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-
