Detective Comics # 996 - Spoiler Talky-Talky Thread

[K. Jones]

SPOILERS in the thread title.

So this is out. At this point I think we're all pretty experienced with both Tomasi-style stories and Mahnke art, the competency (good!), the hangups and hiccups, the nature of middle chapters in stories, and so forth. The story's nowhere close to resolving yet. It's still almost "Space Horror" levels of monsterness, the twosome's Green Lantern history ... perhaps not fitting the Batman world that well ... but the competency/skill and solid stage-craft still on full display. Perhaps nothing mindblowingly inspiring but c'est la vie.

So those usual suspects of descriptors out of the way, what do we get? Obvs news sites have been commenting on some of the key things here.

1. Henri Ducard. And he dies. About as convincing a death as Leslie last issue. But he does seem to and the motivation of the ... demon? ... taking away the "makers" of Batman so that he'll what, be "unmade"? is interesting. Whatever the hell its goofy space-monster-looking butt is.
2. Kyodai Ken. So welcome an addition to canon that I frankly can't believe he's never turned up in any canon books before? But a round-tripper of Batman visiting the "builders of Batman" is a pretty solid story usually. (Maybe we'll get Harvey Harris?!)
3. Thaddeus Brown. I mean if anyone can escape death, you know ... it's Mister Miracle. But what? Intergang's ability to kill that bad? Does Scott know? Does Shilo know? Does Ted Brown know?
4. Robin. Batman's interactions with Robin, then Henri, had built in levels of "This is a Pseudo-Sequel to 'Born to Kill'". That cohesiveness in Tomasi's work feels nice, because ... the villain in this is weird and ungrounded.
5. I'm pretty done with the "Batman walks into Arkham and beats up every character" trope.

[Red obin]

Is this composite monster meant to be the same one as in Superman #11, where the Super Sons first appeared? I assumed it was at first but there are some apparent differences and no reference to it being fought before. I realised the reference to fighting it before in Gotham was just the Leslie incident and the monster had yet to take full form.


On that note, since Tomasi is writing, might Maya Ducard have a role to play. She too appeared in Superman #11, and the presence of Henri and Damian would make it logical?


A really good issue though with great references to deeper lore and links to Tomasi's other works. As you said it is a great pseudo sequel to Born to Kill.

[thwhtGuardian]

Did we really need another, "Destroy everyone close to Batman " story ?

[Armor of God]

Yeah except this one isn't taking forever. Really loved this, references galore.

[Arctic Cyclist]

As I said over in the Damian thread, that's not Damian in the cave with Alfred. Which means that it's possible that Leslie's time in the fridge is going to be short, as is Ducard's since we didn't see his body and Tomasi loves teasing the fridging of characters and then bringing them back.

I'm amused by the slap backs that King's Bruce and Selina are getting here and in The Batman Who Laughs. Tomasi's made it clear that Selina falls into the villain category (as he has before, and Super Sons and even AoSS makes it clear he doesn't like how the romantic relationship takes precedence over familial relationships)(Snyder's making it clear that Bruce and Selina getting together belongs in the dark multiverses).

It's also fun to see Batman and Robin get acknowledged rather than just mined for parts and having core components of the story gutted to advance a ship. I loved the chess game and the nod to Batman Incorporated that Damian is pawn on the board. (And that Damian and Alfred used to play chess, Bruce and Alfred used to play chess, and that Bruce can beat Ra's in chess but not Alfred.) That's significant, as Tomasi is subtle about it, but he's a master of long range writing and a small subplots and clues that blow up to be huge with effective emotional impact. He doesn't get credit for it, but that's because he assumes the readers are smart enough to figure it out without his explaining it in interviews.

There are a lot of neat little call backs and references to Batman and Robin, Superman, Detective Comics preRebirth, Batman: TAS, and others that are wiggling at my brain but I can't quite place them because it's a mismash of Batmans including Synder's and going back to the Bronze and Silver age.

I'm geeking out. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm geeking out.