Batman – Detective Comics, Volume 1: Faces of Death

Detective Comics (2011)

by Tony S. Daniel (Writer/Illustrator)

As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics—The New 52 event of September 2011, Detective Comics is relaunched for the first time ever with an all-new number #1! Bruce Wayne returns as Batman, and sets his sights on new villain the Gotham Ripper, who in turn has his sights on Batman. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne explores a budding romance with television journalist Charlotte Rivers, who's visiting Gotham City to cover the gruesome slayings–while also trying to uncover Bruce's own mystery. But time is running out as both Commissioner Gordon and Batman work to uncover the true identity of this new serial killer.

Collecting: Batman – Detective Comics #1-7.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Batman, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

167 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2012

About the author

Tony Salvador Daniel is a comic book author and illustrator. He is sometimes credited with is full name as Antonio Salvador Daniel.

For the science fiction writer, see Tony Daniel.

Tony S. Daniel decided to become a comic book artist in the 4th grade and has never looked back. He made his professional comics debut in 1993 on Comico's The Elementals and went on to illustrate X-Force for Marvel Comics and Spawn: Bloodfeud for Image Comics as well as writing and illustrating several creator-owned titles of his own: Silke, The Tenth, Adrenalynn and F5 — the last two of which led him, for a time, into the alternate reality known as Hollywood.

After being lured back into comics in 2005 to work with writer Geoff Johns on TEEN TITANS for DC Comics, Daniel landed his dream job in 2007 penciling the adventures of DC's Dark Knight Detective in BATMAN where he first collaborated with writer Grant Morrison and then went on to write and draw the book himself. In 2011 he re-launched DETECTIVE COMICS for DC’s New 52, writing and drawing most of the first year of the historic series. In 2012 Daniel moved from one icon to another when he began illustrating the adventures of Superman in ACTION COMICS.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 2 out of 5]

(B-) 69% | Satisfactory
Notes: Told in such shallow, bedraggled, ramshackle shorthand that all its shock and bluster brews is apathetic disaffection.

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #1-2 ◦ Issues #3-5

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Joker has green hair. Check out the cover. Yeah, I know I’m really stretching the “green” theme, so shaddup!

Two and a half stars.

Batman has arguably the best rogue’s gallery of villains in comics and the books have been published since 1939 so the Bat creators have had years to come up with a few compelling characters. This makes the task, for current creators, of bringing something new to the table rather daunting. Take The New 52 (please!?!), the Court of Owls storyline in anyone else but Scott Snyder’s capable hands would have been a disaster. Huge, unwieldy and a plot line that ran across a gazillion other books. A gazillion, I counted.

The new (?) villain in this volume is the Dollmaker. His shtick: using a scalpel to remove skin, organs and various appendages from Joe Gotham, which he uses to “enhance” his crew. He also wears the facial skin of his father, who’s probably dead.

The Dollmaker uses his particular talents to remove The Joker’s face – a plot point that sadly develops elsewhere. The GCPD has the face locked away where no one will ever be able to get their hands on it.

Sure, they won’t.

More baffling storylines include: a few pages of Catwoman flaying some ne’er-do-wells and a cryptic remark from Batman to Alfred about corpses on the subway that had their blood drained vampire-style and when-the-hell-are-you-going-to-analyze-it-Pennyworth?

In addition to the nasty Dollmaker, we get a Penguin story. About a casino opening. It seems that the Penguin has taken some money from a bunch of grade D DC villain mooks and stored it in is impenetrable safe, where nobody will be able to get to it.

Sure, they won’t.

About the mooks: You have Gas Man – his head is red gas enclosed in glass. The Turban – he wears a turban. And my favorite, Hypnotic (I think that’s what his name was). He wears a pair of those swirly specs that they used to advertise in the back of comics. The kind that allows you the power of x-ray vision to see through walls, skin and women’s blouses. This guy has the power to hypnotize.

“Hey Batman, look at me so I can hypnotize you and then you can do my bidding. BWHAHAHAHA!

Batman punches him in the face and breaks his glasses.

Sigh.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this title much better than Batman, Vol. 1: The Court of Owls, but apparently I am one of the few who felt that way. I'm not sure why, though.
The art was great and the story flowed really well. The only thing that was slightly annoying was that this new villain, Dollmaker, seemed a little too much like Professor Pyg (my opinion).

sigh

I'm sure I'm gonna catch hell from all of you who are in love with Snyder's Batman. Sorry. I like Daniel's stuff better.
Neener, neener....

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

SPOILERS

The book is about as close to cookie-cutter Batman as you can get. It opens with Batman running across the Gotham skyline in pursuit of Joker. Cut to Arkham Asylum and Joker’s in a straitjacket talking menacingly to doctors and then inevitably he escapes. Then Batman is after Penguin who’s opened a new Iceberg Casino floating in Gotham Bay which leads to Penguin’s arrest. The book’s over. Ho hum.

Despite the inclusion of these stalwarts of Batman’s rogues gallery, there are some more interesting villains thrown into the mix: Dollmaker is creepy with his collection of disfigured human dolls and the side story involving him removing Joker’s face was intriguing but didn’t go anywhere (probably to be explored in later volumes). There’s also a weird kid called Olivia whose dead eyes were unnerving as she played on peoples’ perceptions of what a pre-pubescent girl should behave like and came across as a psychopath in the early stages of development. But that’s pretty much where the good parts of the book end.

