I Reads You Review: DETECTIVE COMICS Volume One: Faces of Death

BATMAN – DETECTIVE COMICS VOLUME ONE: FACES OF DEATH
DC COMICS – @DCComics

STORY/PENCILS: Tony S. Daniel
INKS: Ryan Winn, Sandu Florea, and Rob Hunter
COLORS: Tomeu Morey
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher
COVER: Tony S. Daniel and Ryan Winn with Tomeu Morey
ADDITIONAL ART: Szymon Kudranski
ISBN:  978-1-4012-3466-9; hardcover
176pp, Color, $22.99 U.S., $25.99 CAN (2012)

Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger

When The New 52 brought forth “new” Batman comic book series, I found myself crazy-in-love with Detective Comics #1, produced by writer-artist, Tony S. Daniel.  In fact, I preferred Detective Comics to Batman #1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo.  I only read the first two issues of Daniel's Detective Comics, but I thought that the first issue reminded me of the first “book” of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns more than any comic book I had read in a long time.

I bought the first hardcover collection of The New 52 Detective Comics.  Sadly, it took me two-and-half-years to get around to reading it.  In that time, Snyder and Capullo's Batman became one of the bestselling comic book series in North America, and a favorite of mine.  On the other hand, Daniel departed Detective Comics after issue #12.

Batman – Detective Comics Volume One: Faces of Death collects Detective Comics #1 to 7, which comprises two story arcs.  Detective Comics begins with Batman in the midst of a dangerous mission.  He has to find The Joker and also discover what is behind the grisly murders of several of the Joker's acquaintances.  Eventually, Batman battles The Dollmaker, a killer who removes the faces of his victims and even some of their organs.  He uses them as macabre building materials to create new people.  The Dollmaker is also seeking revenge against Commissioner Jim Gordon.

The second story arc centers on The Penguin's off-shore gambling palace, The Iceberg Casino.  The casino is also a front for Penguin's money-laundering operation.  The story also involves Gotham City Mayor Hady's re-election campaign; the mayor's election-year war on Batman; reporter and Bruce Wayne love-interest, Charlotte Rivers; Rivers' sister, Jill; and a cheap hood named Jack Houston, whose ability to change his face has earned him the name “Snakeskin.”

Having finally finished the Faces of Death collection, I have to say that, three years later, “The Dollmaker” arc still thrills me.  I think it is a definite heir to Frank Miller's seminal Batman work from the mid-1980s.  Daniel's Batman is a combination penny dreadful and Saturday matinee thriller; each chapter ends in either a cliffhanger or with a shocking reveal.  Batman fighting in the darkest corners of Gotham, with the threat of death hanging over several people, but especially over him.  Several times, I actually believed that Batman was going to be killed.  I knew better, of course.  Batman isn't going to die-as-in-stay-dead, but still, those stories...

“The Iceberg Casino” arc is entertaining, but is an average to above-average Batman story arc.  It is sort of a Batman as action movie/crime thriller.  Of course, there are some cliffhanger-styled thrills int this story, but this is nothing particularly special.

I think Tony Daniel was unable to maintain the promise of his opening Detective Comics story arc.  In Batman, Snyder's story and Capullo's art create a gripping narrative with striking graphics, one issue after another.  Daniel with inker Ryan Winn also created a graphic narrative full of high-drama and edgy visuals.  Visually, Daniel and Winn offered a Batman that was a bird of prey, and the art had a sense of movement so that Batman always seemed to be racing across a dark, but alluring landscape.

As the second story arc advanced, Daniel's art took on a Neal Adams-quality that moves, but lacks something... perhaps, the edginess it had in “The Dollmaker” arc.  I first discovered Tony Daniel's work back in the mid to late 1990s, on his Image Comics series, The Tenth.  The early issues of that series had the characteristics of a raw, but promising talent.  With Marlo Alquiza inking his pencil art, Daniel delivered art that grabbed the reader with its horror-themed creatures and characters.  After Alquiza stopped inking The Tenth, what was raw, but promising became unfocused and undisciplined.

