DETECTIVE COMICS #876

Review by: TheNextChampion

What did the
iFanboy
community think?

1012
Pulls
Avg Rating: 4.7
 
Users who pulled this comic:
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art and cover by JOCK

Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99

We’re now back into the regular adventures of Dick Grayson with this issue. It’s great but horrifying at the same time. I mean it’s great because we get more Scott Snyder goodness and more disturbing adventures. But that’s the thing, I don’t know how far Snyder is going to take this series and that terrifies me a bit. One minute it could all be smiles and sunshine but then we could have pages of endless torture. It’s the testament to Snyder’s tension in his writing that makes me feel like this.

This issue starts innocently enough; well if by ‘innocent’ I mean that ‘a whale is found in a bank’. That bizarre introduction starts a slow burn as Dick finds clues of the dead whale and it all ties into his past. Of course it does, because that’s one thing Snyder is also good at: Making random moments tie in to characters, and horribly I might add. Dick and Gordon talking at the lab is filled with good character moments. It hides the fact that the Batman INC idea is a bit daft but who cares when Dick is all Horatio Sanz on us? The issue ends right at a critical moment and it all seems nothing but death for Dick. I can’t wait to see how he’s gonna get out of that hole!

I think I’m starting to really get into Jock’s pencils, but only slightly. There are great panels and sequences where a lot of detail is put in. I mean a dead whale is inside a fucking bank! How much more detail do you want? Well maybe a bit TOO much detail. Cause the ending pages with the luxury cars did throw me off a bit. It feels either: A) Jock went to the trouble to photoshop all those in or B) traced every supercar he could think of into the panels. Either way it just left me a bit hollow as I felt like I was looking at a car ad then a murder mystery. Also, faces are still a big problem with me in this. It just bothers me that Dick seems to contort his face in every panel and Gordon isn’t looking better either. It’s a testament to Jock’s backgrounds really. The backgrounds can look insanely gorgeous but then you see a very off-model Batman and it lets you down a bit.

So the Jock problems aside (no pun intended) this is still a damn good issue. Snyder is setting something up here with Dick and it involves a big ass whale. Can’t wait to see how fucked up that gets. Plus even with my problems with Jock it still is a pretty good looking issue for the most part. I hope that we don’t ever see a fight in this book that takes place in a ‘Bed, Bath and Beyond’ store otherwise I might be curious to see their catalog someday.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 4 - Very Good

Leave a Comment