Wednesday's Finest: 'Detective Comics' #872

By Don M. Ventura

Detective Comics #872

DC Comics

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I have never read Batman comic books as regularly as I have this year. There have been some missteps along the way (most of the Bruce Wayne: The Road Home one-shots were pretty mediocre), but on the whole there have been some damn fine Batman reading to be had in 2010.

And here comes Scott Snyder (American Vampire) with artists Jock and Francesco Francavilla to add another book to your pull list: Detective Comics. Snyder began his run on last month’s well-received Detective #871 and his second issue proves the writer is on a serious roll on this book.

Detective Comics #872 continues the mystery behind an organization called Mirror House that is selling famous criminal artifacts to Gotham’s blue bloods, who apparently have plenty of money to burn on ghastly trinkets. I won’t spoil it here, but the item displayed for sale in this issue (and the way it is described) was a particularly morbid piece of Batman memorabilia. Dick reaches out to Oracle and Tim Drake for assistance in this issue.

While we have known some of these characters for decades it’s always refreshing to have more human characterization and Snyder uses this issue to establish Dick. I liked the idea of Barbara Gordon telling Dick something about himself that he might not otherwise have realized anyone understood about him; specifically that he doesn’t like to be tied down. Snyder does this with smart, natural, dry dialogue.

“You think I like the idea of being ‘mobile’?” asks Dick readying to leave her new headquarters.

“Are you really asking me that with one leg out my window?” says Barbara.

We all love our heroes fighting crimes, solving mysteries, and doing superheroics, but, if properly handled, it’s nice to have these characters talk to one another like human beings. This is not easily accomplished, but Snyder has effortlessly combined sincere characterization with his derring-do. There are also strong scenes with Tim and Lieutenant Bullock; I appreciate the use of the Bat-family of characters that Snyder has employed in this series.

With Snyder’s polished script comes an equally talented artist: Jock. The artist is perfectly suited for a crime drama and this book plays to his strengths incredibly well. There’s an iconic shot of Batman soaring down to Earth face first from Oracle’s tower that deserves to be added to a DC Comics coffee-table book. There is a scene in which a disguised Batman infiltrates a Mirror House auction conducted by a villain referred to as the Dealer. Jock used shadow and eerie imagery to evoke the dread the Mirror House proceedings. This is some really great stuff that is tied together by colorist David Baron.

The book concludes the way more superhero comics should (and again, I won’t really spoil it). Batman realizes he’s been caught, the villain cackles, and our hero ultimately realizes he is in an impossible bind. I was reminded of an old (and this is going back) issue of DC Challenge, a 12-issue series where different writers took on a single issue of the book and left the heroes in seemingly zero-solution scenarios. One writer had Batman falling into a volcano. This ending feels as similarly hopeless.

I eagerly await the resolution!