What do you think?
Rate this book
Batman: Detective Comics by Mariko Tamaki
Batman: Detective Comics, Vol. 1: The Neighborhood
With the loss of his fortune and manor, the election of Mayor Nakano, and the growing anti-vigilante sentiment in Gotham, Bruce Wayne must rethink how to be Batman...or risk being left behind by his own city.
Introducing Mr. Worth! When his daughter is killed during the brutal crime wave gripping Gotham City, eight-foot-tall stack of muscle and money Roland Worth sets out on a path of revenge toward the prime suspect in the crime: Batman! The Dark Knight has been framed for murder, and to make matters worse, this grisly deed seems to be connected to yet another emerging villainous force on the horizon. It's a rogues gallery explosion, and this time there's no mansion on the hill for Bruce Wayne to mount his counterattack from! Eisner Award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki and superstar artist Dan Mora begin an exciting, surprising, and death-defying new story for the World's Greatest Detective.
Includes Detective Comics #1034-1039.
Introducing Mr. Worth! When his daughter is killed during the brutal crime wave gripping Gotham City, eight-foot-tall stack of muscle and money Roland Worth sets out on a path of revenge toward the prime suspect in the crime: Batman! The Dark Knight has been framed for murder, and to make matters worse, this grisly deed seems to be connected to yet another emerging villainous force on the horizon. It's a rogues gallery explosion, and this time there's no mansion on the hill for Bruce Wayne to mount his counterattack from! Eisner Award-winning writer Mariko Tamaki and superstar artist Dan Mora begin an exciting, surprising, and death-defying new story for the World's Greatest Detective.
Includes Detective Comics #1034-1039.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published February 8, 2022
102 people are currently reading
373 people want to read
About the author
Mariko Tamaki
378 books2,228 followersMariko Tamaki is a Toronto writer, playwright, activist and performer. She works and performs with fat activists Pretty Porky and Pissed Off and the theatre troupe TOA, whose recent play, A vs. B, was staged at the 2004 Rhubarb Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Her well-received novel, Cover Me (McGilligan Books) was followed by a short fiction collection, True Lies: The Book of Bad Advice (Women's Press). Mariko's third book, FAKE ID, is due out in spring 2005.
Mariko Tamaki has performed her work across Canada and through the States, recently appearing at the Calgary Folkfest 2004, Vancouver Writer's Festival 2003, Spatial III, and the Perpetual Motion/Girls Bite Back Tour, which circled though Ottawa, Montreal, Brooklyn and Chicago. She has appeared widely on radio and television including First Person Singular on CBC radio and Imprint on TVO. Mariko Tamaki is currently attending York University working a master's degree in women's studies.
[MacMIllan Books]
Mariko Tamaki has performed her work across Canada and through the States, recently appearing at the Calgary Folkfest 2004, Vancouver Writer's Festival 2003, Spatial III, and the Perpetual Motion/Girls Bite Back Tour, which circled though Ottawa, Montreal, Brooklyn and Chicago. She has appeared widely on radio and television including First Person Singular on CBC radio and Imprint on TVO. Mariko Tamaki is currently attending York University working a master's degree in women's studies.
[MacMIllan Books]
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
March 8, 2022
Newly-billion-less Bruce Wayne has had to move into the rough and tumble upper-middle class district of Gotham and take a, gasp, apartment in lieu of his stately manor, where he must attend house parties without his butler making excuses on his behalf - oh, the hardship! Coincidentally, shortly after Bruce moves in, his neighbours start getting murdered. Could it have something to do with new eyepatch-wearing Mayor Nakano or his administration? Meanwhile, Huntress searches for the killer of her weird friend.
Peter Tomasi’s reign of terror on Detective Comics is thankfully over but I wasn’t thrilled to see his replacement was Mariko Tamaki. I’ve not read a huge amount of her comics but I’ve yet to come across any that were even half good - and unfortunately that trend continues with her first Detective Comics book, Batz n the Hood.
The setup is ok. I’m fine with the new paradigm of Bruce slumming it for a while (or at least his version of slumming it), and some of the new characters seem alright, even if Roland Worth’s character design is absurdly cartoonish - he looks like he took all the steroids and had a Hulk for dessert. And that panel where he’s pointing an insanely gigantic handgun at Vile’s head made me LOL.
But that’s the problem with Tamaki’s plot: it’s childishly cartoonish in its solution. The murders, fine, but the killer? Er, no. Without going into spoilers, that was just too silly. I hate when writers resort to supernatural elements - it feels lazy and contrived, as it does here.
Still, the Huntress subplot of her looking for Mary Knox’s killer was surprisingly compelling until it got folded into Batman’s increasingly daffy plot. Hue Vile is a terrible character through and through - name, powers, backstory; it’s all bad.
There are a number of shorts included that are scattered between chapters of the main story to little effect and none were any good. The worst one is the John Ridley/Dustin Nguyen short that’s reprinted from another book, while the Hue Vile short, written by some lunatic calling themselves “T. Rex” (unless the band itself wrote it), was boring and crappy. Karl Mostert’s art on the pointless reporter and Penguin shorts was decent though.
And the art on the main story was excellent too. The exemplary Dan Mora made the jump from Boom to DC, having done great work on Grant Morrison’s Batman-esque Klaus, and he’s a great fit on Batman proper, as I knew he would be. Clayton Henry’s work on the Huntress chapters was strong as well and Viktor Bogdanovic somehow managed to make his art uncannily seem like Greg Capullo’s at times, which wasn’t unwelcome.
It doesn’t add up to a particularly impressive opening book for Tamaki’s run though. The story starts ok but quickly becomes messy and dull before ending in a blur of stupid. Nobody’s going to remember this storyline - I just read it and I’ve already forgotten most of it. As bad as almost all of Tomasi’s Detective Comics run was, his first volume was pretty decent. I recommend checking out Detective Comics, Volume 1: Mythology over Tamaki’s dreary Volume 1: The Neighborhood.
Peter Tomasi’s reign of terror on Detective Comics is thankfully over but I wasn’t thrilled to see his replacement was Mariko Tamaki. I’ve not read a huge amount of her comics but I’ve yet to come across any that were even half good - and unfortunately that trend continues with her first Detective Comics book, Batz n the Hood.
The setup is ok. I’m fine with the new paradigm of Bruce slumming it for a while (or at least his version of slumming it), and some of the new characters seem alright, even if Roland Worth’s character design is absurdly cartoonish - he looks like he took all the steroids and had a Hulk for dessert. And that panel where he’s pointing an insanely gigantic handgun at Vile’s head made me LOL.
But that’s the problem with Tamaki’s plot: it’s childishly cartoonish in its solution. The murders, fine, but the killer? Er, no. Without going into spoilers, that was just too silly. I hate when writers resort to supernatural elements - it feels lazy and contrived, as it does here.