The Joker storyline doesn’t really go anywhere, it leads to the Dollmaker and then just peters out – presumably we’ll find out what happens to Joker after his face was removed in another volume but it’s still an unsatisfying plot thread. The Penguin storyline turns into a dull heist involving Snakeskin and Mayor Hady’s foxy daughters. There’s even a strange scene involving protestors doing a kind of Occupy Movement demonstration supporting the Joker(!).

I’ve read a few Tony Daniels Batman books he’s scripted and drawn - “Battle for the Cowl”, “Life After Death”, “Eyes of the Beholder” - and like those books “Faces of Death” shows that his artistry far exceeds his writing ability. He can’t seem to write an involving Batman book, it’s all just surface texture propped up by his excellent artwork, it never delves deep into the characters’ psyches.

“Faces of Death” looks good but doesn’t have a solid storyline, it’s just a mishmash of villains with Batman chasing after them to no real purpose. It’s just a series of things that happen and they don’t feel connected or that they’re going anywhere new. Compared to Scott Snyder’s “Court of Owls” with its combination of focused original storyline, taut writing and great art, and “Faces of Death” comes off as amateurish and sloppy. Here’s hoping Daniels stays on as artist but is relieved of writing future titles. He just doesn’t cut it.

[Lashaan Balasingam · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can find my review on our blog by clicking here.

The New 52 event hit DC Comics like a whirlwind and brought us brand new series and brand new creative teams working on our favorite superheroes like never before. As some series stand out compared to others, comic fans still find themselves in front of dozens of new worlds to jump into and new ways to entertain themselves with never before seen characters, artwork and stories. If anything, this major comic book event helps new readers plunge into the DC universe with more ease. Who doesn't like order and cleanliness anyways?

Among the new series out there, Batman fans get to celebrate (or not) with a reboot of Batman : Detective Comics. Kicking it off with a #1 issue, the first volume titled Batman : Detective Comics (Volume 1) - Faces of Death is written and penciled by the famous Tony S. Daniel with the help of Sandu Florea (inker), Ryan Winn (inker) and Szymon Kudranski (artist). Although the Detective Comics have been one of the longest running and highly praised series pre-52, the New 52 series sadly doesn't match up with its companion series Batman by Scott Snyder and Gregg Capullo.

What can you do when you go up against a God like Scott Snyder, right?

You just can’t beat him.

That however doesn't mean that you should turn a blind eye on this series. Volume 1 contains issues #1 to #7 and starts off with the Dark Knight chasing down the Gotham Ripper, a gruesome murderer that has been committing horrible crimes throughout Gotham. Trying to figure out the identity of this mysterious figure, Batman and Commissioner Gordon find themselves up against villains that never seize to drag chaos around them. As his investigation has him stumbling around Gotham, Bruce Wayne's relationship with a journalist adds additional weight on his shoulders and has him in compromising situations that might later trouble the Caped Crusader.

Even with the crazy linear adventure that leads Batman to go from one villain to another, this was still a fun run. The first couple of issues were really decent. The story line evolved naturally and kept the intrigue going. The writing was fine and having the Dark Knight’s narration throughout the story wasn’t so bad. It was quite reinvigorating to see what went through his mind throughout the fights, but I definitely would’ve preferred having more dialogue outside of his mind. It’s only halfway into the volume, when a certain buyer comes into play and dramatically changes the whim of a villain by the presentation of a grand sum that things started to go all over the place.

A nasty mess, I tell ya. Once that story line was introduced, it was as if we were introduced to a slippery slope and we just couldn’t stop ourselves from skidding down to disappointment…

At this point, the story completely turns away from the intrigue it built and hovers over to an adventure that’s just utterly random. Brand new characters are introduced and whole new objectives are put into play. If it wasn’t for the artwork, this part would’ve probably brought this series down pretty badly. In fact, the artists for this series have done a marvelous job and set out a great tone throughout the whole volume. Every character looked amazing, frightening, chilling and stunning.

Tony S. Daniel sadly doesn’t pull any tricks out of his sleeves for the remainder of the volume. Complimented by his brilliant art, the writing doesn’t bring anything new to the story. It essentially points out the obvious and keeps the story simple without ever going into depth. Bathing in the mess it jumped into, it doesn’t help that there’s a bunch of secondary villains that are thrown into the mix. From their minimal panel time to their minimized threat level, these characters were a shame to look at. To top it off, there’s a little story regarding Hugo Strange that is simply dropped on our heads out of the blue. It actually doesn’t even regard him directly and completely destroys any flow the reader could’ve gained through the story.

Imagine that. No regard for story-telling. Bye, bye, momentum.

Sometimes I wonder if there’s this higher order that controls the creative team behind Batman : Detective Comics. I mean, how can you bifurcate so bad from a potential story you’ve built with the first couple volumes only to run into a disaster? There must be someone out there telling them:

Hey guys, stop right there. We can't have you steal potential fans from the main Batman series. Just make it pretty enough to distract readers. And make sure to keep that story average.

