Now this is what I’m talking about!
Tony Salvador Daniel has set the bar for the rest of the New 52. Detective Comics #1 is can only be described as a beautiful marriage of words and pictures. It IS sequential art. And I think I know why. More on that later.
The story begins as one may expect of a reboot of a Batman comic--with the Joker. However, it is immediately apparent that the Joker is not in a position that we normally find him. He appears to be the victim of someone higher on the criminal food chain.
After that one page teaser we see Batman on the hunt for the Joker as he is investigating a fresh string of murders in which the victims’ organs and faces were removed (spoiler alert), which is not the Joker’s modus operandi because the Joker’s modus operandi is that he has no modus operandi (try writing that three times fast).
Back to the Joker. As we return, we see that Joker is fighting in tenement apartment with what appears to be the mutilator responsible for the recent rash of killings. He alludes to a larger plan just before the Joker turns the tables on him and stabs him to death with a knife. That is when Batman enters. Batman begins to follow the Joker as he attempts an escape when he notices a young girl in the apartment. Despite Batman’s clear excitement at the prospect of finally capturing the Joker – implying that he has never done so before – there is no question in Batman’s mind that he should stop and take care of the child instead. Indeed, Batman counts himself “lucky” that he noticed her before he left. The police then arrive and treat Batman as a vigilante. Putting the ungrateful police officers’ safety first, he leads them on a chase out of the building so that they will be out of danger. As they open fire on the Gotham’s hero (that’s right, “hero”), a man that you and I will recognize as (Commissioner?) Gordon tells them to stop.
Batman escapes to the Batcave. After some light well-placed references to Bruce Wayne’s social life and a relationship with a woman of the feline persuasion, Batman is focused again on his hunt for the Joker.
The next scene opens at the Gotham City Police Department with the narration of Gordon, rather than Batman. Gordon laments the actions of his officers against Batman as he uncovers the familiar Batsignal from a sheet. No sooner does he illuminate the Batsignal than Batman appears behind him on the roof, showing that their relationship is well-established and their meetings understood and expected. Gordon tells Batman that the girl was the niece of the maniac that the Joker killed. She knew the location of the Joker’s hideout, which Gordon gives to Batman. Batman leaves for the hideout, suspecting that the Joker purposefully divulged the information to the kid so as to set a trap.
Batman arrives as the hideout to find the police already there. This provides an important limitation on his relationship with Gordon. Gordon sees Batman as an asset but will not side with him over the Mayor and the department. The police see Joker inside the hideout and approach him. Batman’s suspicions of a trap are confirmed as what the police thought was the Joker turns out to be a dummy filled with explosives. SKABOOMs ensue. There is much death. Batman, using his super power of observing and reasoning, looks for anyone not gawking at the explosion and death. He finds the Joker and follows him onto a train. Again looking out for the safety of civilians, Batman fights Joker as the nerve gas that Joker sprays on him begins to take effect causing his body to shut down. Despite the several knives to the body and an electro shock joy buzzer, Batman incapacitates the Joker. Just before he does, however, the Joker implies that Batman is missing some larger evil going on in Gotham that Batman has failed to see. Furthering the mystery and the anticipation, just before Batman knocks him unconscious, the Joker states that it was a “fun ride.”
Joker is in Arkham Asylum (presumably for the first time ever) under the care of Dr. Arkham himself. After the staff leaves the Joker’s room there is a knock at the door. Enters an unidentified man – the plot thickens. We learn that the person that the Joker killed at the beginning of the issue was this person’s son, who was to perform some type of operation on the Joker. The Joker killed him because the Joker demanded only the best for what he is up to – again referring to a much bigger picture. As a scalpel is brandished by the man, we learn that the unknown man is the Dollmaker. The issue ends with a splash page of the Joker’s scalped face nailed to the wall in Arkham Asylum as the Dollmaker says “Tonight we will both celebrate our rebirth.”
The fact that the Joker is willing to go back to the Dollmaker after killing his son shows that either (1) the Joker is even crazier than I thought, (2) the Dollmaker is crazier than I thought, or (3) while they are both crazy, it is not their craziness that dictates their actions here (for the most part), but rather that the stakes are so high that these two professionals appreciate that they both demand the best.
As you may notice from my previous reviews I have been under-whelmed by many of the New 52. There has been forced story telling, lots of exposition and many of the same old tropes paraded out in slightly new packaging. This had none of that. The story progressed with a natural flow. While Mr. Tony Salvador Daniel touched many of the required bases – which based on my reading of many of the other comics appears to be a directive from his bosses – he did so without breaking the flow of the story. There were references to Batman, Joker, Alfred, Catwoman, Gordon, Bullock and others but none of them (with the possible exception of Bullock) felt shoe-horned in. It was a beautiful thing to witness. The story also maintained a simple rule of writing, never answer a question without raising another.
Two big picture points. First, this story is such a standout that I stopped to ask why. Aside from the simple (but quite possibly the correct answer) that Mr. Tony Salvador Daniel is very talented (which he is), I think that the fact that he wrote and drew the issue did wonders for the fluidity of the story. Nothing was lost in translation from the writer’s vision and the artist’s rendering. It makes me want to propose that for one month that every writer draws his own story, no matter how crude to see what it looks like. Or more practically, have the writer do sketches of all the panels as guidelines for the artist, and upload those onto the internet as free additional material.
Second, with a grittier Superman premiering in Action Comics #1, the question was raised (to me at least): If Superman is no longer the pure hero of the DC Universe then is anyone? I say it is Batman. It was Batman that let the Joker go to save a child. It was Batman that risked himself to lead the police to safety. It is Batman that believes in the people of Gotham. I recognize that it may be an extreme position but I say that with the rebirth of the DC Universe Batman and Superman have switched positions. Now it may be that writers have independently tweaked each hero’s personalities (granted Batman is not that different than before) and the executives atop the DC ivory tower have not given the larger picture any thought. That is definitely possible. But if they have not given it any thought, they should. Because not giving it any thought is what required the launch of the New 52 (and Crisis on Infinite Earth, and Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis etc.).
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