Still, the Huntress subplot of her looking for Mary Knox’s killer was surprisingly compelling until it got folded into Batman’s increasingly daffy plot. Hue Vile is a terrible character through and through - name, powers, backstory; it’s all bad.
There are a number of shorts included that are scattered between chapters of the main story to little effect and none were any good. The worst one is the John Ridley/Dustin Nguyen short that’s reprinted from another book, while the Hue Vile short, written by some lunatic calling themselves “T. Rex” (unless the band itself wrote it), was boring and crappy. Karl Mostert’s art on the pointless reporter and Penguin shorts was decent though.
And the art on the main story was excellent too. The exemplary Dan Mora made the jump from Boom to DC, having done great work on Grant Morrison’s Batman-esque Klaus, and he’s a great fit on Batman proper, as I knew he would be. Clayton Henry’s work on the Huntress chapters was strong as well and Viktor Bogdanovic somehow managed to make his art uncannily seem like Greg Capullo’s at times, which wasn’t unwelcome.
It doesn’t add up to a particularly impressive opening book for Tamaki’s run though. The story starts ok but quickly becomes messy and dull before ending in a blur of stupid. Nobody’s going to remember this storyline - I just read it and I’ve already forgotten most of it. As bad as almost all of Tomasi’s Detective Comics run was, his first volume was pretty decent. I recommend checking out Detective Comics, Volume 1: Mythology over Tamaki’s dreary Volume 1: The Neighborhood.
July 23, 2022
I enjoyed this book. For me it started much stronger than it finished. This was both in story and artwork.
Since the Joker War both Batman and Bruce Wayne has had to make changes. Batman has had to mobilise with limited resources and micro caves. Bruce still lives in the upper end of society but has neighbours for the first time. However the murder of an heiress is going to force another war. How or what is pulling yhe strings here?
I really liked how the story started, showing Bruce putting in hard labour as well as keeping up appearances, but Batman's effectiveness compromised by not having his former status with the police. Also not having all the gadgets, labs or Alfred. The artwork in the girst half of the book was great, not my favorite towards the last issue.
A good story continues the theme of the changing Gotham and hiw Batman need to adapt. Also a good step a others reclaiming their power and position as well. The book finishes with a varient and sketch book gallery.
Since the Joker War both Batman and Bruce Wayne has had to make changes. Batman has had to mobilise with limited resources and micro caves. Bruce still lives in the upper end of society but has neighbours for the first time. However the murder of an heiress is going to force another war. How or what is pulling yhe strings here?
I really liked how the story started, showing Bruce putting in hard labour as well as keeping up appearances, but Batman's effectiveness compromised by not having his former status with the police. Also not having all the gadgets, labs or Alfred. The artwork in the girst half of the book was great, not my favorite towards the last issue.
A good story continues the theme of the changing Gotham and hiw Batman need to adapt. Also a good step a others reclaiming their power and position as well. The book finishes with a varient and sketch book gallery.
March 5, 2022
Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 1: The Neighborhood collects issues 1034-1039 of the DC Comics series written by Mariko Tamaki, with art by Dan Mora and Viktor Bogdanovic. My first review of a DC superhero comics series in a long time, and mainly because I am very much a Mariko Tamaki fan, though I much prefer her indie work (Skim, This One Summer, Laura DEan Keeps Breakig Up with Me) to the flurry of superhero work she has been doing in recent years.
Still, it is important to consider the contribution a queer woman of color to the largely conservative corporate straight male comics enterprise. She has put her stamp on a remarkable number of superhero stories such as Wonderwoman, She-Hulk, and Supergirl, but also Lara Croft, Loki, and so many others. My estimation of this corporate work is that it is not quite as good as the indie stuff, but I am glad to see even the slightest queering she does of all these narratives. And her feminist perspective is welcome, even as I imagine the DC guys upstairs holding their noses as they write her checks.
The world of superheroes and Big House Comics is still very much the province of straight white males, but if I take a look at even the reviews here, I see that women like her work more than men. Maybe that should come as no surprise, and maybe that's her primary goal--to just help women and girls and the lgbtq community see themselves more in these stories, to help them see more of the perspectives of girls and women and gbltq folks in their beloved superhero books.
What Tamaki accomplishes in her Batman turn is to largely ignore Batman, leave him as is, but to have us consider someone other than Catwoman as a crime-fighting partner, and she poses
Huntress in that role. I’m going to skip telling you the mostly silly plot threads, you can read other reviews for that, but her main work here is to focus on the place/role of women in this world. Lady Clayface, Sarah Worth, Mary Knox, Gotham Gazette reporter Deb Donovan. When in the many runs of Batman have men had threads about domestic violence, except to say women-in-peril, men to the rescue? Okay, I know Tamaki is not alone i this work, we have Joelle Jones doing Catwoman, and much more out there. But Batman is a huge challenge, how to queer that world, and I applaud her for taking on the challenge, even if she not so successful here as I'd wish.
I mean, who cares if Bat is once again the suspect in a murder?! We already know how that will turn out, right? The Huntress’ role in solving the mystery of who killed Sarah Worth is not as great or memorable as I wanted it to be, but if we also consider the contribution of reporter Deb Donovan, you know, adding these women has some potential in future volumes. At this point I think it is a relatively modest intervention of a feminist perspective on this world, but I am happy to see what Huntress might contribute to the saga.
The DC ad copy above doesn’t even mention Huntress! And most reviewers don’t seem to say much about her either, which is maybe (in part) to say that she is not yet all that that captivating a character (yet?). I go back to my original contention, that Tamaki’s indie work is way better than her supe stuff, but I am still glad to see her work here. And I like her sense of humor. Tamaki, a queer stand-up comedy star, brings something of that fun to her comics writing.
I agree, still, that some of the very best aspects of this volume are the artwork of Dan Mora and Viktor Bogdanovic. REally good stuff, better than most of Tamaki's supe collaborations. But go, Tamaki! I dunno, 3.5 stars?
Still, it is important to consider the contribution a queer woman of color to the largely conservative corporate straight male comics enterprise. She has put her stamp on a remarkable number of superhero stories such as Wonderwoman, She-Hulk, and Supergirl, but also Lara Croft, Loki, and so many others. My estimation of this corporate work is that it is not quite as good as the indie stuff, but I am glad to see even the slightest queering she does of all these narratives. And her feminist perspective is welcome, even as I imagine the DC guys upstairs holding their noses as they write her checks.
The world of superheroes and Big House Comics is still very much the province of straight white males, but if I take a look at even the reviews here, I see that women like her work more than men. Maybe that should come as no surprise, and maybe that's her primary goal--to just help women and girls and the lgbtq community see themselves more in these stories, to help them see more of the perspectives of girls and women and gbltq folks in their beloved superhero books.
