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This is a little bittersweet for me. As you all know by now (if you read TPL that is), the person I buy these comics from will no long be selling them to me so I have to go to my LCS from now on, which is why you’ve seen a lot of these titles in TPL already. So this will be the last ever Volume of Comic Book Catch-Up, which is good in a way, seeing as I won’t be behind on some of my favorite comics. This one is all about the Dark Knight, dealing exclusively with Batman and Detective Comics, with Batman focusing on the whole RIP thing.
Spoilers Ahead.
Catching Up – Dark Knight:
-Batman #672- The Third Man comes back to Gotham, bringing Batman to the scene after Third Man kidnaps Gordon. Bruce has to end a date with Jezebel Jet in order to show up. The Third Man actually gets the best of Batman, and shoots him in the chest! 1/1.
-Batman #673- We start learning an interesting backstory to Batman’s history. Batman once subjected himself to a 10-day isolation experiment, and remembers his days in Nanda Parabat. It turns out his 10-days were overlooked by a man named Dr. Hurt. Batman remembers why he put on the costume, as well his first missions. Batman realizes he was dreaming the whole thing and wakes up tied up in Third Man’s chair 2/2.
-Batman #674- Third Man tells us his origin, how three cops were picked to take over should Batman ever leave It seems Batman was fighting them while he thought he was blacked out, and started blacking out while out with Robin. This all happened during the time Gordon was not the commissioner. Batman takes out the Third Man but Third Man suggests something big is up, pondering why the replacements were activated now. 3/3.
-Batman #675- Bruce tries to explain to Jezebel his disappearances when some cheesy villain named Blindfold shows up. Merlyn and Talia wonder about Bruce and Jezebel far away, as Talia complains about Bruce showing affection to someone else other than her. Damian as a feeling someone is out to get his father. Meanwhile, Bruce puts a poundin’ on Blindfold and Jezebel learns the truth. 4/4.
-Batman #676- Now we start with RIP, as the Black Glove, mystery villain to Bats, is also Doctor Hurt, who we saw is more involved with Batman than we thought. Some loser puts on a costume and gets creamed by Batman who returns home to the arms of Jezebel. Meanwhile, Joker has crazy thoughts in his mind. It wasn’t the greatest opening, but with Grant basically building to this since he started on the title, it is an interesting start. 5/5.
-Detective Comics #840- This is another Ra’s storyline, the aftermath to the whole Resurrection story. Batman gets back a globe someone stole. Turns out the globe has all the locations of Ra’s Lazarus Pits and Ra’s shows up to take it back. Ra’s takes it back and Batman has to fight a whole bunch of ninjas. Batman eventually fights Ra’s, defeats him, then puts him in Arkham after forging some documents to keep him there forever. 6/6.
-Detective Comics #841- This is just a fun one-off story where Mad Hatter is pulling some very contrived crimes and Batman has to figure out the mystery behind it. Batman shows why he’s the best detective and figures out who was really behind it. Fun issue. 7/7.
-Detective Comics #842- Batman wears the Suit of Sorrows, which he got from Talia, and he investigates the mystery behind it and what it makes those who wear it crazy. He finds its history dates back to the Crusades and its Da Vinci Code type past. This was just another fun comic. 8/8.
-Detective Comics #’s 843-844- This is a two-parter where Zatanna and Batman must team-up to defeat Scarface and his new mistress. It turns out Batman knew the mistress before she turned bad and how the man they kidnapped is responsible for her near-death and union with Scarface. A relationship is suggested between Zatanna and Batman, which would make for some interesting chemistry. 10/10.
-DC/Wildstorm: Dreamwar #’s 1-3- This mini-series combines what I like with these sort of inter-company (intra in this case?) team-ups. DC invades the world of Wildstorm, they immediately start fighting with actual fatalities (Green Arrow, and Batman, among others). It is suggested this is all the musings of a young kid who is asleep (hence, dreamwar). It was just a fun 3 issues and I hope the last three are as fun as the first three. 13/13.
-The Bottom Line- A great run from Batman, as Grant continues his fabulous run on Batman, slowly deconstructing the character with a major villain (Doctor Hurt) getting to Batman in ways others could not, psychologically. Detective Comics continues a trend it started after One Year Later, and that is a series of one to two-part stories that have Batman actually playing Detective and owning up to the name of the series. Dreamwar was just a fun story and for this first opening salvo of CBCU, this is a great start
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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