Thanks.

Yep. That must be it.

Batman : Detective Comics (Volume 1) – Faces of Death is a fun, but not brilliant debut. If anything, this is worth trying out for the love of Batman. It has potential and contains interesting angles that future volumes can easily draw upon. The artwork is undeniably beautiful and deserves to be salivated upon. Don’t get your drool all over it though. The writing will ensure of that. One thing to note is how every New 52 series run their own course, but there are Batman events that will affect all the series (like the events with the Owls; don’t worry if you don’t know what I’m talking about). Although Tony S. Daniel hasn’t managed to deliver an astounding first volume, it would be unfair to give up on this series. Through his artwork, you’ll still be impressed by the characters. You’ll be frightened by their sheer violence or stunned by their beauty. It's worth a go.

Yours truly,

Lashaan

Lashaan & Trang | Bloggers and Book Reviewers
Official blog: http://bookidote.wordpress.com

[Subham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the art I guess, thats the only good thing I can say about this book.

It starts off with Joker murdering someone and well into Arkham he goes and someone named Dollmaker cuts his face and then we have Batman trying to find out why.. and then forgetting about it as there are multiple plots like searching for Olivia (the daughter of the person Joker killed), Gordon is also captured and its all connected and when he does confront it, he is knocked down by Dollmaker's henchmen and he is captured and thus begins his quest to fight them and rescue Gordon and Olivia and we look into the psychosis of Olivia and what happened to her and that was tragic and well Dollmaker escapes and that plot goes nowhere. Like what a total waste of building up of 5 issues and rather than have a story with Joker and Dollmaker and how Bruce will make him pay, it goes nowhere and is quickly forgotten and so that was a bust.

And another story with the son of Hugo strange which leads nowhere again but there is a fun story where Penguin is being robbed by Snakeskin and Jill Hampton whose the daughter of Mayor Hady and well his other daughter is Charlotte Rivers, present G.F. of Batman and there is a plot where she gets injured and Snakeskin does something to Charlotte and Jill robs penguin and the ending Bruce tryna save his gf while also capturing Jill and all the drama and the eventual twist with Penguin and what not. Ahh again a story with so much potential for drama and all just wasted because Daniel sucks at writing, his art is great but as the old agae goes "artists make for terrible writers, most of the time" and it applies to him.

There are some cool scenes don't mind me but thats all it is, cool scenes and no proper sequence of events, rather than copy Snyder and learn from him how to make a cool linear story, this one is all over the place and knowing whats to come in the future these plots are not resolved and its a shame. But then again maybe check it out for the cool art.

[Molly™☺ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The start is what you want from a Batman story. Dark and twisted, with imagery you would find in the horror genre, this is the kind of atmosphere that sets Batman stories apart. Unfortunately, it falls flat from the mid point to the finish, with the elements of horror and mystery being overshadowed by needless action scenes with mostly throwaway characters, side plots that aren't all that interesting and resolutions that don't feel very rewarding. Dollmaker has potential, but it's hard to stand out when you're up against such a prolific rogues gallery, and you're in a story where the Joker is present. If only it could have kept up the momentum promised at the start, instead we're left with a disappointing final product. There's also a pretty long Penguin story that's absolutely forgettable and with an even less satisfying conclusion. Disappointing, even more so when you take into consideration the characters they decided to 'utilise'.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded down.

So many storylines left unresolved. Drives me crazy. How about finishing the joker story before starting the penguin story?

The artwork is the best part of this volume,and is the reason it wasn't rated two stars.

[Ｆｒａｎｋｈ · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought about giving a three out of five stars rating for Tony S. Daniel's first volume that is comprised of issues #1-7 for New 52's Detective Comics but quickly changed my mind when I took into account how much emotional abuse I endured while I was reading and reviewing each issue. It would have been a solid three but given how much this ruined an entire week for me, I felt obligated to shoot another star down and just give this a measly two for effort and visuals. I have stated time and time again that Daniel is a spectacular artist and his dynamic illustrations, particularly the action sequences and character poses/designs in this volume, are certainly the only things I love about it. The visual appeal is unmistakable. You can just look at the pictures and make up your own story too, if you want, which you might find yourself doing so instead of trying to understand the convoluted and often nonsensical plotlines that Faces of Death was all about.

I don't care about anyone in the story, heroes or villains alike, because I don't understand the motivations driving these characters to make the choices that they have throughout the story--and how they go about these choices.

Detective Comics as a title was supposed to showcase the crime-solving sleuth quality of Batman but much of the time in Daniel's story, all he did was employ violence every step of the way. I don't really feel like he's solving anything unless you count the number of times he beats up people as a way to get answers from everyone. Sure, Batman kicks ass but he's also the type to ask the questions either before or after the violent confrontation. He usually doesn't do this and doesn't bother unravelling whatever clues and threads he might find, seemingly more eager to jump from one action sequence to another in every issue. Whenever he does play detective, it comes off as pretentious and tacky as if Daniel doesn't even bother making it a serious venture and would rather make Batman utter cheesy lines that more than once made me cringe.