What Tamaki accomplishes in her Batman turn is to largely ignore Batman, leave him as is, but to have us consider someone other than Catwoman as a crime-fighting partner, and she poses
Huntress in that role. I’m going to skip telling you the mostly silly plot threads, you can read other reviews for that, but her main work here is to focus on the place/role of women in this world. Lady Clayface, Sarah Worth, Mary Knox, Gotham Gazette reporter Deb Donovan. When in the many runs of Batman have men had threads about domestic violence, except to say women-in-peril, men to the rescue? Okay, I know Tamaki is not alone i this work, we have Joelle Jones doing Catwoman, and much more out there. But Batman is a huge challenge, how to queer that world, and I applaud her for taking on the challenge, even if she not so successful here as I'd wish.
I mean, who cares if Bat is once again the suspect in a murder?! We already know how that will turn out, right? The Huntress’ role in solving the mystery of who killed Sarah Worth is not as great or memorable as I wanted it to be, but if we also consider the contribution of reporter Deb Donovan, you know, adding these women has some potential in future volumes. At this point I think it is a relatively modest intervention of a feminist perspective on this world, but I am happy to see what Huntress might contribute to the saga.
The DC ad copy above doesn’t even mention Huntress! And most reviewers don’t seem to say much about her either, which is maybe (in part) to say that she is not yet all that that captivating a character (yet?). I go back to my original contention, that Tamaki’s indie work is way better than her supe stuff, but I am still glad to see her work here. And I like her sense of humor. Tamaki, a queer stand-up comedy star, brings something of that fun to her comics writing.
I agree, still, that some of the very best aspects of this volume are the artwork of Dan Mora and Viktor Bogdanovic. REally good stuff, better than most of Tamaki's supe collaborations. But go, Tamaki! I dunno, 3.5 stars?
July 22, 2022
Bruce Wayne is poor now. Well, poorer. He's still rich enough that he owns a brownstone in the city (which makes him a multimillionaire at the least.) But now he has neighbors. It was a nice touch that was almost instantly ruined by this story as the neighbors were all used as cannon fodder for the story. Everyone introduced at the party Bruce goes to either died or almost died.
Someone is going around murdering young women. Mr. Worth gets involved when his daughter dies and he's a caricature of a villain, all anger and oversized muscles. He's drawn larger than Bane. In one scene he holds a handgun up to someone's head and the gun is bigger than the person's head. The bad guy behind it all is just plain stupid. A Mr. Mind that feeds off violence. Huntress may be the main character in this over Batman.
I felt like all the short stories dispersed through this distract and interrupt the main story. Dan Mora and Greg Capullo clone, Viktor Bogdonavic, make the book look good.
Someone is going around murdering young women. Mr. Worth gets involved when his daughter dies and he's a caricature of a villain, all anger and oversized muscles. He's drawn larger than Bane. In one scene he holds a handgun up to someone's head and the gun is bigger than the person's head. The bad guy behind it all is just plain stupid. A Mr. Mind that feeds off violence. Huntress may be the main character in this over Batman.
I felt like all the short stories dispersed through this distract and interrupt the main story. Dan Mora and Greg Capullo clone, Viktor Bogdonavic, make the book look good.
March 23, 2022
This was an interesting one for sure but umm yeah not the greatest.
So it starts with Bruce living somewhere else for starters in a new neighborhood and the writer does a good job of introducing new people here and there and she does a good job of it but when two people like Sarah and Lydia are murdered, Bruce is under the suspicion of having killed them and well from there we follow the drama of it all and what else happens. Mr Roland worth, one of the pioneers of Lower gotham having lost his daughter Sarah takes it on himself to go after Bruce and well he attacks him on all fronts and so Batman has to dodge his attacks meanwhile also investigating some mystery with Lady Clayface and also Huntress is there (and we get her backstory which was kinda okay and interesting) but when one other person is taken and the secret person: Hue Vile is revealed it will change a lot of things.
I like that the backups that detail whatever is happening with Huntress, Penguin and the crazy origin of Hue Vile and relate to the main story and gives them proper motivations but it can become a lot and seriously hinder the pace of reading the main story and so yeah it could have done a better job with it.
But then again we see that climactic ending as Batman has to fight Worth and Vile and also a great change for Huntress and what Bruce does next which will change a lot of things in this book going forward.
Its an okayish volume and yeah not many people will like it, unlike the main book this one is more grounded and focuses on inter-personal drama and plays with a large cast and also focuses on their motivations and gives back up to every other character which can make this a big read and intimidating but still Tamaki does a good job at fleshing them out and giving new threats to Batman in this new neighborhood plus I love the art of Mora which is just too perfect and feels modern unlike other books! So yeah a good recommend!
So it starts with Bruce living somewhere else for starters in a new neighborhood and the writer does a good job of introducing new people here and there and she does a good job of it but when two people like Sarah and Lydia are murdered, Bruce is under the suspicion of having killed them and well from there we follow the drama of it all and what else happens. Mr Roland worth, one of the pioneers of Lower gotham having lost his daughter Sarah takes it on himself to go after Bruce and well he attacks him on all fronts and so Batman has to dodge his attacks meanwhile also investigating some mystery with Lady Clayface and also Huntress is there (and we get her backstory which was kinda okay and interesting) but when one other person is taken and the secret person: Hue Vile is revealed it will change a lot of things.
I like that the backups that detail whatever is happening with Huntress, Penguin and the crazy origin of Hue Vile and relate to the main story and gives them proper motivations but it can become a lot and seriously hinder the pace of reading the main story and so yeah it could have done a better job with it.
But then again we see that climactic ending as Batman has to fight Worth and Vile and also a great change for Huntress and what Bruce does next which will change a lot of things in this book going forward.
Its an okayish volume and yeah not many people will like it, unlike the main book this one is more grounded and focuses on inter-personal drama and plays with a large cast and also focuses on their motivations and gives back up to every other character which can make this a big read and intimidating but still Tamaki does a good job at fleshing them out and giving new threats to Batman in this new neighborhood plus I love the art of Mora which is just too perfect and feels modern unlike other books! So yeah a good recommend!
March 5, 2022
Mariko Tamaki is hit or miss when it comes to her superhero books, but she's always worth a look. Alas, this take on Batman is another miss.
A downscaled Bruce Wayne hangs out in his new townhouse in the Fort Graye neighborhood of Gotham City and gets to know his neighbors just in time for them to start dying and for him to get fingered as a suspect. The angry father of one of the dead women is targeting Wayne for revenge, and its just plain stupid how he keeps getting bigger and more hulk-like with larger and larger guns as the book progresses even though he is ostensibly just a construction executive.
