Of all the bat
books that were likely worth reading that spun out of Bruce Wayne’s
return to the world, somehow I managed to forget about “Detective
Comics” until Scott Snyder was the guest on the Talksplode podcast. I
haven’t read “American Vampire” – but have obviously noticed the
praise. I love Jock most of the time but find much of his more recent
stuff to leave a bit to be desired. I wasn’t even sure if I was going
to get this book, but by the time some advance reviews came out Tuesday
and Wednesday – I knew I needed it.

And it was an incredible
first (871st) issue. This might actually be the best Batman book I’ve
read since the first arc of Batman & Robin with Morrison and
Quietly. Snyder’s dialogue is just perfect, amazingly sound for Dick
and for the dark world of Gotham. His Jim Gordon might be even better,
it just read super smooth, like a good mystery story should.

And
Jock has turned in some of his best work in recent memory. The angles,
the shades, the colors courtesy of David Baron – this book is vintage
Batman and it’s really great. While many of the Batman stories are
going to be taking a bit of a lighter tone in the coming months, it’s
good to see “Detective Comics” getting darker, getting more mysterious
and just being basically perfect. What more could you ask for?

 And
the backup (and I’m assuming a tie-in to the beginning of the lead
story) is great, creepy and features another one of the best artists
going right now in Francavilla. 

I can definitely see this becoming one of the quintessential books in all of the DCU.