I'll remember Tony Daniel's New 52 launch of Detective Comics for the promise the early issues offered, with joy, but also with some disappointment.  That promise plus 11 pages of preliminary art, thumbnails, sketches, and pencils have encouraged me to give Batman – Detective Comics Volume One: Faces of Death a high grade.  By the way, Daniel is now working on another relaunch of the DC Comics' character, Deathstroke.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


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The New 52 Review: DETECTIVE COMICS #2

DETECTIVE COMICS #2
DC COMICS

WRITER: Tony Salvador Daniel
PENCILS: Tony Salvador Daniel
INKS: Ryan Winn and Sandu Florea
COLORIST: Tomeu Morey
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher
COVER: Tony Salvador Daniel, Ryan Winn, and Tomeu Morey
32pp, Color, $2.99

The first issue of Detective Comics debuted with a March 1937 cover date, and two years later, the 27th issue (cover date May 1939) featured the debut of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Detective Comics would become the “DC” in DC Comics. In fact, DC Comics recently re-launched their superhero comic book line, “The New 52,” and that included a start-over for Detective Comics.

Detective Comics #2 (“Playtime’s Over”) opens with a meeting between Bruce Wayne and fellow CEO, Hugh Marder, before Bruce moves on to some playtime TV news vixen, Charlotte Rivers. Batman’s mind, however, is on the troubles at Arkham Asylum, particularly because someone released The Joker. Batman will get some answers but more questions when he runs into the Dollmaker and his motley gruesome crew.

After the talent and intensity writer/artist Tony Daniel showed in Detective Comics #1, I wondered if he could maintain that for a sustained period. There is only a slight letdown from #1 to #2, which is probably due to the fact that this issue’s hero/villain confrontation isn’t quite as powerful as the one between Batman and Joker in the first issue. Still, Detective Comics #2 is no slouch, as Daniel uses superhero conventions to write a story that is more of a dark crime thriller and horror story – think Chris Nolan’s Batman meets the Saw film franchise.

I still say that Daniel’s Detective Comics is the closest anyone has come to replicating the feel and tone of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One. With a second issue down, Tony S. Daniel’s Detective Comics remains a winner.

A-

The New 52 Review: DETECTIVE COMICS #1

DETECTIVE COMICS #1
DC COMICS

WRITER: Tony Salvador Daniel
PENCILS: Tony Salvador Daniel
INKS: Ryan Winn
COLORIST: Tomeu Morey
LETTERS: Jared K. Fletcher
COVER: Tony Salvador Daniel
32pp, Color, $2.99

Detective Comics #1 debuted with a March 1937 cover date, and the series is best known for Detective Comics #27 (May 1939), which featured the debut of Batman (then billed as “The Bat-Man”). DC Comics is currently re-launching their superhero comic book line, so we have a brand new Detective Comics #1.

I’ll go back into the past again – the recent past. American comic book writer and artist Tony Daniel entered mainstream comic book publishing in the mid-1990s drawing X-Force for Marvel Comics. He eventually became one of the many young creators who jumped to Image Comics in the mid to late 90s to produce their own creator-owned comic book series. I read Daniel’s The Tenth for a few years, but I eventually quit the title. Daniel obviously had the talent to create comic books, but The Tenth often showed the signs of being produced by a young, relatively inexperienced, and creatively immature writer/artist – both in terms of storytelling and art.

Daniel’s career moved forward when he began drawing the Geoff Johns-written Teen Titans, but Daniel’s professional status surged when he became the artist on Grant Morrison’s Batman. He drew the highly-popular Batman R.I.P. storyline and wrote and drew Batman: Battle for the Cowl, the primary miniseries that dealt with the aftermath of Batman R.I.P.

Now, Tony Daniel is the writer and pencil artist on the new Detective Comics #1. I can honestly say that I have not felt this excited and thrilled after reading a Batman comic book since I read Book One of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns all those years ago.

Grant Morrison’s Batman has nothing on Daniel’s Detective Comics #1

The plot is straightforward. Batman is hunting The Joker, one of the most violent and brutal interpretations of the character, one who has over 100 murders to his credit over a six year period. However, someone other than the Batman seems to be hunting the Joker, and despite Commissioner Gordon best efforts, Mayor Hady is encouraging the Gotham City Police Department to kill Batman.

Daniel does not copy The Dark Night Returns, but like Frank Miller’s seminal Batman graphic novel, Detective Comics #1 is a lean and clean interpretation of Batman and his world. Daniel composes a story that moves briskly, with sequences of violence that are both blunt and smooth, and all the action set pieces are composed with polish that belies the experience of this creator. As for the art, pieces of it resemble The Dark Night Returns – some compositions, quite a bit of the page design, and some stylistic flourishes. But I must emphasize that this is Daniel’s own thing – his Batman comic book.

Of course, this is just the first issue. Can Daniel maintain this high level for a sustained run on the series? If he can, this Detective Comics will leap over many Bat-comics and be the best ongoing Batman of the new century.

A+

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