After all that buildup I really felt like this story stumbled toward the finish line. Issue #20 opens with Ogilvy’s crew continuing to commit large scale robberies, now moving up to banks heists that Ogilvy himself has joined. Not only that, but he turns to the security camera so that his face is clearly visible as he openly taunts the Batman, “Come and get me.”

And that’s precisely what Batman does only I didn’t think it was in very Batman-style. Well, not the Batman I enjoy anyway. If anything, Batman’s plan of attack reminded me quite a bit of the way Tony Daniel, David Finch, and Greg Hurwitz have used The Dark Knight. Rather than come up with oh, I don’t know, a plan or use stealth in a situation that is clearly a trap, Batman rushes to the front door and announces his presence like a cop demanding that Ogilvy come out with his hands up.

And speaking of cops– where are they? The GCPD is more inept than ever in the New 52 and here we see that not only is Ogilvy able to get away with a large scale bank robbery but he showed his identity to the cameras and the police were still unable to track him down. Surely the police would be able to identify Ogilvy when he’s been such an integral part of Penguin’s operation for so long. Truly, there isn’t much reason for Batman to get involved. Sure, the audience knows that Ogilvy has transformed but as far as Batman knows it’s just a henchman who has found a way to rise up in Penguin’s organization and we now have all the evidence we need to convict him of a bank robbery. It’s supposed to be worth Batman’s time just because this guy taunted him? Not every insult deserves a response. He could’ve just called Gordon about it and said “Yeah, the bank robber is Ogilvy– yeah, Penguin’s henchman, the only guy named Ogilvy in Gotham. He’s at the Cobblepot mansion. I thought it sounded a lot like a trap too that’s why I’m skipping it and you guys can surround the place. –Well if it turns out he has a giant robot or something I’ll show up, I always do, but I just thought you guys could use the win since me and the kids have been doing everything for the past five years.”

One thing about Batman’s assault on the Cobblepot mansion that will immediately stand out to fans is that Batman isn’t driving the Greg Capullo Batmobile that has appeared in Batman, Detective Comics, and Catwoman, but he’s instead crashing through the gates in Christopher Nolan’s Tumbler! It’s even called the Tumbler by name.

All that I’ve talked about so far is showcased in the opening pages which you can find in a free preview. The preview ends with Batman on his knees after getting whooped by the now super powered Ogilvy. From there we go back in time to see the rest of Oswald Cobblepot’s court case, which Alfred (still called “Penny-One” which is a terrible code name by all accounts) is closely monitoring. After that it’s more flashback scenes of Batman interrogating Mosaic, another villain first introduced by Tony Daniel earlier on in his Detective run, about what exactly Ogilvy is up to. Of course, Mosaic doesn’t know much but he does make it clear that Ogilvy is using experimental chemicals and has access to the man-bat serum. So it’s not so much that Batman got the message from Ogilvy and ran head first into the trap– he asked around to find out that Ogilvy was indeed planning something big and then ran head first into the trap. After reading Batman: Year 100 just last night in preparation for a review going up tomorrow, Batman’s horrible forethought in this comic seems more obvious than ever and it really annoyed me.

As you can imagine simply by looking at the comic’s cover, Ogilvy is now quite the physical threat. But just as I had feared, he also lost a lot of what made him so interesting beforehand. I was thoroughly enjoying his rise to power through careful planning and yes, him using all of these villainous enhancements to make himself the biggest threat he can be is indeed a smart way to go, but in this book’s final confrontation he’s simply a big monster. He’s just a big blue monster there to beat Batman with a chain and his idea of victory in all of this is a stupid one. SHOW SPOILER ▼

The Backup is great, as is the epilogue to our main story, but it’s the look at Ogilvy’s past and future that will likely spark the most discussion. In our last glimpse of Ogilvy, we see what sort of childhood he had and how greatly it influenced the man we see today. It becomes clear why Ogilvy wasn’t your ordinary goon and why he was willing to do whatever it takes to gain power. But more importantly, we see the makings of a great future role for the character. It’s a title that will most certainly set him apart from the rest of the rogues gallery and could easily lead to him returning in countless future stories without the need of being the central antagonist.