Another thing that disappointed me about this volume is how fucking MISLEADING it tends to be. Just look at that main cover as well as the ones that heavily feature the Penguin. Trust me, their time on the pages have little impact and enjoyment to offer. As gratingly inconsistent the seven issues had been as a whole story, the one consistent thing Daniel does manage to do is short change his baddies where they don't ever have that much of a significant role to contribute in his plots. In the first two issues (which, in retrospect, were actually the only decent ones in the collection), we get a story about the Joker but we never, ever get an explanation or even a theory as to why he had his face surgically removed by the Dollmaker, which should have been an interesting moment.

Frustratingly enough, the Dollmaker story arc that lasted four issues too long was also handled poorly. This chief villain just disappeared easily, I may add, because Batman just stopped caring halfway through like a child with an attention-deficit disorder, and focused his energies with the Penguin who was also cast aside to "develop" that character story concerning Charlotte Rivers and her evil twin, and it's not that engrossing. Like, AT ALL. Charlotte Rivers and her twin are unsympathetic and bland and there was no solid characterization that made me believe I should pay attention to what is happening in their cookie-cutter lives. To call them plot devices would be giving them the dimension they don't have.

And then there's that bit about Hugo Strange's bastard son and I fucking hate anything with Hugo Strange in it so, nope, I would rather not discuss any more of that bullshit because it was a passing storyline that did nothing for the main story.

Just explaining about the things that annoyed me the most while reading the issues is almost like re-living the horror for me so I'm going to end my review now. I also decided not to review the next issues (#8-12) individually anymore since they are written by Daniel again and I only plan to submit one review for the second volume that collects them. I just have to endure five more Daniel issues before I finally get to John Layman's run.

NOT RECOMMENDED: 4/10

DO READ MY BATMAN COMICS REVIEWS AT:

[Kuroi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ahem.

There are two kinds of people in the world: the ones who believe Batman is the real personality and the ones that believe Batman is the persona.

Ok, the latter camp is something I made up, but it was a cool way to open the review.

Anyway, I belong to the third faction (population: 1) that believes that neither Batman nor Bruce Wayne is the real person, but something in between, a mixed personality that we never get to see.

For the purposes of this review, let's refer to the middle ground between Batman and Bruce Wayne as the Dark Knight.

Why am I rambling on about this when you could be reading shorter and more informative reviews, you ask? It's because this story runs parallel to the Death of the Family arc (for a while anyway), and I have noticed an obsession with Batman writers (except maybe Snyder) regarding the Bat persona and neglecting the everyday side of Bruce.

I get it, he's basically the Holy Grail of psychological trauma and the most successful case of daddy-issues, but I think occasionally it's okay to assume Bruce started off with his parents' death and now crime-fights for the sake of it.

The best evidence for this neglect is in the art of this volume. Don't get me wrong, I really loved it for the most part and I stared geekily at some panels because they were so cool. But let's see how they treat Batman vs Bruce Wayne.

Exhibit A:



Ignoring the question of why the hell he looks like a tank, look at the detail on Batman. He's wearing an all black costume but you can see the rugged boots, the spikes on his gloves, every muscle.

Now let's see Exhibit B:



WHY THE FRICK IS BRUCE WAYNE'S FACE LIKE A GREEK VASE PAINTING? WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Don't believe me? Take a look:



It's as if they were all enthusiastic about every panel before and after this, but then suddenly realized they hadn't designed a face for Bruce, so they went with a basic geometric shape. Imagine my shock when I was chugging along and I suddenly got hit with a Lego head in a romantic scene.



This happens in profile too, so the horror doesn't stop there. Though it softens up a bit in the last story, probably because it was a different artist?

The story was basically ruined for me at this point because that head haunted me afterwards.

I don't necessarily know that this one deserves the title of a detective comic because it doesn't seem any more investigative than some others I've read. I thought it had an okayish plot, with some predictable elements and sometimes they tried too hard to shock you a la the Dollmaker. Who was a pretty lacklustre character because he sorta appears, throws some minions at Bats and disappears. Actually, now that I think about it, they were trying to tell too many stories in the volume, so the problem was that you never became really invested in any of them.

Like, why insert that truly random 5 pages of Catwoman and Eli Strange? WHY? It was just strange (pun intended).

Overall, it felt the book was meant to be a hook for a number of other books, but flailed trying to balance that and it's own coherent plot.
Not unlike a certain Marvel movie... *cough*Age of Ultron*cough*

Oh, and they forgot to give Bruce a proper face, because they were so busy removing the Joker's.
Sigh.

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tony S. Daniel draws better than he writes, which means he's an OK writer, but a great artist.

The "Dollmaker" arc was frankly just gross, but the second arc, involving a heist of the Penquin's "Iceberg Casino" left me with a good feeling toward the book as a whole.

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[Jesse A · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it but I don't know if it has the re-readability of the other New 52 Batman titles.

[Travis Duke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came for the Joker story because I was told this was the issue the doll maker takes his face, while this is true its very unfulfilling. You get some visuals of the removal but still no reasoning. The rest of the book is standard batman, the stories are fine but nothing amazing. The art is pretty good, its detailed and dark. I suppose if you want more batman, take a look but it wont be a keeper for me really.