A lot of time is spent with the new mayor of Gotham even though he never does anything interesting. A killer parasite never becomes interesting no matter how many people he kills. Tucked in amongst the main storyline chapters are a bunch of boring little stories by various creators.
Time to set Detective Comics aside and wait for Tamaki's next superhero title.
A downscaled Bruce Wayne hangs out in his new townhouse in the Fort Graye neighborhood of Gotham City and gets to know his neighbors just in time for them to start dying and for him to get fingered as a suspect. The angry father of one of the dead women is targeting Wayne for revenge, and its just plain stupid how he keeps getting bigger and more hulk-like with larger and larger guns as the book progresses even though he is ostensibly just a construction executive.
A lot of time is spent with the new mayor of Gotham even though he never does anything interesting. A killer parasite never becomes interesting no matter how many people he kills. Tucked in amongst the main storyline chapters are a bunch of boring little stories by various creators.
Time to set Detective Comics aside and wait for Tamaki's next superhero title.
September 7, 2024
My first Batman book for quite some time, and definitely the closest to current continuity, and it was OK, I suppose.
It was hindered visually by a switch of penciller partway through and multiple inkers, often within the same issue.
Story-wise, it was quite entertaining but nothing special. They also completely failed to explain Batman’s current status at any point. Apparently, Bruce had recently lost most of his money and his ancestral home, but there was no attempt to explain to any new readers, myself being one of them, as to how this happened. Considering this was the start of a new run by a new writer, this is an even worse failing.
It was hindered visually by a switch of penciller partway through and multiple inkers, often within the same issue.
Story-wise, it was quite entertaining but nothing special. They also completely failed to explain Batman’s current status at any point. Apparently, Bruce had recently lost most of his money and his ancestral home, but there was no attempt to explain to any new readers, myself being one of them, as to how this happened. Considering this was the start of a new run by a new writer, this is an even worse failing.
Read
October 7, 2023Ten years ago, I was an obsessive comic book collector, and Batman & Detective Comics were my favourite series’. But I started living that nomad life and fell away from comics for several years. Now, I’m ready to jump back in and see what the Batscape looks like.
The Neighbourhood did not disappoint. It proved a great jumping-on point for someone who’s been out of the loop since Snyder stopped writing Batman. Tamaki is a writer who has managed to inject some much-needed social politics into modern Batman, with discussions of police corruption, class divides, and much more. Beyond that, she introduces a whole new villain: Hue Vile. A slimy politician whose horror-inspired methods of madness truly send shivers down the spine.
Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora prove to be a brilliant team, and I’m so excited to jump back into the world of Batman comics.
The Neighbourhood did not disappoint. It proved a great jumping-on point for someone who’s been out of the loop since Snyder stopped writing Batman. Tamaki is a writer who has managed to inject some much-needed social politics into modern Batman, with discussions of police corruption, class divides, and much more. Beyond that, she introduces a whole new villain: Hue Vile. A slimy politician whose horror-inspired methods of madness truly send shivers down the spine.
Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora prove to be a brilliant team, and I’m so excited to jump back into the world of Batman comics.
May 6, 2023
Written by Mariko Tamaki and art by Dan Mora, The Neighborhood sees Gotham’s dark knight retooling his approach on how to be Batman now that his status, as in Bruce Wayne has been downgraded from being a billionaire to a -gasp- millionaire with the growing anti-vigilante sentiment in the city, stroke by the newly elected mayor Nakano. In the middle of this however sees a crime wave rising and one of Bruce's neighbour murder.
IT’S NOT SET IN STONE BUT…
While it’s not set in stone, Detective Comic is predominantly where writers would tell stories that are smaller in scale compared to the bombastic or grand style in the main title. Think of the small natured crime and episodic run of Paul Dini, detective centric of Scott Snyder’s run, noir laden story of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato’s run and both of Greg Rucka two run that are introspective and personal to his Bat(s). And this does continue in Tamaki’s run, at least for the first half where it starts as a “whodunit” type mystery with Batman tries to figure out who killed his neighbour. It, however started to go south once it took a turn into a different direction.
VANILLA POLTERGEIST SNAKE
The sudden shift in tone does a lot of undoing to the elements that were set up earlier in the first half of the volume and the way the story ends is a rather dull affair. The main enemy in this volume is just a huge reminder why it should’ve stuck with the earlier tone and ended it that way because, sometimes a low-tech Batman stories investigating a mundane mystery would’ve been just worth it if the writer could stick the landing.
Element of targeting the rich which the main villain embodies wasn’t brought up or highlighted The neighborhood where Bruce Wayne coming in to stay should’ve play a larger role but neither Bruce nor the people of that neighborhood comes in to play a larger role in the end. The anti-vigilante element's role was scaled down and in the end put on hold once the story switches tone and the story focuses on the main villain – Mr. Worth . All of these would’ve elevated the story higher but it seems that Tamaki, in her own words said that when it comes to superhero comics, she decides it’s better to be popcorn fun and it reflects very much in the story.
WHEN IT COMES TO ART…
Unlike the writing however, the art by Dan Mora and colours by Jordie Bellaire are great throughout and it’s what kept me coming back once I was passed the first half.
POPCORN
In the end, Mariko Tamaki’s start to her Tec run is, to put it nicely is nothing more than mediocre. Tamaki, who has had great graphic novels written and won an award for, shows that she rather not applied that same level of writing here just because it’s a superhero comic or it where she decides to not burden herself with high level of writing and instead opted for something that’s less serious and trended towards fun, because it’s a superhero comic. Who knows, but the output between the pages shows and it is less then stellar with great art.
IT’S NOT SET IN STONE BUT…
While it’s not set in stone, Detective Comic is predominantly where writers would tell stories that are smaller in scale compared to the bombastic or grand style in the main title. Think of the small natured crime and episodic run of Paul Dini, detective centric of Scott Snyder’s run, noir laden story of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato’s run and both of Greg Rucka two run that are introspective and personal to his Bat(s). And this does continue in Tamaki’s run, at least for the first half where it starts as a “whodunit” type mystery with Batman tries to figure out who killed his neighbour. It, however started to go south once it took a turn into a different direction.
VANILLA POLTERGEIST SNAKE
The sudden shift in tone does a lot of undoing to the elements that were set up earlier in the first half of the volume and the way the story ends is a rather dull affair. The main enemy in this volume is just a huge reminder why it should’ve stuck with the earlier tone and ended it that way because, sometimes a low-tech Batman stories investigating a mundane mystery would’ve been just worth it if the writer could stick the landing.
