Comic Books

DETECTIVE COMICS #851


Price: $2.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 0.1%

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Comments

  1. Is Dini coming back to this eventually, or is he done?

  2. Friggin’ Denis O’neil people! 

  3. Dini is coming back after this and the second part of Gaiman’s arc. He tells you when he is going to be back on the last page of Detective 850.

  4. This should be off the hook! You guys should be happy: A Batman title that will make sense lol

  5. sweet cover

  6. Sweet Christmas I can’t wait for this!

  7. Dick Grayson better come outta this event un-F’d with and/or better. Dan Doucheidio’s opinion of him makes me very nervous.

  8. Just saw a preview for this on newsarama and…..

    Ah well….if you like half naked chicks, this issue has it!

  9. If Dick becomes Batman and is  successfully written, this could become DC’s Captain America, and incredibly successful and beautifully written comic without the man under the mask that made the character so popular.  Myself, I am really looking forward to the future of the Batman books.  I think great times are in store! 

  10. This is my opinion on how I would like to see Batman’s universe evolve.

    I would love to see Dick TAKE the cowl from Bruce.  I want him to get in his face, tell him he is not mentally stable enough to keep doing what he is doing, and TAKE OVER.  It is fine if Bruce comes back later (like he wouldn’t), but the only way Dick can ever evolve is if he TAKES the mantle.  If it falls to him due to a questionable death or some fluky bullshit (Knightfall) then it doesn’t have the same oomph as it would if he TOOK it.  Would Bruce wait his turn?  I don’t think so either.

    Again, only my opinion.

  11. I like that, Stu.

  12. And yeah, Guillem was kind of cheesecake-y when he wrote Joker’s Asylum Poison Ivy. He’s a good batman artist though.

  13. Just checked out the preview. Is the character featured in the first few pages from G-Mo’s run?

  14. I agree with TNC.  I’m excited for a Batman book I understand 😛

  15. Denny O’Neils almost always delvers good story. the man hasn’t lost his edge in almost 50 years. 

  16. @Champ – Half naked? Where? Batman comic that makes sense? Bonus.

    @Stu – I would like to think Dick would inherit the mantle permanently, but I don’t think it will happen while we are reading comics. Guys like Bruce Wayne & Clark Kent have been around for like 70 years, it’s not like now all of a sudden DC will a) kill a cash cow or b) make the characters age normally.

    And, I totally disagree with your assumption that Bruce is crazy.

    I know it’s a popular assumption that even a lot of writers share, but I just don’t see it. Yeah, he’s driven, focused, maybe to the point of obsession & he’s an asshole to his friends most of the time. He’s even a criminal, technically — he assaults people every night with no legal authority. But I don’t see what makes him crazier than anyone else in the world of super heroes who decides to dress up in a costume & beat people up.

  17. i am torn. on one side, i don’t know why they are putting this out before morrison finishes what happens to batman in final crisis. and on the other side, i am just excited to read a o’ neil story.

  18. @WadeWilson – I am not assuming that Batman is crazy.  I am saying that many of his friends/colleagues may now believe that he is crazy (He was running around in a purple, red, and yellow batsuit beating people unconscious with a baseball bat while talking to a visible-only-to-him Batmite).  If Dick is included in that group, I would like to see him stand up to Bruce and take what he believes is his.  (And this doesn’t have to happen now.  I would just like to see it happen like this at some point.  I want Nightwing to take the mantle rather than have it handed to him, no matter when/how it happens.)

  19. @Everyone calling for a "Batman book they can understand"                                                     Have you not been reading Dini’s Detective run?  It’s been great.

  20. Batman talking too Batmite is exactly like Fred Flinstone and the Great Kazoo, and if I remember my Flinstones those episodes where wacky and so un-Flinstone-y. Why would Fred be the only one who could see that little alien dude? Grant Morrisson will be remembered as the guy who made Batman "jump the shark". Sure he used to fight space gorrilas in the sixties, but it was the sixties maaaan. Peace and love to eyerone (except Grant Morrisson).

  21. ^Then your view of Batman is more limited (if not intolerant) than Morrison’s. No big deal, really, but it’s kind of ridiculous to have to wade through anti-Morrison stuff on a book that isn’t even written by him. Part of the Batman mythos includes Batmite and space-stuff. You don’t have to like it, but it’s there. The history of Batman is a great cornucopia of diversity, much like America! And Morrison’s just pointed out how it’s a melting pot! 😉

    lol @ people acting like Denny O’Neil as a writer is Alan Moore or something just because they hated/didn’t understand RIP. Get over yourselves. O’Neil has meant a lot to the character, no doubt (especially as an EDITOR), but most of the Batman issues he wrote that have been reprinted…they come out billed as "Neil Adams" issues. He’s a fine writer, but he hasn’t even merited his own collection(s) by name. This isn’t like Frank Miller coming back to Daredevil–get a grip.

    This should be a cool read, though. I don’t see how anyone can be mad at what DC’s been doing with Batman. There’s been a wealth of different takes on the character, all of which, from what I can see, are quite well done for what they are. The Dark Knight was a great dark action movie. Brave and the Bold seems to be a great light children’s cartoon. Dini has been doing great regular comic booking, and Morrison has been doing something comlicated, unusual and avant garde. O’Neil and Gaiman’s takes will probably be good too. If you let your hatred for one of these options infect your mind so much that you can’t look at any Batman-related merchandise without thinking about how much you didn’t like (or "understand") RIP, then like I said a week ago, that’s your loss and you deserve to have that negative of a mindset.

    Feel free to open every Batman-related thread with "My hatred for Grant Morrison totally consumes me", though. It lets the rest of us know who’s inordinately biased.

  22. People sure hate Grant Morrison….

    Althought that doesnt stop his books being one of the most pulled on the site, and have over 60+ comments a week. 😉

  23. So, are we gonna do this "I hate Grant Morrison" and "I’m cooler than you because I love Grant Morrison" argument every week?  It’s getting old. 

    I’m just going to put my money where my mouth is and not buy any Batman book with G-Mo’s name on it anymore.  I encourage anyone who doesn’t like what Morrison is doing to do the same.

    Now Denny O’Neil writing Batman?  I’m there

  24. I like Denis O’neil because I think he’s a very good and under-appreciated writer. Love his Question run! Very efficient writer. Not flashy though.

  25. how awesome in the art in the preview?…. that’s how a batman book is meant to look, pulpy, sexy

  26. I like it too.

  27. @flapjaxx – I completely agree with the third paragraph in your post. Well said.

  28. Should this be called, ‘Last Days of Gotham’? Or:

    ‘Introduction to sexy lady who is the narrator for some reason’?

  29. Yeah, this comic didn’t even have Batman in it…

  30. @robbydzwonar

    I’m assuming that you’re trying to sarcastic or something? Look at the cover alone, they are showing that batman is gone and how Gotham is dealing with it. 

  31. Kind of strange that part 2 of this happens in another title.

  32. meh, s’okay.

  33. Wow, this was definitely not a great comeback for O Neil. This read like pointless filler that really shouldn’t follow up RIP. I laughed when Alfred said "I’ll have you favorite breakfast ready"…god, what crap! Nightwing is booking it overtime to take out a huge player in Batman’s rogue gallery, Bruce is missing, and all Alfred can say is I’ll have your breakfast ready?!

     Only Dini belongs on this book after the fantastic hugh arc previous to this.

  34. Actually if you hold the Alfred’s breakfast comment next to what happens in page 10 panel 4 and page 11 panels 1-5 (not countingyou see what O’neil is doing. He’s showing that all everyone knows to do without Batman around is go through the motions. They’ve lost heart. They are grieving. Even the characters’ body language speaks to this. It is further emphasized by Millicent’s pain on page 9 panels 2 and 3. She says that she has " the feeling inhabited [of being] by all the lost souls in the city." Millicent being the personification of Gotham you begin to understand O’neil’s message. Gotham and it’s nhabitants are disoriented without their Dark Knight.

    I’m surprised. I thought G-Mo fans would be all over this as it utilizes some of the same story telling tools as R.I.P did. Metaphor, symbolism, that sort of thing. Not saying it’s like Morison. Just saying Denny uses some of the same types of methods. By this, I don’t mean to insinuate anything about G-Mo fans nor do I wish to start a Denny vs Grant debate. I really am genuinely surprised.

  35. I’m not counting ads when I count pages.

    *edit button?*

  36. Those story telling techniques are not unique to any one writer, especially not Morrison.  Everyone uses them.  The difference, one of at least, is how and to what extent.

  37. Yes, of course. Thanks for clarifying that for me.

  38. I read this right after Nightwing, which I think makes this read a lot better.  The whole Batman RIP/Last Rites is starting to remind me of the Death of Superman storyline.  Right now we are dealing with the world without Batman, much like the World without Superman storyline(which was the best part of the so-so Death of Superman)

    I am loving this so far, I think RIP is only going to get better with time.  Dick Grayson looks like he is going to become Batman, and I am excited for it and the new stories that will come from it.  I am also looking forward to the return of Bruce Wayne.

  39. @Stu — My bad. I misunderstood.

    I’m with the guys who were not too impressed with this issue. It wasn’t bad, it just didn’t blow me away. An average issue, that felt like something I’ve read 30,000 times before. 

  40. I hope the guys discuss this on the podcast.

  41. i actually really enjoyed this.  it reminded me of the style of storytelling i would read when i first started reading batman comics.  when i started, denny was my "guide" through this new world, and it’s nice to see him back here.  it immediately felt like the batman i’ve known and loved for these many years.  i can’t wait for the 2nd part!

    and i don’t begrudge anyone liking RIP – but as a batman fan since the late 70s/early 80s, i have no problems saying it was the first time since i started following Bruce and family’s adventures that I didn’t look forward to my monthly fix.  i dug the tie-ins, but could’ve cared less for the main events.  in the long run, it’ll just be a footnote that i can ignore.

  42. Wow… another gem moment in this book:

      "You wonder, perhaps how I can describe events at which I was not present, in which I did not participate. I confess that I do not know myself. But would I tell you if I did know? Questions, Questions,Questions. Let us shift our attention…"

    What poetic grace!

    Someone tell me when Dini gets back…. =/

     

  43. @PatK: I’m not following you. Please expound on why you find this passage of inferior quality.

  44. @madad34 — You said: "and i don’t begrudge anyone liking RIP – but as a batman fan since the late 70s/early 80s, i have no problems saying it was the first time since i started following Bruce and family’s adventures that I didn’t look forward to my monthly fix." 

    I’m glad I’m not the only long time reader who felt this way. 🙂 

  45. @JJ(with PatK): I believe PatK is saying that line transition was haphazardly thrown in. I mean it does seem like a bizarre way to get us into the story. To me, it felt like:

    ‘Yeah somehow I’m the voice of Gotham…..Anyways….’

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