[Peter Derk · Rating 2 out of 5]

What's the deal with Bruce Wayne and girlfriends? I mean, I get it. Who isn't into hot babes? But my question is, Why do people who write Batman comics include a girlfriend angle? I have to say, Bruce Wayne's girlfriends must be the least interesting aspect of most Batman stories. Think about it. This is a guy who flies around in jets and speedboats, is a martial arts expert, has all kinds of crazy gadgets, and I'm being told about a date he went on to some stupid ball? Hell, I get bored when my friends tell me about the people they're dating sometimes, and the closest thing my friends do to Batman shit is rolling out of bed at 1 on Sunday, holding a comforter around themselves in somewhat cape-like fashion.

And why do we always have this conversation:

Alfred: Master Wayne, your date with Carmen DeSexia is this evening.

Batman: Cancel it. The Joker's on the loose.

Alfred: I shall send my regards. If I may, perhaps it's best to let her go.

Batman: Not this one Alfred. This one is special.

Really? This one? THIS ace reporter, one of the hundreds of attractive ace reporters you've dated, is the special one? Would you say it's because she's attractive, or is it more because she gets super upset when you cancel dates, or is it because you, for absolutely no reason, think this is the one girlfriend who isn't being used by one of your enemies in order to find out your secrets?

If there's some story to it or some appeal, by all means, bring on the lovey dovey stuff. But if it's just some other lady who doesn't understand an appropriate cleavage amountage for being on the news, or if it's some shape-changing monster on the attack, or if it's both and I'm left feeling very confused about my sexuality, I'm giving everyone permission to go ahead and skip it.

[Gavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the most disappointing new Volume of the Batman titles from DC's New 52. I say that because Detective Comics is a flagship title, not just an afterthought Batman title to make more $$, but it sure seems like it here. The writer, Daniel, is also the artist, and he's talented enough drawing Batman/Joker and Gotham. However, he's no Scott Snyder. Some of the dialogue seems to have been written by a teenager on steroids...LOTS OF YELLING!!! Also, there's some stupid stuff where characters outline to the reader exactly what they're doing, as though there's no way we could come to this conclusion ourselves. It's really disappointing because the first issue was a solid beginning, and it just went downhill from there. Were it not for Daniel's artistic skills, I'd probably have given this 1 star just because I was so irked with it being so lame. I almost stopped reading a few times, especially during the storyline with the Penguin's Iceberg Lounge. There's also a small story inserted involving Catwoman and Hugo Strange's son, which had me scratching my head, I'm hoping that is somehow relevant with the Catwoman book, otherwise it's just stupid here.

Very disappointing, and hopefully some new writer takes this over and turns it around. When "Batman" by Scott Snyder is so good, "Detective Comics" needs to be just as good. Avoid unless you read all Batman stuff (like me) but go in knowing you'll likely be let down.

[Jonathan Terrington · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit that you have to stuff up pretty badly to get less than a 4 star rating for me when it comes to Batman. I just love the character and most of the artists and writers know and understand him as he deserves.

What makes Batman a great character is not just Batman or Bruce Wayne. Where Superman is made great by being Superman and balancing between saving everyone and also being Clark Kent Batman is great because of his famous rogues gallery and because of Gotham City. You don't get quite the same connection to Metropolis and Superman's villains, with the exception of Lex Luther of course.

This is part of the New 52 range, so of course there are some unique changes to the stories and ideas. I found that this contained two stories in its way. One of which was concluded at the end of the graphic novel and featured Penguin and his cronies, and the other which seemed set up for later revolutionary changes to the Joker character. Which remain to be seen - since unfortunately I couldn't find or buy the paperback follow up yet.

So, of course I haven't said too much about this. I really can't find the words to do so and I apologise for that. Chances are if you are into Batman you'll like this work. If not you probably will be a little annoyed by it all. So very much recommended to mainly Batman fans.

[Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review originally posted here.

Why I Read It: I love love love Batman, and this is a part of my challenge to read as much of the New 52 as possible. I did go in with some trepidation though -- one of my really good friends who is a fellow comic book geek warned me that the new line of Detective Comics isn't up to snuff.. I wanted to try it anyway for curiosity's sake.

Well, my friend was right. This volume of Detective Comics was a mess I tell you. MESS!

It's sad because the first issue looked promising. That last panel with the Joker? Chilling stuff. But then the rest of the volume barely touched on that story. There was some stuff with the doll guy, but it somehow branched off into the Penguin and his new casino which became it's own story. It was all so scatterbrained.

There was no cohesiveness. Batman was apparently solving mysteries, but things were popping up left and right out of nowhere and I couldn't keep up. It's kind of hard to when the writer is throwing things at you from all sides and not letting everything come together on its own. I actually finished this almost two weeks before writing this, and I've forgotten pretty much... everything that happened. Except for the first issue.

The art was fine, but I keep repeating how I'm not a fan of the typical American comic book look, and this is definitely in that camp. Batman is built like Arnold Schwarzenegger (seriously, I know superheroes are probably built, but they're all SO BUILT!!) and has a ridiculously chiseled jaw etc. It's not my thing, but it's perfectly fine for the medium.