As always, the artwork in this comic is fantastic. Fabok and Clarke make for the best one-two punch with pencils that complement each other well. Fabok’s Batman is one of the most iconic looking of any ongoing series right now and the colors by Jeromy Cox and Blond really made this book come alive. Whether you’re as disappointed with the story as I was or not, I’m sure we can all agree that the illustrations are terrific.

Other points to make will be in spoiler tags, including details on the backup which can’t really be addressed without spoilers:

SHOW SPOILER ▼

Great artwork, great epilogue, and great backup story but everything else fell way short of my expectations for an 8-part arc’s conclusion. After all that wait I wanted something much more than this. To have the brilliant villain turn into a big blue monster who only wants a fist fight is underwhelming. And the constant intrusion of editor’s notes in this comic was almost as annoying as Batman’s brash actions. Where’s the planning? The majority of the story is Batman getting his butt kicked because he waltzed right into an obvious trap and he only wins because he finally decides to do what really should’ve came naturally to him when the fisticuffs first began. Penguin himself comes out of this arc looking great, it was a solid story for that character and the backup makes Ogilvy’s future look quite bright with a lot of possibilities. However, I’m very displeased with the handling of our hero.

SCORE: 6/10

The post New 52 – Detective Comics #20 review appeared first on Batman News.

CONTENT

The first volume, Faces of Death,  wasn’t a great read by any means but it at least featured the much-talked-about issue in which Joker has his face removed. In Scare Tactics, however, there is nothing of great importance. Nothing that sent ripples through the rest of the bat-titles. That is unless you count its atrocious interpretation of Black Mask, which, thankfully, no other bat-titles have pursued further.

Now, I know I could sit here and make snarky remarks about this book all day but I truly don’t want to. I’m not in the mood for it. I’ve vented enough about Tony Daniel’s run already when these issues were published the first time around. In fact, whenever I get a hardcover or paperback collecting comics I’ve reviewed before, I always like to re-read it all again before doing a graphic novel review. But I couldn’t with this. I thumbed through the pages and struggled to find anything that conjured up any positive memories. It’s a large hardcover that bundles issues #7-12, Annual #1, and issue #0 and in that selection I recall enjoying these elements:

• The artwork by Tony Daniel. Jaw-dropping action panels, an emposing Dark Knight, and stunning splash-pages
• A somewhat competent Scarecrow story told in a single issue
• Issue #0, written by Greg Hurwitz, showing a young Bruce learning an important life lesson high up in the Himalayas
• 2 backup stories by James Tynion IV, Szymon Kudranski, and Henrik Jonsson. One was about the GCPD in the days leading up to Joker’s return and the second, taken from issue #0, had Alfred alone in the manor awaiting a young Bruce away traveling the globe.

Those are the highlights and they account for 2/7 or 29% of the book. The rest is really awful. It pains me to think about it. There’s the bastardization of Black Mask by turning him into a magical hypnotist, a nonsensical plot about a hadron collider being built in secret in the upper level of a skyscraper, and even Two-Face shows up to get kidnapped by ninjas! That last bit isn’t even the strangest thing about that Harvey Dent story. If an image comes to your mind when I say “Quaid, start the reactor.” then you have an idea. Poor Harvey, outside of a couple lines in Snyder’s Batman in issue #1 and issue #16 he really hasn’t been given any respect in the New 52.

I would rather get you excited about reading Batman comics. I love them and that’s why I pretty much only write reviews for books rooted in the mythology of Gotham. But this collection is not a good example of what Batman stories should be. Tony Daniel is a phenomenal artist, his latest work on Action Comics #19 was breathtaking, but he shouldn’t be writing Batman and he sure as hell needs to stay away from Harvey Dent. If you’re a big enough fan of Tony Daniel’s pencils then this might be worth picking up just so you can admire the illustrations, but it’s not enough for me. I think that Detective Comics should be the sharpest, most complex series of all the bat-titles and Daniel’s run was big on action and short on ideas.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

Issue #9 variant cover by Jason Fabok. That’s it. It’s a nice cover, don’t get me wrong, but some more extras would’ve been nice. Pretty weak sauce.

VALUE

The price of this comes out about even to what you would have paid for the monthly floppy issues. At cover price it’s $29.99 for 6 issues plus the over-sized Annual #1. That’s six $4 dollar books and one $5 dollar book , which would be $29.00 not counting tax so… you’re probably saving a little, but nothing substantial. Amazon has it for $19.97, which is more reasonable for something of this quality, but in the time it took me to write this article I saw that Amazon at one point offered it for about a buck cheaper. Look for it to go on clearance. Plus we should take re-read value into account and I don’t think I would ever want to re-read anything from this collection. Most of the community around here would agree that Tony Daniel’s run is something best forgotten.