Element of targeting the rich which the main villain embodies wasn’t brought up or highlighted The neighborhood where Bruce Wayne coming in to stay should’ve play a larger role but neither Bruce nor the people of that neighborhood comes in to play a larger role in the end. The anti-vigilante element's role was scaled down and in the end put on hold once the story switches tone and the story focuses on the main villain – Mr. Worth . All of these would’ve elevated the story higher but it seems that Tamaki, in her own words said that when it comes to superhero comics, she decides it’s better to be popcorn fun and it reflects very much in the story.
WHEN IT COMES TO ART…
Unlike the writing however, the art by Dan Mora and colours by Jordie Bellaire are great throughout and it’s what kept me coming back once I was passed the first half.
POPCORN
In the end, Mariko Tamaki’s start to her Tec run is, to put it nicely is nothing more than mediocre. Tamaki, who has had great graphic novels written and won an award for, shows that she rather not applied that same level of writing here just because it’s a superhero comic or it where she decides to not burden herself with high level of writing and instead opted for something that’s less serious and trended towards fun, because it’s a superhero comic. Who knows, but the output between the pages shows and it is less then stellar with great art.
July 13, 2021
Tamaki’s run started off well but has ventured into ultra-generic-land. Mediocre Batman tales are usually still good enough to read in my book so I’m still onboard but I’d lower my expectations if you are hoping for something better than that.
November 25, 2025
God, that was bad. Overwritten far-fetched mixed salad piling up the most detestable – and ridiculous – characters like Lego bricks, plus an out-of-place villain with no personality and a name worthy of competing in the top 5 most idiotic names.
July 18, 2022
I really wanted to like this. I really did.
There are some interesting ideas here to play with, on a conceptual level! For instance: Bruce Wayne is no longer uber-rich, but is now merely upper-middle class... which means he has neighbors! Neighbors that he might have to engage with like a normal person! This could actually be an interesting way to humanize Bruce Wayne!
Also, the villain, Mr. Worth, seems on the surface to be an overt critique of billionaire industrialists-- a perfect counterpoint to Bruce's new socio-economic status, and a repudiation of wealth as power in our society. Batman vs. The Man? Hell yeah, I want to see that!
... Sadly, this book doesn't use ANY of these concepts to their fullest.
To begin with, Bruce's neighbors? They're just props. We meet four new characters in the first issue of the trade, and three of them end up dead-- the first dying within a single issue to jump-start a police investigation and get Bruce Wayne framed for murder. He only gets a single scene with them (in which he barely says anything) to establish that he kinda likes these people before they start dying off... because Batman needs to be personally invested in the victims of a murder investigation to make it dramatic, I guess?
Well, no... it's actually lazier than that. Because you see, the first victim is the daughter of the aforementioned Mr. Worth, and when Bruce Wayne is named as a suspect, Worth targets Bruce for vengeance-- which is literally the only reason Batman is fighting Mr. Worth at ALL.
(*sigh*)... Y'see, the real failure of this volume is with its villains. Because Mr. Worth, despite being designed to resemble some late-19th-century robber baron, is actually just a one-note, brutish thug who yells angrily a lot and whose only criminal acts (that we're shown directly) are attempts to avenge his daughter's death* by killing Bruce Wayne. Personally. With a f@#$ing rocket launcher. Which he fires from a public sidewalk directly at a police station. All told, it's kind of the stupidest, messiest, least-efficient, least-likely-to-succeed method of assassination I could possible imagine-- and it makes Worth look like a blithering idiot. The guy is also inexplicably seven feet tall and built like a brick sh*thouse (because... he made his money in construction, I guess...?), so he keeps getting into punch-fights with Batman because... that's all this character has to offer. He's a half-baked Kingpin rip-off.
* - You would think that the framework of a billionaire trying to avenge the death of his murdered loved one would be used to create some sort of thematic parallel between Mr. Worth and Batman-- maybe cause Bruce to question the collateral damage his own crusade has wrought upon Gotham and its citizens-- but... nope! That obvious point of comparison goes completely unexamined.
And as one-note as the shout-y rich punch-y man is... he's still not as flat as the ACTUAL main villain of the book: a political aid named, I kid you not, "Hue Vile", who is host to some kind of weird alien parasite-monster that feeds on random acts of violence (???), and which infects other people to commit random murders to sate its appetite. So Vile's whole character profile is that he's just... evil. Just an evil bug-monster from a swamp that likes makin' people kill other people.
And that is boring as f@#$.
Cosmic evil, as a concept, really doesn't make sense in the context of Batman's world, where the monsters are human and the scale is civic (I mean, for f@#$'s sake, the title of this storyline is LITERALLY "The Neighborhood"!). So the fact that Hue Vile jump-starts every facet of the plot-- for no clearer reason that "hungering" for violence and chaos-- creates this disconnect where the story is set in motion by a largely unmotivated inciting incident. There's no meaning behind any of the story beats, and there's no clear thematic message at play here besides "boy, random acts of violence sure are awful". The fact that Hue works for the Mayor's office... kinda plays with the idea of civic corruption (he uses city resources to cover up evidence of his crimes), but like Mr. Worth's wealth, it's only flimsy window-dressing on a character whose sole dimension is being "the bad guy".
I really wanted to like this. But despite a juicy initial set-up for character development and a potentially thematically-rich idea for a villain... this book really doesn't have much to SAY.
(Oh... but, uh, I guess the Dan Mora artwork was pretty spiffy, at least.)
There are some interesting ideas here to play with, on a conceptual level! For instance: Bruce Wayne is no longer uber-rich, but is now merely upper-middle class... which means he has neighbors! Neighbors that he might have to engage with like a normal person! This could actually be an interesting way to humanize Bruce Wayne!
Also, the villain, Mr. Worth, seems on the surface to be an overt critique of billionaire industrialists-- a perfect counterpoint to Bruce's new socio-economic status, and a repudiation of wealth as power in our society. Batman vs. The Man? Hell yeah, I want to see that!
... Sadly, this book doesn't use ANY of these concepts to their fullest.
To begin with, Bruce's neighbors? They're just props. We meet four new characters in the first issue of the trade, and three of them end up dead-- the first dying within a single issue to jump-start a police investigation and get Bruce Wayne framed for murder. He only gets a single scene with them (in which he barely says anything) to establish that he kinda likes these people before they start dying off... because Batman needs to be personally invested in the victims of a murder investigation to make it dramatic, I guess?
Well, no... it's actually lazier than that. Because you see, the first victim is the daughter of the aforementioned Mr. Worth, and when Bruce Wayne is named as a suspect, Worth targets Bruce for vengeance-- which is literally the only reason Batman is fighting Mr. Worth at ALL.
