive.

Overall I think that this was a really good issue, not quite as monumental as issue #1 but then it would really have had to pulled out all of the stops to top that. I am really enjoying this series so far and I think Daniels and his team are doing a fantastic job.

Issue Rating: 8/10

~ by adrianroberts1986 on October 6, 2011.