OVERALL

I would rather forget these stories ever happened, truthfully. Tony Daniel’s artwork is brilliant and the brief contributions by other writers like Hurwitz and Tynion IV are a good read, but everything else is quite bad. Sometimes rage inducing. Daniel’s Detective run and Finch’s Batman: The Dark Knight issues are easily the worst Batman stories to come out of the New 52. I can’t recommend that you pick this one up unless you’re just a big fan of Daniel’s pencils. At least with Volume 1 Daniels showed some ambition what with the surprise of Joker’s face being removed and the gruesome Dollmaker storyline, but Scare Tactics is aimless and its Two-Face backup story is one of the worst things I’ve read in my time as a reviewer.

SCORE: 3.5/10

The post Detective Comics, Vol. 2: Scare Tactics review appeared first on Batman News.

This good but expensive 80 page giant’s main feature “The 900″ continues the Emperor Penguin storyline from previous Detective Comics issues, but Ogilvy takes a backseat as we focus on Batman trying to find Zsasz and stop a plague that’s turning everyone in the 900 block of Gotham into a man-bat. All of that alone could’ve been 80 pages. Especially when we consider that “The 900″ is being treated as the first ever appearance of Kirk Langstrom. I found it odd that history was rewritten and done so hurriedly at the tail end of this adventure. I wish that the first meeting of these characters had been treated with more care rather than squeezed into an Emperor Penguin/Zsasz/Save the City story. Man-Bat is the kind of villain who is rather one note after all so I would’ve rather seen him get full attention in the one brand of story he’s actually effective in. Why rewrite history anyway? It makes it quite odd that Talia and her man-bat army now came before the true Man-Bat, Kirk Langstrom. Oh well. “The 900″ is still a thrilling read with amazing illustrations by Jason Fabok and colorist Jeromy Cox but one that I felt ended too abruptly to make room for the 4 other short stories also featured. SHOW SPOILER ▼

The first of the short stories, “Birth of a Family” feels like the typical back-up we see at the end of any issue of Detective Comics. It’s a quieter, more villain-centric short written again by John Layman and drawn by Andy Clarke, who is an amazing artist (except when it comes to drawing open-mouth smiles, they always look creepy) that I would like to see on a bat-title full time. Here we see how Langstrom’s research began, how he met his wife, and how she is dealing with the aftermath of what occurred in “The 900.” Clarke got to draw some rather disturbing imagery in this one and it looks great. The nasty monsters you see will really stick with you for a while.

“Birth of a Family” is quickly followed by “War Council” which should be the most talked about episode here. It’s the return of Bane written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Mike Janin. After the truly awful portrayal of Bane in Finch’s Batman: The Dark Knight I was really excited to see what Tynion IV and Janin could do to repair the damage and thankfully they made some terrific changes. For one, we’re seeing some definite Dark Knight Rises influence here. Tactical vest instead of a wrestling singlet? Check! Wrist guards? Check! A private army that worships the ground he walks on? Check! My only complaint about the new and improved design (the original New 52 look was almost exactly that of the horrendous design from Batman: Arkham Asylum/City) is that the hoses coming out of his head are too large. It’s something about Bane’s character that’s always bugged me when he’s on venom: his weakness is so incredibly obvious. It was even worse in The Dark Knight Rises when busting the pipes caused him enough pain to bring him to his knees and the pipes were all located exactly where a punch would land. Speaking of venom, it seems that Bane has far more of the chemical than ever before and plans to use it on each of his soldiers. Well, maybe not all of them. There are three lieutenants working for Bane that appear to have unique abilities of their own. They are rather over-the-top looking henchmen but I’m curious to see what they’re capable of. Still, part of me wishes that we could’ve seen a New 52 return of Bird, Trog, and Zombie from Knightfall. Why does this Bane want to sack Gotham? It’s never stated, but luckily we’ll find out more when we read Talon later this month! “War Council” was a really cool read and it’s also worth noting how well Tynion did at incorporating the awfulness of Finch’s Batman: The Dark Knight into the story of how Bane got to where he is now. It’s a bit unnecessary, I mean, I would’ve rather pretended like none of that ever happened, but you’ve got to salute the guy for not only acknowledging it but finding a way to pull something from the wreckage. The colors in this story were also fantastic. Santa Prisca (yes, it’s the return of Santa Prisca) has a totally different look and feel from any other location in this book.