(*sigh*)... Y'see, the real failure of this volume is with its villains. Because Mr. Worth, despite being designed to resemble some late-19th-century robber baron, is actually just a one-note, brutish thug who yells angrily a lot and whose only criminal acts (that we're shown directly) are attempts to avenge his daughter's death* by killing Bruce Wayne. Personally. With a f@#$ing rocket launcher. Which he fires from a public sidewalk directly at a police station. All told, it's kind of the stupidest, messiest, least-efficient, least-likely-to-succeed method of assassination I could possible imagine-- and it makes Worth look like a blithering idiot. The guy is also inexplicably seven feet tall and built like a brick sh*thouse (because... he made his money in construction, I guess...?), so he keeps getting into punch-fights with Batman because... that's all this character has to offer. He's a half-baked Kingpin rip-off.
* - You would think that the framework of a billionaire trying to avenge the death of his murdered loved one would be used to create some sort of thematic parallel between Mr. Worth and Batman-- maybe cause Bruce to question the collateral damage his own crusade has wrought upon Gotham and its citizens-- but... nope! That obvious point of comparison goes completely unexamined.
And as one-note as the shout-y rich punch-y man is... he's still not as flat as the ACTUAL main villain of the book: a political aid named, I kid you not, "Hue Vile", who is host to some kind of weird alien parasite-monster that feeds on random acts of violence (???), and which infects other people to commit random murders to sate its appetite. So Vile's whole character profile is that he's just... evil. Just an evil bug-monster from a swamp that likes makin' people kill other people.
And that is boring as f@#$.
Cosmic evil, as a concept, really doesn't make sense in the context of Batman's world, where the monsters are human and the scale is civic (I mean, for f@#$'s sake, the title of this storyline is LITERALLY "The Neighborhood"!). So the fact that Hue Vile jump-starts every facet of the plot-- for no clearer reason that "hungering" for violence and chaos-- creates this disconnect where the story is set in motion by a largely unmotivated inciting incident. There's no meaning behind any of the story beats, and there's no clear thematic message at play here besides "boy, random acts of violence sure are awful". The fact that Hue works for the Mayor's office... kinda plays with the idea of civic corruption (he uses city resources to cover up evidence of his crimes), but like Mr. Worth's wealth, it's only flimsy window-dressing on a character whose sole dimension is being "the bad guy".
I really wanted to like this. But despite a juicy initial set-up for character development and a potentially thematically-rich idea for a villain... this book really doesn't have much to SAY.
(Oh... but, uh, I guess the Dan Mora artwork was pretty spiffy, at least.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 24, 2022
Прочитав арку «Детективні комікси», (2021) #1034-1039, де на заміну Пітеру Томасі на онґоїнґ прийшла Маріко Тамакі.
Брюс Вейн втратив усе своє багатство і тепер живе у багатоквартирному будинку, намагаючись зрозуміти, що далі робити Брюс Вейну і Бетмену. Адже у зв'язку із обранням мера Накано та вбивством знайомої сусідки, доньки кримінального боса Ворта, він стає головним підозрюваним у злочині. Настрої у Ґотемі не у користь Бетмена і все у комплексі веде до того, що він може втратити це місто.
Ідеї в цій арці досить цікаві, фінансова проблеми у Брюса, пошук нового місця печери Бетмена, містичне вбивство доньки Ворта, що виглядає новою злодійською силою у Ґотемі, та малюнок Дена Мори й Віктора Боґдановіча, які розділили випуски упродовж сюжету. Натомість сюжет, оповідь, діалоги виглядали мені посередніми. Місцями відчувалося, що Тамакі затягую оповідь і сюжет топчеться на місці. Все ж вийшло досить непогано.
Брюс Вейн втратив усе своє багатство і тепер живе у багатоквартирному будинку, намагаючись зрозуміти, що далі робити Брюс Вейну і Бетмену. Адже у зв'язку із обранням мера Накано та вбивством знайомої сусідки, доньки кримінального боса Ворта, він стає головним підозрюваним у злочині. Настрої у Ґотемі не у користь Бетмена і все у комплексі веде до того, що він може втратити це місто.
Ідеї в цій арці досить цікаві, фінансова проблеми у Брюса, пошук нового місця печери Бетмена, містичне вбивство доньки Ворта, що виглядає новою злодійською силою у Ґотемі, та малюнок Дена Мори й Віктора Боґдановіча, які розділили випуски упродовж сюжету. Натомість сюжет, оповідь, діалоги виглядали мені посередніми. Місцями відчувалося, що Тамакі затягую оповідь і сюжет топчеться на місці. Все ж вийшло досить непогано.
February 15, 2022
Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 1 The Neighborhood collects issues 1034-1039 of the DC Comics series written by Mariko Tamaki and art by Dan Mora and Viktor Bogdanovic.
In the wake of the Joker War, Batman is still getting used to not having his previous resources and operating on a smaller scale. A series of affluent murders in Bruce Waynes new neighborhood has landed him squarely in the middle of the investigation and being targeted by Mr. Worth.
I was liking the beginning of the book but by the third issue, it just became more generic villains trying to target Bruce Wayne, Batman, and Gotham City. Mr. Worth is supposed to be a major playor in Gotham with a lot of cityhistory, but this is the first we are ever hearing of him. Mayor Nakano is supposed to be leading a huge initiative in removing vigilantes, but Gotham City gets blown up in EVERY storyline since Joker War. Am I supposed to take Nakano seriously? And the other villain who is lurking behind the scenes is so extremely obvious that I wasn't even aware it was supposed to be a twist. There are definitely ways to make smaller Batman stories that still have an impact on the character, but I feel like we haven't got any of those stories in years. The generic formula for Batman for the past 5 years is "Lets blow up Gotham."
The art started incredibly strong with Dan Mora, but as usual with DC and Marvel lately, there was artist switch halfway through and it was a drastic difference. Mr. Worth's design is comical. The dude is bigger than Bane. And at one point in the last half of the book, he has pistol that is larger than a missile launcher that he had in the first half.
After two paragraphs of complaining, there were things I liked. I like Bruce and Batman not having his resources, but I feel like we haven't gotten a a proper story that really explains how it impacts him. I enjoyed Batman and Huntress working together and Oracle being back on the scene. I also like the new character of journalist Deb Donovan. Most of the back up stories were pretty interesting as well, especially the ones involving Huntress and Penguin. Ultimately though, the bad and mediocre out weighed the good here.
In the wake of the Joker War, Batman is still getting used to not having his previous resources and operating on a smaller scale. A series of affluent murders in Bruce Waynes new neighborhood has landed him squarely in the middle of the investigation and being targeted by Mr. Worth.