OH, and another thing. Like Green Lantern, I was not at all a fan of the romance here. I am so sick of reading comic books where the female love interest is totally into the male superhero even they're hard-to-get assholes who blow them off all the time. Charlotte digs Bruce BECAUSE he plays hard-to-get? And she forgives him of all fouls when he does bother to show up? And he assuages her with gifts and money? Gross. Is this whole idea of chicks digging hard-to-get guys some kind of male fantasy? Because it's annoying.

Final Verdict: This first volume of the new launch of Detective Comics was a hot-mess. The story (or stories I guess) lacked cohesiveness and I constantly had information flying at me from all sides, creating a big jumbled mess. I was also extremely annoyed with the romance angle of the story, and Charlotte's draw to Bruce because he's elusive and "hard to get". I get that some girls like that kind of thing, but do all female love interests in comics need to be into it? It's annoying. The art was fine, but not mind-blowing. All in all, my friend was right and I probably just shouldn't have bothered. Will I read more?? ...Maybe. I'm still curious if they're going to go back to the story of the first issue, which I DID actually like. It was a promising start... it's just too bad it devolved from there.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really respect the "do it all approach" when an artist writes and pencils a title, something many people in the comics biz who were inspired by Jim Steranko have attempted, with decidely mixed results.

So I'm willing to give Tony Daniel a lot of credit here for taking near-total charge of a major character's title (though, truth be told, with umpteen-million other Batman titles on sale the risk to DC was mitigated) and by and large pulling it off with a story that was both compelling both plot-wise and visually.

I mean, it's not everyday you get to see an image like this!



I concur with many who have complained that the second-half of the volume drags a bit compared to the craziness of the Dollmaker plotline, and I can see the point but I did enjoy seeing The Penguin as a vicious and worthy adversary, a real criminal's criminal who preys on and double-crosses any and all he comes across. It's nice to have a bat-villain who's not bat-shit crazy, just evil and eccentric every now and again.



One final quibble: what's the deal with Bruce Wayne having a different GF every single title/volume? And since they're all, obviously, stunningly gorgeous and mostly brunettes it's getting hard to differentiate.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid, if unspectacular, Detective Comics here is much better than when Tony Daniel was writing/drawing Batman pre-Flashpoint.

The opening storyline with the Dollmaker is a bold start with some good ideas, but ultimately doesn't go anywhere special and both Joker and the Dollmaker get away far too easily.

The second story featuring the Penguin is your run of the mill Penguin story. It's safe, it's easy, and it doesn't really try to be anything it's not. One day, someone will tell a truly great Penguin story, but it's not this one. Also, I expect to never see Charlotte Rivers again after this volume, another throwaway love interest. Oh, and Hugh Mayer vanishes after two issues too - keep track of your supporting cast, for crying out loud.

The art is easily the main draw here; Daniel is a superb artist and his work doesn't diminish across the seven issues. It's just a shame that his writing leaves so much to be desired. This will appeal if you just want straightforward Batman adventures, but look elsewhere if you want something deeper than that.

[Mindi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm giving this 3 stars because of the first half. The Dollmaker storyline was the reason I picked this one up. I'm reading things out of order, but not intentionally. It wasn't until after I read Death of the Family that I looked for the story about how Joker lost his face. I honestly expected the entire book to be about Joker and the Dollmaker, but instead the second half is a tedious plot about Bruce Wayne's love life and Batman fighting Penguin and his cronies in order to save his girlfriend.

[Chelsea SWATCHSEA · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first comic was my favourite! The last three were a bit inconsistent, I didn't see the connection between the different characters until the end. And I don't understand Strange's storyline in this, it didn't belong here at all.

Still, I liked the first four comics. They were Batman-centered, too bad they didn't finish that storyline better.

[Gulli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although I liked the artwork, the story was a bit disjointed. The Dollmaker story, in particular, came to an abrupt end. There were a few separate plots and some storylines were left unresolved (unless I missed something?). While I liked the characters and certain elements of the story, I just wish the events were executed more coherently, potentially resulting in something exceptional.

[MischaS_ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Druhá půlka trochu zmatečná. A klasicky mají záporáci málo prostoru, chudáci maličcí...
Plus bylo docela dost věcí jen nakousnuto a nedořešeno.

[Brad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Batman Detective Comics #1

Oooooooo! The Joker being all crazy. Again. Who fucking cares anymore? How about a decade without Joker to make his pasty face relevant again. At least Tony S. Daniel added some freak called the Dollmaker to shake things up, and speaking of Daniel, he is the best Bat-artist (at least in my estimation) working on a Bat-book today.

Batman Detective Comics #2

Not much detecting happening in this "Detective" comic, and it is the detecting that I have always loved about Detective Comics. I have never been a big fan of Batman as Dark Knight, having first loved him as Batman, The World's Greatest Detective. Now, though, he is just NSA Batman, and his Holmesian detection skills are long gone, having been replaced by torture, hyperactive surveillance and luck.

Anyways, Bats walks into a trap, meets the Dollmaker, and we see that he's not alone. He is, it seems, the patriarch of a clan of skin peeling and knitting fiends (with one gratuitously-icky hot-naughty nurse. Not a fan of this touch, by the way), and they are all ready to rend the flexh off of Batman's body.

So ... Art good. Creepiness okay. Detection nil. Story barely keeping me interested.