It was nice to see a short from a different writer, but Tynion was the only other author contributing to issue #900. The remaining tales are all penned by Layman once again.”Birdwatching” is a story that’s not going to mean much to anyone but those who have read Layman’s Detective Comics from the start or even Tony Daniel’s Detective Comics run for that matter. We see Mr. Combustible (still not sure why he’s called that… looks a lot more like Gentlemen Ghost and I’ve yet to see him combust) operate as a secret agent of the true Penguin to bring down Ogilvy. Terrific stuff for those of us wanting to see more out of the Emperor Penguin storyline that’s been going on for some time now. This short was illustrated by Henrik Jonsson and Sandu Florea and the look is very reminiscent of Fabok and David Finch and fit right in.

“Through a Blue Lens” is told “through the lens” of the boys in blue. A cop who had transformed into a man-bat and fought the Batman in “The 900″ is now recovering in the hospital and is surrounded by his fellow officers who all want to talk about his fight with the Caped Crusader. Of all the short stories, I wish this one had gone on longer. I love hearing the perspective of everyday people in Gotham, it’s one of the reasons why I loved Harper Row so much when she first showed up (she’s no longer representing the everyday person though as of issue #18 though, sadly). Of all the stories it also has the most different look and at times the colors appear too pure and everything has an overly clean and polished look. Even the Joker, who appears in a single panel with that rotting face of his, looks almost healthy.

And if 1 regular sized story and 4 short stories weren’t enough, you also get some fantastic pin up artwork in this book too! You’ll see stunning full-page images by Alex Maleev and Nathan Fairbairn, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse (their page had more of a Dick Grayson/Batman feel to it), Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn, Jason Fabok and Jeromy Cox, Andy Clarke, Francesco Francavilla, Cameron Stewart, and a really cool watercolor by Dustin Nguyen depicting a classic scene from The Killing Joke.

It’s expensive, most of the stories could’ve been fleshed out more (probably could’ve cut one of the stories and elaborated on the remaining 4), and it would’ve been nice to have had something that was more new-reader friendly, but overall this was a really fun read. Whether or not it’s worth the price of a whole TPB like Saga or X-O Manowar, however, is debatable since most of these short stories feel more like teasers for future issues rather than a complete tale.  If you’ve enjoyed Layman and Fabok’s run so far then you’re going to absolutely love it. It’s worth every penny for anyone who has loved the Emperor Penguin storyline. And if you haven’t been keeping up with what goes on in Detective or Batman (which is also referenced as well as Batman: The Dark Knight AND Talon) you’ll at the very least appreciate the exquisite artwork. It’s a very, very good looking book. Action, a new and improved Bane, progress in Emperor Penguin’s story, the first appearance of Man-Bat, and spectacular artwork. It’s a book that gives you a lot to talk about.

SCORE: 8.5/10

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Jason Fabok is killing it! Detective Comics #18 looks great and it’s a fun story but it would be a whole lot better if it didn’t try so hard to tie into so many other titles and just focused on doing its own thing.

I appreciate when the Bat-titles try to connect to one another but it’s starting to deter from a plot that I thoroughly enjoy in Detective. I find the whole Penguin downfall storyline with Ogilvy to be incredibly interesting and I love the way that author John Layman keeps Batman constantly busy. It allows each issue to be exciting and easily accessible to new readers because the central story of each one usually has a beginning, middle, and end all its own while the Emperor Penguin plot operates quietly in the background. However, issue #18 had editors notes that tied into Batman #16, Batman #17, Batman Inc. #8, Talon #3, and there’s even a nod to Catwoman #9

SHOW SPOILER ▼

DC Comics stands for Detective Comics so it’s odd to see the series bow to so many other titles especially when it has a strong enough writer and artist with the potential to rise above the rest. Trying to figure out the timeline for all of these adventures existing together would make your head explode so I recommend you don’t even try.

SHOW SPOILER ▼

I’m sure a lot of folks might be picking up this comic for the first time today due to the awesome cover by Fabok that’s part of this month’s big Requiem thing where all the bat-family is mourning the death of Robin. Readers looking for Batman Inc. #8 fallout will be mightily disappointed because Damian is addressed for only two pages and then we’re back to business as usual. Batman doesn’t behave like he’s pushed to the edge over what’s happened or anything. I think that’s the angle Snyder is going for in next week’s Batman, but that’s not how the Dark Knight behaves here. We have a couple pages at a graveyard and it’s never spoken of again. Still, I expect to see this comic sell out pretty quickly based on the cover alone.

Instead of getting an ode to Damian comic what we have is one of the first issues in some time to really focus on the Emperor Penguin with a subplot regarding the escape of Zsasz. It’s worth noting that Zsasz is the only one mentioned to have escaped so I guess Riddler and Two-Face are still locked away. I think if you ignore the nonsensical timeline connections to Death of the Family and Batman Inc. you’ll enjoy yourself quite a bit with this one. Seeing Penguin’s downfall is really satisfying and as I said in the opening sentence of this review the artwork is outstanding. One two-page spread in particular of Batman at Arkham not only looks great but it has a couple cameos of some of Gotham’s worst. And if you read my review of Batman: The Dark Knight last week you’ll know how much I love Batman crashing through a skylight– we get some of that here as well.

The backup this time is all about Zsasz and focuses on the character’s origin story and escape from Arkham. It gets a lot done for how few pages it has so you’ve got to applaud that. The New 52 origin of Zsasz is much the same as it is in the original telling back in Batman Chronicles #3 all those years ago and the origin told in the Arkham Asylum/Arkham City video games so a strong connection to the Penguin is still there and it complements the main story well. One discrepancy that could go easily overlooked in all of this is that, from what I recall, the Iceberg casino just opened a year ago. I thought that the Detective Comics appearance of the Iceberg Casino was a grand opening (Tony Daniel’s run) yet here we see a young Zsasz visiting the place in a flashback. The artwork by Henrik Jonsson lends itself really well to Fabok’s interpretation of Gotham and he does a great job of making Zsasz look deranged. I also think that Henrik draws one of the best Penguin’s I’ve seen in some time. As much as I like Fabok’s design, the nose just isn’t long enough. However, Henrik did forget to add the curly chin beard that we saw on Zsasz earlier in the comic as drawn by Fabok.

As much as we all like to discuss continuity, Detective Comics‘ focus on connecting to the timeline of other titles is bogging down an otherwise great story. I can’t help but think that the collected TPB of this is going to be kind of confusing with all the references to other books… Anyway, it’s a fun read and the artwork in both the main story and the backup is great. Don’t pick it up because you want some Damian Wayne cross-over like the cover would have you believe. Pick it up because it’s a good story about Penguin’s demise and the rise of Zsasz and Ogilvy.

SCORE: 7.5/10

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The main story is really predictable and it’s sort of a waste of a good character design, but the black humor of the backup makes up for the book’s shortcomings to make for a pretty entertaining read.

It won’t take you long to figure out who the Merry Maker is and I imagine that unsurprising moment will be discussed the most about this issue. I think we all got excited when we saw Merry Maker show up in the last issue. It was such a cool design! The old Renaissance doctor uniform complete with plague mask, talk about creepy. And let’s face it, it’s HARD to come up with a unique character design for a hero or a villain nowadays. Just about everything has been done to death. For him to show up on the final page of the last issue and then get taken down so easily in the very next issue…Honestly the most disappointing thing for me isn’t the Merry Maker’s identity, it’s his goal is as a villain. It’s not a bad idea, it’s just that I wish that something more had been done with such a cool looking character. I guess Darth Maul would be a pretty good example. Scary, bad ass looking guy– went out like a punk.

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Kudos to John Layman for not taking the easy route with his Death of the Family tie-in. Instead of finding another character for Joker to torture and monologue at the author opted to not use the Joker at all. Rather than give into the allure of writing for one of, if not the greatest villains of all time and boring those of us already suffering from Joker-fatigue, John Layman focused on the fallout of Joker’s actions. He does this not only by addressing some of the major acts Joker has committed in Death of the Family that were cast aside as minor (wiping out every mafia lieutenant? That is something that could’ve spawned an entire arc in itself!)  but by bringing back elements from Tony Daniel’s run on Detective Comics. Remember those weird, flamboyant villains in Penguin’s Ice Berg lounge? What about the crowd of Joker fans protesting in the park all those months ago? Although I didn’t like either of those things when they were first introduced there was something amusing about seeing them crop back up again.

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Right off the bat let me say that as a Death of the Family tie-in, this issue was a complete failure. But as a fun Batman story in its own right it’s a success.

This really didn’t need to feature the Joker at all…and really, it doesn’t. He’s in the book for 3 panels total and he never says a word. In two of those scenes he might not actually be there at all but only figuratively. Yes, there’s a nod to the back-up story in Batman #14, but that’s it. Just a nod and an editor’s note. If you want to know any of the details about what Penguin  and Joker’s meeting was all about you still would need to read Batman #14. This issue doesn’t even set up anything new with the Joker that Batman #14 didn’t even though the next 2 issues are being marketed as Death in the Family tie-ins as well. So if you’re just looking for more backstory to the Death of the Family, you won’t find it here. What you will find is a rather entertaining Clayface story.

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Probably the best depiction of Poison Ivy I’ve seen in some time. Yeah, that’s right. It seemed from the last issue of Detective Comics like this one would be all about Penguin again, but Layman’s Batman is always busy. Every night another rogue and while last night might have included a bit of a Penguin problem, now the Dark Knight has to stop Poison Ivy. It’ll all come back to Penguin again, don’t worry, but this one is primarily about Pamela. The first thing I like about Layman’s Poison Ivy is that she’s a villain again. I haven’t kept up with Birds of Prey lately, but apparently she’s been kicked out after showing her true colors (there’s a good joke about that in this comic by the way). So I’m ecstatic to see Poison Ivy causing trouble again even if I still wish she would act just a little more evil. Just a little bit. Secondly, Fabok draws her beautifully. Even those weird Mike Tyson face tattoos have been toned down to mere ivy sprigs from her hair. It looks great. Now, her suit still sprouts vine tentacles which is still a bit much for me but I can overlook that because Poison Ivy kisses her prey again! This has always been one of her defining traits, but I haven’t seen much of it lately. It’s always about the vines anymore. Vines, vines, vines. Whether they are from her suit or instantly sprouted from the ground around her, I’ve had enough of them. I want to see this woman kiss again and I want those kisses to either A) bend men to her will or B) kill. Layman’s Poison Ivy makes up for lost time and smooches a number of gentlemen in this comic and for that I’m grateful.

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Change is good. The first week of the month has been one of my favorite weeks for comics but one of my least favorite for Batman comics, however I think all of that is about to change. Anytime new talent comes to a title you should almost always give that book a chance but few comics needed a shot in the arm like Detective Comics. It’s the flagship title (DC stands for Detective Comics) yet this has been one of the weakest New 52 titles for a full year. Tony Daniel creates impressive artwork, but his scripts were…well, I thought that the writing was terrible. After publishing so many negative reviews there’s enough evidence out there that I can’t really sugarcoat my hatred for it. I felt like I was throwing $4 bucks away month after month. Well he’s gone now and although the bar was set pretty low, the new creative team of John Layman and Jason Fabok has produced a very satisfying comic and restored hope in one of the oldest titles in Comicdom.

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Finally an issue of Detective Comics that I thoroughly enjoyed! I even thought this comic could’ve been longer. The backup by James Tynion IV and Henrik Jonsson could most definitely have been stretched into its own full length issue. Let me break it all down for you.

First off there’s the main event, The Final Lesson. This story is about a young Bruce Wayne from 10 years ago (They should really leave out the time stamps entirely. All of this 5 years ago, 10 years ago, nonsense just gives the most dedicated fans a migraine. Say “many years ago” and be vague about it) receiving his–you guessed it–final lesson high up in the mountains of the Himalayas. It’s very Batman Begins/The Man Who Falls which is exactly what I’m looking for in these Zero Issues. It’s written by Penguin: Pain & Prejudice author and current helmer of Batman: The Dark Knight, Gregg Hurwitz (who is only doing this one issue, just to be clear. Starting next month the series will be written by John Layman) and it also marks Tony Daniel’s farewell issue. After many years of drawing the Caped Crusader, Mr. Daniel is walking away and he did a very fine job illustrating this issue indeed.

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