I was liking the beginning of the book but by the third issue, it just became more generic villains trying to target Bruce Wayne, Batman, and Gotham City. Mr. Worth is supposed to be a major playor in Gotham with a lot of cityhistory, but this is the first we are ever hearing of him. Mayor Nakano is supposed to be leading a huge initiative in removing vigilantes, but Gotham City gets blown up in EVERY storyline since Joker War. Am I supposed to take Nakano seriously? And the other villain who is lurking behind the scenes is so extremely obvious that I wasn't even aware it was supposed to be a twist. There are definitely ways to make smaller Batman stories that still have an impact on the character, but I feel like we haven't got any of those stories in years. The generic formula for Batman for the past 5 years is "Lets blow up Gotham."
The art started incredibly strong with Dan Mora, but as usual with DC and Marvel lately, there was artist switch halfway through and it was a drastic difference. Mr. Worth's design is comical. The dude is bigger than Bane. And at one point in the last half of the book, he has pistol that is larger than a missile launcher that he had in the first half.
After two paragraphs of complaining, there were things I liked. I like Bruce and Batman not having his resources, but I feel like we haven't gotten a a proper story that really explains how it impacts him. I enjoyed Batman and Huntress working together and Oracle being back on the scene. I also like the new character of journalist Deb Donovan. Most of the back up stories were pretty interesting as well, especially the ones involving Huntress and Penguin. Ultimately though, the bad and mediocre out weighed the good here.
February 26, 2022
3.5 stars
A promising start to Tamaki’s run that has a kind of goofy main plot. I’m really intrigued with how these issues hint that her Detective Comics run will be a stealth Huntress series, similar to how Tynion’s run was really a BatFamily/Tim Drake series, and her strongly opinionated new journalist character Deb Donovan offers a novel POV to usual Bat-happenings. The parasitic killer main bad guy seems pretty forgettable, though, and the mental health language (e.g. trauma perpetuating cycles of violence) Tamaki tries to dress it up with is just too literal and on-the-nose to add anything meaningful.
Mora’s art is excellent and it’s a blast to see him drawing big name characters. I was sad to see fill-in artists so soon, but glad Bogdanovic’s Capullo-looking style was chosen if someone had to do it. I also really liked some of the small jokes here, like when Huntress breaks up a typical series of panels of Batman monologuing in his own head by asking “Are you talking in your head or what?”
I’m definitely looking forward to the next collection of Tamaki’s issues.
A promising start to Tamaki’s run that has a kind of goofy main plot. I’m really intrigued with how these issues hint that her Detective Comics run will be a stealth Huntress series, similar to how Tynion’s run was really a BatFamily/Tim Drake series, and her strongly opinionated new journalist character Deb Donovan offers a novel POV to usual Bat-happenings. The parasitic killer main bad guy seems pretty forgettable, though, and the mental health language (e.g. trauma perpetuating cycles of violence) Tamaki tries to dress it up with is just too literal and on-the-nose to add anything meaningful.
Mora’s art is excellent and it’s a blast to see him drawing big name characters. I was sad to see fill-in artists so soon, but glad Bogdanovic’s Capullo-looking style was chosen if someone had to do it. I also really liked some of the small jokes here, like when Huntress breaks up a typical series of panels of Batman monologuing in his own head by asking “Are you talking in your head or what?”
I’m definitely looking forward to the next collection of Tamaki’s issues.
May 20, 2022
I'm always in favor of more ground-level Batman, more "Batman-as -detective," and that's how The Neighborhood begins. Bruce Wayne's living in a townhome now, so he has neighbors (yuck!) and those neighbors want to get to know him (double yuck!). But then those neighbors start dying! Detective Batman is on the case!
Unfortunately, The Neighborhood quickly loses focus, rambling into Penguin politics and the mayor's office, and introduces a pair of middling villains in Hue Vile and Roland Worth. Vile has some kind of parasitic creature in him - what starts as a simple detective story quickly and uncomfortably veers into science fiction. Worth is a rage-fueled construction kingpin who steadily grows to Hulk size and strength over the course of the story.
Huntress also slips in for a few side-stories because...Batman always needs a sidekick? The Neighborhood is generally fine, but the promising start wears off fast. I'm inclined to continue skipping the Detective Comics series if even Mariko Tamaki can't make them work.
Unfortunately, The Neighborhood quickly loses focus, rambling into Penguin politics and the mayor's office, and introduces a pair of middling villains in Hue Vile and Roland Worth. Vile has some kind of parasitic creature in him - what starts as a simple detective story quickly and uncomfortably veers into science fiction. Worth is a rage-fueled construction kingpin who steadily grows to Hulk size and strength over the course of the story.
Huntress also slips in for a few side-stories because...Batman always needs a sidekick? The Neighborhood is generally fine, but the promising start wears off fast. I'm inclined to continue skipping the Detective Comics series if even Mariko Tamaki can't make them work.
July 14, 2021
This book had some really interesting themes, like Bruce living among the people of Gotham and being confronted with his privilege. The art was fantastic, and Mora draws a wonderful Bruce Wayne. Tamaki’s stuff has been hit or miss for me, but I really am enjoying this so far. And Huntress has some great content here too! 4/5 stars.
January 28, 2022
In the wake of the Joker War (God, I've been writing that a lot lately), Batman's fortune has been severly depleted. Now, it's up to a pared down, back to basics Batman to defend the streets of Gotham. But new Mayor Nakano, alongside the villainous Mister Worth and the parasitic Vile may make that a bit more difficult than expected.
Mariko Tamaki hits the ground running with her Detective Comics run after a successful Future State entry. It's strange that her Batman is probably the least compelling part of her story, as she weaves in multiple villains and political maneuverings, as well as introducing new Gotham Gazette reporter Deb Donovan (who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite supporting characters) in this first six issue arc.
There's a lot going on in terms of story. With Bruce having to operate with a bit less than he's used to, what looks like a straight forward mystery becomes something far more sinister and something he's almost entirely unprepared for, which makes a nice change. Batman is on the back foot more often than not, and Gotham City itself feels like a real player in the series, something that James Tynion IV has been trying to do in the main Batman title as well.
Also included are most of the back-up stories (the Robin one is missing since it's Part 2 of 2 and will presumably be included in the Robin trade), which help flesh out Tamaki's characters. There's a two-part Huntress story that shows Tamaki's affinity for the character (she'll play a big role in the next two volumes), as well as some Penguin stuff that's laying seeds for the next story, and some secret origins for Deb Donovan and Vile as well. I'm glad DC have included these, since they haven't always - a lot of the Batman back-ups haven't been collected at all, which is a shame.
The artwork's nothing to sniff at either - Tamaki's Future State: Dark Detective collaborator Dan Mora tackles the first three issues in his incomparable style while Viktor Bogdanovic (or Greg Capullo-lite, as I like to call him) handles the back three. The back-up stories include art from Clayton Henry, Karl Mostert, Dustin Nguyen, and Tristan Jones.
