January Detective Comics Event: Shadows of the Bat

[Hypo]

Detective Comics #1056 Preview
Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan
Backup Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Backup Artist: Fernando Blanco

[Frontier]

It doesn't pay to be the wife of a prominent Gotham official...

I see we're still sticking with that Scarecrow design.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

It doesn't pay to be the wife of a prominent Gotham official...

I see we're still sticking with that Scarecrow design.

I like the new design. Not a huge fan of the art, can't wait till Reis is back on pencils.

[Frontier]

I like the new design. Not a huge fan of the art, can't wait till Reis is back on pencils.

It just seems a little...excessive, I guess? But I get what they're going for.

[Lal]

We're fast approaching the finale of this event, and I'm honestly not sure what Tamaki or DC wanted to show here.

Nightwing and Oracle, the batfamily most seasoned veterans were portrayed as either fools or punching bags.
The batfamily failed to solve the mystery in time, prevent deaths (Tim and Bruce were the only ones in the last issue to actively save people, and it was their first appearance in this event), and the bats were very close to losing one of their own if Batman hadn't shown up to save the day.
If the idea was to show legacy characters are stepping up or demonstrate how the batfamily can handle Gotham (like did they multiple times when Bruce was absent), this event showed anything but.

The weirdest thing is that the main character in this event, Huntress, doesn't seem to appear anywhere once this event is over.
It feels like Tamaki did everything in her power to show how great Huntress is and how similar she is to Bruce, mostly at the expense of other characters, but Huntress isn't even mentioned in any of the solicitations of any of the next issues. She's not even on the bat family cover of Dark crisis. So why spend so much time and pages and make other characters look incompetent to prop Huntress, just for her to fade into limbo?

Overall, the idea of a batfamily event was great, but the execution was incredibly poor.

[Twice-named]

We're fast approaching the finale of this event, and I'm honestly not sure what Tamaki or DC wanted to show here.

Nightwing and Oracle, the batfamily most seasoned veterans were portrayed as either fools or punching bags.
The batfamily failed to solve the mystery in time, prevent deaths (Tim and Bruce were the only ones in the last issue to actively save people, and it was their first appearance in this event), and the bats were very close to losing one of their own if Batman hadn't shown up to save the day.
If the idea was to show legacy characters are stepping up or demonstrate how the batfamily can handle Gotham (like did they multiple times when Bruce was absent), this event showed anything but.

The weirdest thing is that the main character in this event, Huntress, doesn't seem to appear anywhere once this event is over.
It feels like Tamaki did everything in her power to show how great Huntress is and how similar she is to Bruce, mostly at the expense of other characters, but Huntress isn't even mentioned in any of the solicitations of any of the next issues. She's not even on the bat family cover of Dark crisis. So why spend so much time and pages and make other characters look incompetent to prop Huntress, just for her to fade into limbo?

Overall, the idea of a batfamily event was great, but the execution was incredibly poor.

I’m not reading this event but I won’t be surprised if we find out editorial kept making changes at the last minute or otherwise prevented Tamaki from telling the best story she could.

[failo.legendkiller]

Last 2 issues are disappointing.
There’s no need for the story to portraying Nightwing this way.
And i felt bad having Bruce saving the day. He should stay off and also ruined me the joy of having Tim joining the party.
It’s a pity cause I was really enjoying this story.

[Hypo]

Detective Comics #1057 Preview
Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan
Backup Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Backup Artist: Fernando Blanco

[thwhtGuardian]

We're fast approaching the finale of this event, and I'm honestly not sure what Tamaki or DC wanted to show here.

Nightwing and Oracle, the batfamily most seasoned veterans were portrayed as either fools or punching bags.
The batfamily failed to solve the mystery in time, prevent deaths (Tim and Bruce were the only ones in the last issue to actively save people, and it was their first appearance in this event), and the bats were very close to losing one of their own if Batman hadn't shown up to save the day.
If the idea was to show legacy characters are stepping up or demonstrate how the batfamily can handle Gotham (like did they multiple times when Bruce was absent), this event showed anything but.

The weirdest thing is that the main character in this event, Huntress, doesn't seem to appear anywhere once this event is over.
It feels like Tamaki did everything in her power to show how great Huntress is and how similar she is to Bruce, mostly at the expense of other characters, but Huntress isn't even mentioned in any of the solicitations of any of the next issues. She's not even on the bat family cover of Dark crisis. So why spend so much time and pages and make other characters look incompetent to prop Huntress, just for her to fade into limbo?

Overall, the idea of a batfamily event was great, but the execution was incredibly poor.

I like the idea of a batfamily crossover but this wasn't a good one and it wasn't just the execution...it was just a bland, predictable threat from the start and the structure didn't help.

[Restingvoice]

We're fast approaching the finale of this event, and I'm honestly not sure what Tamaki or DC wanted to show here.

Nightwing and Oracle, the batfamily most seasoned veterans were portrayed as either fools or punching bags.
The batfamily failed to solve the mystery in time, prevent deaths (Tim and Bruce were the only ones in the last issue to actively save people, and it was their first appearance in this event), and the bats were very close to losing one of their own if Batman hadn't shown up to save the day.
If the idea was to show legacy characters are stepping up or demonstrate how the batfamily can handle Gotham (like did they multiple times when Bruce was absent), this event showed anything but.

