Batman Detective Comics #23

Batman Detective Comics #23 was more of the Wrath storyline.  Frankly this story is getting old yet again Batman is not smart enough or quick enough to save the life of Police officers in Gotham City.  What is worse is Batman knows who the bad guy is and what he does.  Bruce Wayne cannot even beat the bad guy in his everyday man disguise.  So Bruce decides to sell Wayne Industries as a means to find out the villains evil plan.  This ends with Alfred kidnaped and the bad guy launching his attack on the city.  This story just feels so much like the long and crappy Mad Hatter story or the Court of Owls lameness.  The 2^nd story was much better though the Man-Bat story is drifting into the same old same old cliché of comic book land.  Even though the Man-Bat story is starting to lose focus and continuity it was still a better read than the main Batman story. 

Batman Detective Comics Annual #2

Batman Detective Comics Annual #2 – This issue tells three related stories.  The first one is Batman tracking down a person who could make herself the perfect copy of a person but her copy was only a mask as she was no Clayface.  I am not really sure why but there is a one page appearance of the Wrath who saves the bad lady called Jane Doe.  She takes the identity of the person she copies and then does something bad, a bank robbery or jewelry store heist.  Batman figures it all out at the last moment and saves the day and Harney Bullock’s life.  The next story is kind of interesting in it appears to be Bullock going to confront Jane Doe about why she picked him.  But in the end it turns out to just Jane Doe being somewhat crazy.  The final story was kind of disappointing in that it is just Bullock feeling sorry for himself.  Apparently Bullock is unable to be the great cop that Jane Doe was while impersonating him.

Detective Comics #22

Batman Detective Comics #22 seems to want to be the next Iron Man comic.  We have a mysterious high tech villain who is killing members of the Gotham Police Force.  The villain is foreshadowed by a meeting between Bruce Wayne and a new business man in town Caldwell who apparently has enough cash to just buy Wayne Tech.  But even before that we flash back to a previous story where the police thought that Batman was killing Police Officers and in fact this one police officer still thinks Batman did it despite evidence to the contrary.  Frankly at this point making the Gotham PD even more stupid is rather disappointing at this point in the history of Batman.  Anyway the backup story with the Man-Bat continues to be interesting and maybe it will actually go somewhere.  This story really should have had its own comic even if it was a one shot.

Batman Detective Comics #21

Batman Detective Comics #21 – I enjoyed this issue.  It was interesting that the creative team decided to bring back the woman from the issue zero story.  Once again a super hero is menaced by someone from their past who they thought was dead and now has super mystical ninja powers and they are an assassin.  Mio now calls herself Penumbra and she has shadow ninja powers.  Unfortunately for her those powers can apparently be counteracting by bright lights.  A light provided by Harper whom appears to be another potential Robin.  The backup story was another Man-Bat story and it was a good story and with luck this backup story will lead to something but if not at least it is a good backup story.

Batman Detective Comics #20

Batman Detective Comics #20 or the Emperor Penguin comes to power.  Somehow the Emperor Penguin spends the first half of this comic kicking Batman’s ass.  He hangs Batman from a tree and leaves him to die – always a bad idea to not ensure the job was complete.  How Batman did not notice that maybe the Emperor Penguin would be a threat makes a big case that maybe Batman is not really that great a detective.  Meanwhile the true Penguin Cobblepot gets his out of jail for free card played.  The Penguin then goes and saves Batman from dying and they work together to capture the Emperor Penguin.  It was all a rather routine and boring Batman compared to the more recent stories.  We then get a backup origin story of the Emperor Penguin, the son of a no-body mobster killed for no reason.  Once in Blackgate prison the Emperor Penguin is taken to see the “Boss” of Blackgate prison and kills him after they talk for a bit.  Then on his way back to his cell he tells everyone to call him Emperor Blackgate.

Batman Detective Comics #19!!!

Batman Detective Comics #19 was a Special 80-Page Spectacular! Issue.  What this means was this issue was a collection of short stories that DC Comics has been using as full issues that last two years.  Being short stories some were good some were amazing and some were just OK.  Interestingly enough this issue still managed to advance the Emperor Penguin Storyline.   We also got to see the origin story for the Man-Bat and a Bane against the Court of Owls storyline.  All and all the teaser stories for Penguin and Bane were interesting.  This issue also had a number of one shot splash art pages and a number of these were really well done. 

Batman Detective Comics #18 Requiem Review!

Batman Detective Comics #18 Requiem – was an interesting story as we continue to follow the fall of the Penguin from his position of power.  Though there seems to be a lot of history and criminality this story forgets what has happened since the new 52 began.  There was little here to merit a Requiem or Death of the Family tie in the title page claims.  In the end the Emperor Penguin owns all that once belonged to Cobblepot.  At least the backup story had the Joker show up and that must be the actual Death tie in.  Anyway it was a good main story and the backup story could and should have been part of the main story.  I am getting tired of paying for a full sized issue and instead getting several short stories that could not really support a full book.  In some cases the main story is awkwardly cut up to extend the story ark and sometimes not.  This is deceptive on the publisher’s part and needs to stop unless the two or more stories are mentioned on the cover.  Maybe if there are not enough Batman stories it is time to retire one of the many many many Batman comic books that are published each month.

Detective Comics!

Batman Detective Comics #16 (Death of the Family) contained two good stories, they were excellent stories.  The first story really did not have anything to do with the Death of the Family story.  It was just Batman tracking down the Joker Fan boys and Fan girls.  There is nothing new here and nothing worth tagging as part of the uber story ark.  The second story with the Emperor Penguin taking over the Penguin’s operation and that story is more related to Death of the Family.  But in the end I’m tired of buying a comic with two half stories included.  Frankly I’m tired of DC being lazy and stretching crappy material over several comics hoping no one will notice.