The Neighborhood is a bold beginning to what I hope is a long and successful run for Mariko Tamaki. She's flitted about at DC for a while now with some shorter stuff here and there (her Wonder Woman run seemed to be cut sadly short), but I'm really hoping she's allowed to get her teeth into Tec in the way she seems to want to.
Mariko Tamaki hits the ground running with her Detective Comics run after a successful Future State entry. It's strange that her Batman is probably the least compelling part of her story, as she weaves in multiple villains and political maneuverings, as well as introducing new Gotham Gazette reporter Deb Donovan (who is rapidly becoming one of my favourite supporting characters) in this first six issue arc.
There's a lot going on in terms of story. With Bruce having to operate with a bit less than he's used to, what looks like a straight forward mystery becomes something far more sinister and something he's almost entirely unprepared for, which makes a nice change. Batman is on the back foot more often than not, and Gotham City itself feels like a real player in the series, something that James Tynion IV has been trying to do in the main Batman title as well.
Also included are most of the back-up stories (the Robin one is missing since it's Part 2 of 2 and will presumably be included in the Robin trade), which help flesh out Tamaki's characters. There's a two-part Huntress story that shows Tamaki's affinity for the character (she'll play a big role in the next two volumes), as well as some Penguin stuff that's laying seeds for the next story, and some secret origins for Deb Donovan and Vile as well. I'm glad DC have included these, since they haven't always - a lot of the Batman back-ups haven't been collected at all, which is a shame.
The artwork's nothing to sniff at either - Tamaki's Future State: Dark Detective collaborator Dan Mora tackles the first three issues in his incomparable style while Viktor Bogdanovic (or Greg Capullo-lite, as I like to call him) handles the back three. The back-up stories include art from Clayton Henry, Karl Mostert, Dustin Nguyen, and Tristan Jones.
The Neighborhood is a bold beginning to what I hope is a long and successful run for Mariko Tamaki. She's flitted about at DC for a while now with some shorter stuff here and there (her Wonder Woman run seemed to be cut sadly short), but I'm really hoping she's allowed to get her teeth into Tec in the way she seems to want to.
February 18, 2023
I feel like Tamaki wanted to write a Huntress book, but DC rejected it and gave her this instead. Huntress is thrown in here but doesn't add a whole lot to the story. The art does most of the heavy lifting. The story itself is just okay.
November 24, 2022
Poor Batman is as contrived as kryptonite-d Superman - artificially limited to compensate for a lack of authorial ability.
Poor Batman suddenly facing oh-so-Rich New Villain isn't creative or insightful, it's just sad.
Poor Batman suddenly facing oh-so-Rich New Villain isn't creative or insightful, it's just sad.
October 2, 2021
Excellent volume. Introduces a new cast of characters, has a good mystery, and effectively uses underused members of the Batfamily namely Huntress. And the backups are all interesting and help flesh out this new era of Bruce Wayne without money. Excellent art work from Viktor Bogdanovic and Dan Mora.
I really just enjoyed everything about it.
I really just enjoyed everything about it.
February 9, 2022
I never write reviews on this app but this book was so bad despite a great creative team. The story is so dull and uninspired. Steer clear.
November 24, 2023
is there anyone prettier than dan mora's bruce wayne? (the answer is no)
February 26, 2022
Starting off Mariko Tamaki’s run on Detective Comics with some interesting ideas and fun dynamics between Batman and Huntress.
We continue to see a Bruce Wayne that has been removed from his wealth and living in a Gotham neighborhood that begins to experience mysterious deaths. This was a detective story for the first half, that turned into bombastic comic shenanigans in its final act. I really enjoyed the first few issues, as the detective story and killer art by Dan Mora were engaging. The last few issued are still enjoyable, but Mr. Worth was comical in his proportions and often looked silly. Bruce is 6’2 and barely reaches this guys chest in some shots. It also just turns into a generic slug fest by the end.
The issues also begin to lose focus once Vile and Penguin get dragged into the narrative. I think the story should’ve focused on Worth and how the loss of his daughter drove him to the actions seen within. I understand trying to set up further storylines, but Vile and Penguin really distract from the storyline (even when they’re brought into the fold).
Mora and Bogdanovic provide some striking visuals that elevate the entire plot. Their art is worth the price of admission on its own.
Overall, a fun Batman story! I’m excited to see where this arc goes.
We continue to see a Bruce Wayne that has been removed from his wealth and living in a Gotham neighborhood that begins to experience mysterious deaths. This was a detective story for the first half, that turned into bombastic comic shenanigans in its final act. I really enjoyed the first few issues, as the detective story and killer art by Dan Mora were engaging. The last few issued are still enjoyable, but Mr. Worth was comical in his proportions and often looked silly. Bruce is 6’2 and barely reaches this guys chest in some shots. It also just turns into a generic slug fest by the end.
The issues also begin to lose focus once Vile and Penguin get dragged into the narrative. I think the story should’ve focused on Worth and how the loss of his daughter drove him to the actions seen within. I understand trying to set up further storylines, but Vile and Penguin really distract from the storyline (even when they’re brought into the fold).
Mora and Bogdanovic provide some striking visuals that elevate the entire plot. Their art is worth the price of admission on its own.
Overall, a fun Batman story! I’m excited to see where this arc goes.
April 18, 2022
While it’s a good jumping on point for new readers there wasn’t much for the readers who had their share of Batman comics. There isn’t much substance to the book other than the art. The art is what kept me going I love Dan Mora’s work and read anything illustrated by him, but the plot felt very generic and the subplot with the Mayor didn’t add anything to the story. Same goes for the villains it was just okay-ish. A quick read.
Read
March 23, 2025this was mostly fine, enjoyable comics, some interesting ideas about violence and batman's role in a violent world etc that i thought were interesting but not stellar enough to Love this. a big millstone around the neck of this comic is it's picking up in the direct aftermath of joker war, an event i do not care about and whose very name makes my eyes roll into the back of my head....in general i think the rebirth status quo re: batman is not one i am very interested in reading. back to the 90s i go.
September 26, 2022
I really like the way this is framed as pulling Bruce out from Wayne Manor and actually into the heart of Gotham, where he's much more scrutinized by both his neighbors and law enforcement. I wish I was invested in the villain, because that aspect felt very color-by-number and really drew me away from the story.
September 20, 2024
This volume has a lot of dumb elements: a journalist who writes articles at an 8 year old reading level, a middle aged rich guy who is bigger and stronger than Bane, not to mention the main villain being a tapeworm. But overall it's very fun and it certainly does a better job than Tynion at exploring Batman's new status quo.
April 30, 2022
Interesting new arc in the Bat Chronicles. I liked the horror elements and the appearance of Huntress
Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews