Snyder & Francavilla & Jock: DETECTIVE COMICS as It Truly Ought to Be

There's this image.

The flying Graysons, mother and father and son. Warm and huddled together high above the littered fairground. This infant, only weeks old, senses still abuzz. Scents of stale popcorn and lions' dander. All the kaleidoscopic colors of the big top. The enormity of it all, like vertigo. His parents, doomed trapeze artists, cautiously, playfully introduce his tiny hands to the powder. To the bar. Far too early in life for a swing, or even to grip the thing fully. But the weight and heft of it. The family chariot. Life and meager fortune and death. 

For all his life, Dick Grayson's been living on borrowed time. The daredevil's way. 

But there's more to it than that. There's editorial mandate. This is a character who was supposed to die in an Infinite Crisis. His story had run its course, so they said. Marv Wolfman once claimed the boy was doomed to forever run in place toward some distant, unreachable day when he'd claim the mantle of the Bat, his rightful inheritance withheld. Time functions in comics like nowhere else in fiction. How do you evolve while immortal? Destiny's omnipresent but rarely up for grabs. 

Dick Grayson's worn the cowl before. But it's always felt like a temporary substitution. This current tenure feels different. Like a ceiling's been shattered. Like there's no turning back. No reset button to graze. Maybe it's the nowness of it. But there's something else to it as well. 

Far and away the most compelling moments in mastermind Grant Morrison's Batman & Robin run–and there's plenty there to compel us–are those moments of Dick finding his way. His seeking counsel from Alfred. That ride-along with Gordon. Those moments comprised the oyster. 

So it's beyond thrilling to realize that Scott Snyder, Francesco Francavilla, and Jock's current run on Detective Comics is keenly focused on that aspect of this Death and Return of Bruce Wayne story. This is the heart of it. This is the evolution of Dick Grayson we were never meant to witness. Progression and new insight on a character as old or older than some of our parents. A character who, not so long ago, was headed for the grave. This is exciting for any number of reasons, but it's particularly special because of Dick's place in the DCU. Batman's seen several origins, but he's a constant. Dick Grayson is the force of change. As Robin, he's served (and still serves) as our avatar in a fictional world of icons. He's us. And as readers grew, so did Robin. He joined the Teen Titans, forged new relationships, came out in the larger universe in way that Batman, even as a charter member of the JLA, could not. He rebelled and became Nightwing. He went though that same awkward visor phase we all go through. 

And now he's the Batman. Or a Batman anyway. A new chapter. 

Where other great writers of the DC Universe, titans like Morrison, Johns, and now Cornell, champion forgotten elements of past ages in their revitalization of characters in a modern setting and tone, Scott Snyder isn't just looking for the oddities, the baubles. He's looking for psychology. For the true face of Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon. This is a little different then Morrison reaching back and salvaging Bat Mite or even Damian.

Snyder went back to Year One and found that little boy everyone had seemingly forgotten. Why hadn't we heard from Gordon's son in all this time after all? It's as if this faceless child had been waiting for Snyder to interview him, introduce him to the rest of the world. And he's reasoned an answer to that question of his silence and his lack. There's a perfectly good reason James Jr. was unavailable to us, why we'd had opportunity to wonder whether he'd been erased, retconned from history. James is very much alive, and because we'd forgotten him, his presence is so affectively ominous and sinister. We feel his father's guilt for trying to evade him for so long. And we know there will be repercussions. 

Snyder and Francavilla are conjuring some Hitchcock level chills, and it's not just the birds skulking from on high. The James Jr. sequences are an ideal playground for writer and artist, both thoughtful stewards of pulp suspense and horror. I've enjoyed Francavilla's pinup work for a good while now, and this material in Detective is unquestionably his finest sequential work to date. This is where his talents truly gel. I think we're looking at the true spiritual successor to the Jim Gordon story in Miller's Year One. Thematically and in terms of quality. 

And who better than Jock to capture the dynamism of lifelong acrobat Dick Grayson? Despite the artist's signature aggressive style, there's no grace lost. This is an athletic, agile Batman not so encumbered by age and size as his counterpart. He's perfectly capable of rendering profound expression as well as action and monstrosity. Which is vital to a story which tackles insecurity, the burden of adult responsibility as well as chemically induced paranoia, and..you know, Man-Bats. 

American Vampire writer Snyder is a relatively new name to many of us, but he's arrived with what feels like a seasoned understanding of Dick Grayson and Jim Gordon. Not just knowledge. Not just facts. But understanding. He can inhabit them and shake them up for their innermost fears and ambitions without coming off like a know-it-all fan. I know you can't own these characters. That it's just a lease or rental. But this story of detectives in the dark reads as vital as it ever has or ever will. It's early, but I get the sense that Detective Comics #871 – ??? isn't just a line on Snyder's growing CV. He's left his mark on it. 

Dick Grayson's always lived on borrowed time. And so long as that time is shared with Snyder, Francavilla, and Jock, I'll want to be there too. 

Story: 5 stars  /  Art: 5 stars /  Overall: 5 stars 

(out of 5)

(And that goes for all four issues so far)

Paul Montgomery is working his way through clown school, but wishes he'd checked the acrobat box. You can reach him at paul@ifanboy.com.  Or on Twitter at @fuzzytypewriter.