DETECTIVE COMICS #871

Review by: TheNextChampion

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957
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Avg Rating: 4.7
 
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Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art and cover by JOCK
Co-feature Art by FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA

Size: 40 pages
Price: 3.99

This is it! The wait is finally over. Scott Snyder is now on Detective Comics, it feels like yesterday we were talking about him…..Which is true since we haven’t shut up about the new creative team since it was announced. But this is an exciting new direction for the series, even enough for me to get excited. We have a great, new up and coming writer with a well established artist and another fan favorite doing back ups. Things are already looking good and we haven’t opened the page yet.

I want to get this out of the way though before I start praising the issue. Let’s talk about Jock’s involvement with the title. While I certainly think this was much better then what I was expecting, I gotta say I am still underwhelmed by his involvement. Jock has great layouts and has great ideas on what to put on a page. But the overall execution just does not work for me. I don’t know if its his finished pencils, his inker, the colorist, or a combination of both; all I know is that there are some really ugly pages in this. Characters are constantly off model and once again an artist doesn’t seem to know who is under the cowl with two Batmen running around. But there are flashes of brilliance here; like the two page spread of Dick and Gordon on the roof or Dick sneaking through a crooked cop’s house. But other great ideas (like a child turning into a Killer Croc) just looks amateurish at best. I want to like his artwork, I really do. But overall this is just passable enough for me to tolerate it but not enough to praise any of it. Which is a shame.

It’s a shame because right off the bat I know I am going to love this run. Scott Snyder has it down perfectly with practically…..well practically everything. He has a great voice for Grayson, for Gordon, and Alfred. Heck pretty much everything he wrote is great to read. There is a good mystery going with a new villain at work and some of his ideas are really impressive. While not executed perfectly on art, the idea of a kid turning into Killer Croc and eating a kid’s arm is really disturbing. But Snyder balances it well without making it too disturbing but also making it somewhat cool to look at. Then you have the back up with Francesco Francavillia and you have me entirely sold on this comic. That’s how you do a back up!

Just a great issue with the story and the back up feature in full. (If you notice the theme for this run so far seems to be birds…) It’s just a shame that Jock couldn’t do much to impress me with this first issue. I want to like Jock’s artwork, hell I love his covers. But his interior pencils once again leave me very underwhelmed. Either way though the pencils are tolerable enough and the story is fan-freaken-tastic to make me want to continue this run for the long haul. Jock be damned!

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 3 - Good

Comments

  1. Thanks for the review Champ. Although I have to disagree with you about Jocks art. If I had read this before reading the issue, I would have agreed, I havent been a big fan of Jock untill now. I absolutely LOVE the spread page of Batman and Gordon on the roof; the red sky and bat-signal were genius. I also really like how Jock draws Batman; the cowl in particular. It just looks so sleak and grim at the same time. Like I said before, until I read this issue I wasn’t sold but now I am.

    Could’nt agree more about Snyders writing. He got characterization and suspense down pat. I’m on this run like white on…well you know.

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