Batman Detective Comics #3

The Dollmaker and his helpers are definitely spooky (and the wonderful art surely helps), especially the levels of control the Dollmaker has over his helpers (family), but none of it excuses Batman's torture of Jack in the Box. Batman tries to break Jack in the Box, one of the Dollmaker family, with the goal of making JitB reveal the location of the Dollmaker family. He beats him mercilessly, fails to make his victim talk, then realizes that JitB doesn't have a tongue and couldn't have spoken anyway. So what does Batman do? He kicks him in the face and fucks off. Wouldn't it have been cooler by far to have Batman detect something, like the location of the Dollmakers, instead? Maybe even that JitB was missing a tongue before the beating? Your damn right it would have.

Oh yeah ... there are multiple Jokers too. Yawn.

Batman Detective Comics #4

The Dollmaker story comes to a rather abrupt pause. Batman is "captured" then fights a bunch of thugs altered to look like Joker, then the shit hits the fan and their is the usual amount of violence is handed out and the Dollmaker escapes, but at least the Penguin is mentioned, so there's a chance for a classic, not-Joker villain for a bit. I'm not counting the Dollmaker out, however.

Batman Detective Comics #5

A short, short issue, this one. Batman protestors -- all sporting Joker masks -- are filling Gotham City's Old Grant Park, which pisses Batman off because he doesn't care about the public opinion that surrounds his "good works." He's too busy breaking up crime. Some masked bad ass shows up ahead of Batman during the crime he is trying to break-up, kills a bunch of gangsters, then slows Batman down and escapes. It starts and it's over, and then we're hanging out with the Penguin for a page at the grand opening of his Iceberg Casino. It is the most skeletal of stop gaps between issues where things actually happen (illness? lateness? I wonder what's to blame.). But there is a short story to fill space, so let's talk about that:

Russian Roulette--
This is a nice, tight little tale introducing us to an interesting alliance between Catwoman and Eli Strange, son of Hugo Strange, the great underused villain of Batman past. The art is gritty, scrappy, hard to make out, and generally too intentionally messy to be truly welcoming, but it is effective, and when Catwoman is shedding blood it expresses the killing mood well. I am curious to see how this will link to everything else, but I won't be surprised if there is no link at all.

Batman Detective Comics #6

Wham!!! Suddenly the story is all complicated and cool, although that short issue last issue could have gone a long way towards cleaning up the mess that is this issue. Too much happens too soon, and before we know it Batman and Bruce's lover, Charlotte, are in a trap.

Still, Penguin is busy playing the mastermind, putting a bunch of crimelords and supernaturally talented thugs under his thumb. Meanwhile, some jackpot named Snakeskin and his cycloptic colleague seem to be helping Penguin trap and do away with the Bat, being the hands in Penguin's typicaly hands-off scheming.

And there was a little bit of genuine detection going on at the beginning of the story. Unfortunately the detection had already happened and we were only "told" about the detection, but it was nice to see a hint of detection that had nothing to do with assault even if it was only narration in three panels. It's something, at least.

Batman Detective Comics #7

This underwhelming arc comes to a close much too quickly. Too complex for two issues. Once again a lack of any serious detecting by Batman (most of his conclusions this time come from stumbling upon things as they are happening and everything to do with doggedness and nothing to do with intelligence). No emotional core (as there was in New 52's Batman and Batman & Robin). And no clear consequences or conclusions. All of these flaws solidify that this is the worst opening for all of the New 52 Bat-titles, and considering the quality of the others it is a massive let down.

[Tesutamento · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeni 52 dünyasının baştan başlatılmış Batman Detective Comics serisinin ilk cildi yüksek umutlarla başlamasına karşın bu durumu korumak bir kenarda dursun vasat dahi olamıyor.

Altı aylık arayışından sonra nihayet Joker'ı yakalayan ve meşhur Arkham Tımarhanesine tıkan Batman bir soluklanayım diyemeden öğrenir ki Joker kaçmıştır ve hücresinde yüzdüğü suratından arta kalan et parçasını bırakmıştır. Hemen izini sürmeye başlayan Batman görecektir ki Joker'ın kaçmasını yardım eden ve de yüzünü yüzen kişi kendine Dollmaker adını veren, eski bir yamyam katilin oğludur. Üstelik bu çocuğun babasını vuran da sevgili başkomiserimiz Gordon'dan başkası değildir. Gordon'a karşı büyük bir nefret besleyen Dollmaker kurbanlarının suratlarından, uzuvlarından ve hatta organlarından parçalar alıyor, onları kendi sapkın zihniyeti doğrultusunda bir araya getiriyor ve bambaşka bir bütün yaratıyor. Joker'ı bulmak için çıktığı bu yolda Dollmaker ve onun ucubelerine karşı mücadele eden kahramanımız bir Dollmaker'ı kıl payı elinden kaçırıyor.

Kitabın yarısından fazlası bu hikayeye ayrılmışken o kadar tatmin edicilikten uzak bir sonlanışı var ki çıldırmamak elde değil. Daha sonra ne Dollmaker kalıyor ne de Joker. Muhtemelen sonraki ciltler için altyapı hazırlamak amacıyla yapılmış bir hamle ama o kadar zayıf ki kurgu sonraki sayılar için heyecanlanmak bir yana dursun ümit bile besleyemedim.

Araya sıkıştırılmış Hugo Strange'in oğlu ve Catwoman hikayesi var. Sonda görüyoruz ki Hugo oğlunu izliyor ve yanına almak istiyor.
Bu da sonraki sayılar için yapılmış olsa gerek ama sunum çok kötü. Çok aniden görüyoruz. O ana dek gördüğümüz şeyler zaten karman çorman giderken bu çok yersiz hissettirdi.

Artık okurken göz kapaklarımın dahi ağırlaştığı bir hikaye daha var ki o da tipik bir soygun hikayesi. Penguin'in kumarhanesini soymaya çalışan bir çift ile ilgili. Tipik ihanetli bir soygun hikayesi. Arada Bruce'un gazeteci sevgilisi hırsızlardan birinin hastanede yanından alınan ikiz kardeşi falan çıkıyor. Sorun şu ki biz ne o gazeteci kadını tanıyor ve umursuyoruz ne de hırsızlar umrumuzda. Zaten bu hikayedeki kilit isimlerin hepsi ilk kez bu kitapta ortaya çıkan karakterler. Yani geçmişten gelen bir bağımızın olması da mümkün değil.

Tek kitapta bu üç hikaye peş peşe yaşanıyor ama okuyucu sıkmaktan başka pek bir şey yapamıyor. Hikaye geçişleri berbat ne yazık ki. Birden her şeyi unutup hiçbir şey olmamış gibi yeni maceraya geçişi okuyucuyu koparıyor. Hem yazıp hem de çizmek gerçekten büyük bir iş. Yazımından ne kadar sıkıldıysam çizimine de bir o kadar bayıldım diyebilirim. Atmosfer, detaylar ve özen gerçekten üst seviyede. Ne yazık ki hikayeden kopunca onlar da anlamını yitirmeye başlıyor.

[William Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll always remember Tony Daniel for being the guy who made X-Force one of my favorite books of the 90's. His art wasn't as tight oor sleek and slick as other artists like Jim Lee. It was more chaotic, rough and stylistically set apart from the rest of the X books and Marvel in general. After he left to work on Spawn, I didn't really care for any of his work. It all looked like Mcfarlane copycat stuff. Even his work for DC before the reboot still had traces of Mcfarlane in it. But now, Tony Daniel is closer to being himself in this volume of Detective Comics than at any other point in his career. His work is tighter than X-Force, but still has some of the chaotic pencil elements. He's discarded all of the unecessary detail that Mcfarlane throws into his work, all of the curly q's and minutiea that clogged every pore.

Now, if we could just get the man to write a great story, we'd be set. "Faces of Death" isn't bad exactly, but it isn't memorable, either. Especially now when Scott Snyder keeps raising the bar in the Bat-books, it just feels like filler. I mean, it has everything you'd want- the Joker, a new sadistic serial killer, detecting, action, etc- but other than the one iconic image in the book (you'll know it when or if yu read it) there's nothing you'll remember about it a few days after you've read it.

Writing: C
Art: B

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

We start off with what amounts to a horror story dealing with a character called Dollmaker, and this guy you may have heard of called the Joker. This is the story where Joker gets his face removed. I always thought Batman works well in horror stories, and it worked here. Then we get a story with the Penguin that's a little tougher to follow. I still think Tony Daniel's art is his strong suit rather than his writing, but this was pretty good.

[Valentin Derevlean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un volum care începe promițător se și termină dezastruos. Are două povești, prima mai mult decât decentă, cu Batman urmărind un psihopat pe nume Dollmaker care îi aranjează fața și lui Joker de altfel, o poveste interesantă, bine desenată, dar care pare cumva să nu aibă finalitate. De altfel, o parte a story-ului de aici e continuat în alte serii. A doua poveste, despre cazinoul plutitor al lui Penguin și noile-vechile sale mașinării, plus o serie de răufăcători interesant desenați, cu nume nu chiar așa geniale, e plictisitoarea și pare extrem de diferită de prima și fără nicio legătură cu ea. Arta e în regulă, dar nu compensează deloc povestea încâlcită și lipsită de orice tensiune.

Să nu uităm că partea de tuș îi revine lui Sandu Florea care face o treabă foarte bună. Iar acest prim volum, ce face parte din universul New 52 e acceptabil, dar pălește în fața seriei scrisă de Scott Snyder, ceea ce era de așteptat până la un punct.

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

While the art is truly solid and there are some decent moments within Batman's internal thoughts, these elements can't save New 52 Detective Comics from feeling like a slog to get through.

It's true that some artists can write a hell of a script, but Tony S. Daniel isn't one of them. His sluggish pacing mixed with boring dialogue really makes this first volume drag on and on.

On top of that, neither the Dollmaker nor the Penguin storyline is very interesting. The Penguin is just lame here, and the Dollmaker is beyond edgy—neither arc does anything but deliver a bunch of fake-outs. Plus, the Joker feels completely shoehorned in.

Overall, this volume is entirely skippable, saved only by its great art. I'd give it a 2 out of 5.

[Nerdish Mum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to follow.