Comics! Detective Comics #3

Detective Comics #3

Written and Drawn by Tony Salvador Daniel

Inks: Sandu Florea

Called it. That surprise ending from the last issue? Totally called that it wasn't Gordon.

So that makes the second "cliffhanger" ending that just falls flat. I'm not thrilled by it. And judging by the "shocking/surprising" ending of this issue, I think Daniel is trying to make this a habit.

Boring.

Any how, we see that Gordon is alive and kicking, Batman escapes from his surrounded by villains issues, we get a "surprise" turn of the Olivia character who was believed to be kidnapped last issue, and we get Batman knocked out and surrounded by villains again at the end of this issue. Beside a couple of pages explaining Batman's interrogation of a villain and Bullock looking like bad ass that gives up no information to the press, that's about all we get.

Oh wait, we do get to see the Dollmaker's origin story. Basically, he was a kid when Gordan shot his father, who was a bad guy, and killed him. So the kid is out for revenge. I can already hear the chants of "I am the Dollmaker, you killed my father. Prepare to die."

I will say that Tony has had some of the more impressive and consistent artwork around. You really have to pay attention to the action otherwise you miss some details. I would really want someone to sit down with him and maybe co-plot the comic or something. The book is called Detective Comics and there is very little detective work going on. In fact, we got more pages of people punching each other compared to the one page where the mystery of who the supervillain was got solved within that one page.

That, and these so called cliffhanger endings just need to be built up some more. Right now they just feel like the first couple of preview pages for the next issue that suddenly stops when the story takes a "surprising" twist.

And just to see if I can keep calling these endings from month to month, I predict that one of the Jokers hanging by a string is the real Joker who tries to kill Batman.

Words: 5/10

Pictures: 7/10 - there is something to say about getting a new inker and feeling like nothing has changed art wise from the previous issue.

Recommend: Only for the collectors. New people, take your own risk.

Buy Next Issue: Yes, it is Detective, and I am a collector. But there may be a time I buy it just to not have a hole in the collection. I hope it doesn't come down to that.