Detective Comics #1-4

If you wonder why I'm focusing on the Bat-books, there's two reasons: 1, I love everything Batman. 2, according to what I've heard, they've been the most consistently quality comics in the DCnU. 3, They're actually about 1/4 the product line. So now, continuing my effort to read everything New 52, I'm digging into the rest of Detective Comics' first arc.

The issue opens with Bruce Wayne meeting with a business rival for some friendly and not at all homoerotic shirtless rock climbing, followed by him meeting with a sexy new reporter named Charlotte Rivers. After some flirting and arguing, the scene quickly shifts to hours later in Bruce's penthouse where he's about to kick her out because of "important business," but he promises a real date/interview later.

He's actually out to meet with Commissioner Gordon over the missing Joker. The little girl, named Olivia, was picked up by a man claiming to be her uncle but it was a false identity. Instead, he appears connected to a serial killer who was one of Gordon's first cases. A killer who skinned people and removed body parts. It can't be a coincidence, and a sighting of the guy and the re-kidnapped girl sends both Batman and Commissioner Gordon off to catch him. Unfortunately, it's a trap. Batman is ambushed by a group of patchwork people led by the Dollmaker. They throw Jim Gordon's mutilated body at Batman's feet, but he quickly realizes it is a phony. A patchwork mannequin made from other corpses that just resembles Gordon enough to confuse the police.

Batman manages to escape with one of them in tow to interrogate. After finding out he has no tongue, he follows up on the stitching done and realizes that the Dollmaker is the son of Wesley Mathis, a serial killer that Gordon took out when he was still a rookie. Batman then goes off to answer the Bat-Signal.

Commissioner Gordon, meanwhile, is being held in an abandoned hospital. He talks with Olivia and finds out what the reader probably already guessed by this point: She is a recent addition the Dollmaker's twisted "family," but is still conflicted about it. Gordon tells her to get a message out to Batman, sending her out with a letter saying "mercy Hospital" but with the R reversed. After she leaves, Gordon is prepped for surgery.

Batman arrives at the Bat-signal to find Olivia. His satellites told him that she was the one who turned on the signal, so he sent the cops after her to arrive shortly after he left. Wait, is the Bat Signal on the police headquarters roof or not? Anyway, Olivia gives Batman the note and he realizes the backwards R is a sign of a trap. He goes anyway, and the cops arrive for Olivia. However, when a cop drops his guard she tases him, then cuts his throat to escape while thinking about what a waste it is.

At the hospital, Batman is quickly taken out by Dollmaker and his minions, and wakes up in an arena fighting a bunch of Jokers. The Jokers are obviously fakes just surgically altered to resemble him. Both Batman and the Jokers are suspended on bungee cords/puppet strings like some weird version of Thunderdome. Batman of course handily defeats the imposters despite his disadvantages, proving to an assembled group of shadowy figures that this is in fact Batman, and therefore his harvested organs should be worth more. I think Batman's organs would be worth less. Can you imagine the toxins in his liver from repeated fights with Joker, Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, etc? You'd get a safer transplant from Timothy Leary.

Speaking of transplants, Gordon is now short one kidney. Olivia comes in with a knife, raises it above Commissioner Gordon, and prepares to most certainly stab him and not cut the leather straps holding him in the most misdirecting way possible.

The Penguin purchases Batman. All of him. The Dollmaker insists he be returned within 24 hours and 1 hour of death, which is agreed to, and the cables tie up Batman. Fortunately he recognizes them as the same tech he uses in his grappling lines (which really behave like no rope ever now that I think of it), so he demagnetizes them and is free. Chaos ensues.

A shadowy figure wants to make sure Gordon is dead, so Dollmaker sends one of his heavies even as everything goes pearshaped. Gordon is alive and free and pulls a gun on the guy, who is unimpressed until Olivia stabs him in the back. She says she doesn't fear anything, but gets dizzy from all the heel-face spinning and starts crying against Commissioner Gordon.

A chase and running battle ensues between Batman, the Dollmaker, and the police. Batman tries to capture the Dollmaker's car, but it explodes and he realizes that it only contained plastic dummies, and the police helicopter suddenly lost interest, aiding the Dollmaker's escape.

In the denouement, Bruce is visiting Charlotte's cabin in the woods. Olivia is taken into custody, and instead of going to juvie, it looks like she is going ot Arkham. The doctor says it's only for a two week evaluation, but no one believes that. The arc ends on an even bleaker note as protesters and supporters have started to gather outside Arkham and the GCPD, apparently believing Joker to be some sort of martyr. It ends on another shot of his face, preserved on ice in the GCPD lockup.

I'm impressed by how utterly bleak this story is. Batman loses. The girl gets sent to Arkham, though whether she was redeemable was questionable. Gordon lost a kidney. The Joker is getting a cult around him. Aside from Batman and Commissioner Gordon surviving, the good guys didn't win in this story at all. The atmosphere of Gotham is so dark and depressing that a young girl would willingly turn to the Dollmaker for support, and people flock to the Joker's severed face like it's the Shroud of Turin. As a complaint, I think Batman may take it to the chin a bit too often here. If he keeps getting stabbed and the narrative continues to remind us of all his previous injuries, his continued ability to function may strain credibility.

The artwork is good, but in a very generic way with nothing to distinguish it. Ending the arc with the image of the Joker's face continues the buildup of Joker's inevitable return, something I hope lives up to the hype. The Dollmaker is a very cool villain and I'm glad he escaped. He reminds me of Dr. Vahzilok meets Professor Pyg, and if you don't know who either of those are you fail superheroes. His minions were all pretty unique surgical freaks from the giant musclebound hulk to the jester with tentacle limbs to the..cymbal monkey. Eh, can't all be winners. In particular, I liked how the required "hot chick" among his minions ends up more Silent Hill than Hello Nurse.

Overall, the comic is a good read, if not a fun one. It seems like the various Batman comics are going to take a slightly different view of Gotham and Batman. This one seems to be the darkest, and I really respect its commitment to that. Detective Comics 1-4 gets a 4/5.