The weirdest thing is that the main character in this event, Huntress, doesn't seem to appear anywhere once this event is over.
It feels like Tamaki did everything in her power to show how great Huntress is and how similar she is to Bruce, mostly at the expense of other characters, but Huntress isn't even mentioned in any of the solicitations of any of the next issues.

She's not even on the bat family cover of Dark crisis. So why spend so much time and pages and make other characters look incompetent to prop Huntress, just for her to fade into limbo?

Overall, the idea of a batfamily event was great, but the execution was incredibly poor.

I only have answer for that last one because when it comes to variant covers, the artist has freedom to showcase what they want and Bruno Redondo has nothing to do with this story or team

[TheKryptonMan]

We're fast approaching the finale of this event, and I'm honestly not sure what Tamaki or DC wanted to show here.

Nightwing and Oracle, the batfamily most seasoned veterans were portrayed as either fools or punching bags.
The batfamily failed to solve the mystery in time, prevent deaths (Tim and Bruce were the only ones in the last issue to actively save people, and it was their first appearance in this event), and the bats were very close to losing one of their own if Batman hadn't shown up to save the day.
If the idea was to show legacy characters are stepping up or demonstrate how the batfamily can handle Gotham (like did they multiple times when Bruce was absent), this event showed anything but.

The weirdest thing is that the main character in this event, Huntress, doesn't seem to appear anywhere once this event is over.
It feels like Tamaki did everything in her power to show how great Huntress is and how similar she is to Bruce, mostly at the expense of other characters, but Huntress isn't even mentioned in any of the solicitations of any of the next issues. She's not even on the bat family cover of Dark crisis. So why spend so much time and pages and make other characters look incompetent to prop Huntress, just for her to fade into limbo?

Overall, the idea of a batfamily event was great, but the execution was incredibly poor.

I've been enjoying this Batfamily event until Batman showed up . As much as I love Bats , this was one time where it would have been great for him to stay out of it.
Nightwing has been Batman before and Oracle has been Batgirl before . But they're written like amateurs , really sad about this .
I mean we all love Batman , but come on man . This could have been a time for Dick & Babs to shine . I'm not as attached to Helena or Batwoman . But this is a step backwards . Dick should have been able to handle Scarecrow .
Really disappointing to be shelling out $5.00 a week for this much time, and not get the story that most of us wanted.

[TheKryptonMan]

Last 2 issues are disappointing.
There’s no need for the story to portraying Nightwing this way.
And i felt bad having Bruce saving the day. He should stay off and also ruined me the joy of having Tim joining the party.
It’s a pity cause I was really enjoying this story.

I have to agree with you 100% . Bruce shouldn't have been in it all . Dick , Babs and Tim are more than capable .
I'm not as invested in Huntress and Batwoman , so they don't matter as much to me.
This shows a setback for Dick & Babs , which is really disappointing.

[exile001]

I've been loving this event (just caught up on the last few issues). The Scarecrow reveal was excellent as the whole thing was about forcibly changing minds and, well, who better to manipulate that? Tamaki is running a similar concept but so much better than Fear State.

I absolutely love the structure of highlighting a character per issue while still driving the story forward. It also helps that she jumped to the inevitable downfall in issue 1 so we're kept on our feet as to where the arc is ultimately going.

Keep in mind, this is for the ongoing status of the whole Bat-family. If Koyuki lives I reckon their status will be restored but if she dies...

I REALLY hope Batman isn't going to swoop in and save the day. He has saved Nightwing from death, let's wrap this up with the characters already in play. I fear this is editorial interference now that Williamson has been dropped for Zdarski.

Overall, I feel this story/crossover feels like something from the 90's-early 00's. It is aimed at ongoing fans and has a lot of character for those readers to enjoy, rather than just being aimed at selling tpbs to the casual reader like Fear State or Joker War.

[Frontier]

Detective Comics #1057 Preview
Writer: Mariko Tamaki
Artist: Amancay Nahuelpan
Backup Writer: Matthew Rosenberg
Backup Artist: Fernando Blanco

Well, thank goodness Batman is here to save Nightwing and clean up this mess .

[thwhtGuardian]

I've been loving this event (just caught up on the last few issues). The Scarecrow reveal was excellent as the whole thing was about forcibly changing minds and, well, who better to manipulate that? Tamaki is running a similar concept but so much better than Fear State.

I absolutely love the structure of highlighting a character per issue while still driving the story forward. It also helps that she jumped to the inevitable downfall in issue 1 so we're kept on our feet as to where the arc is ultimately going.

Keep in mind, this is for the ongoing status of the whole Bat-family. If Koyuki lives I reckon their status will be restored but if she dies...

I REALLY hope Batman isn't going to swoop in and save the day. He has saved Nightwing from death, let's wrap this up with the characters already in play. I fear this is editorial interference now that Williamson has been dropped for Zdarski.

Overall, I feel this story/crossover feels like something from the 90's-early 00's. It is aimed at ongoing fans and has a lot of character for those readers to enjoy, rather than just being aimed at selling tpbs to the casual reader like Fear State or Joker War.

Eh, it doesn't feel like a story from the late 90's early 2000's at all...I wish it did though. If it was like those stories it wouldn't have needed 12 issues to tell a story that only had plot enough for three or four issues. I think that's my biggest problem with the story to be honest, it just doesn't feel big enough to be worth this much time and money. If it had been a three part story the pacing would have been tighter and even if the conclusion didn't land perfectly no biggie it was only a few issues so no big investment...but when you go on for twelve issues it has to feel worth the investment and be near perfect, and this wasn't anywhere near that.