Detective Comics #34 Review

The city isn’t evil, Bruce, it’s people.

This arc has been not about what Gotham does to people, but what people do to Gotham and themselves by allowing the city to dictate the terms.

Manapul and Buccellato end up constructing not a murder mystery (who killed Elena?) or Bullock’s search for meaning through both get answers in their own way. The problem was just like us readers, Batman and Bullock were too absorbed by their own investigations to see the bigger picture.

The artwork isn’t as strongly detailed here but is still vibrant and a great tapestry of color adds some glow to the story’s gloom.

SPOILERS FOLLOW……………..

Even as Batman lands a punch on Bullock, they both get smacked right in their self-centered faces as an explosion at the East End waterfront leaves many dead and both our protagonists struggling with guilt over their actions.

Elsewhere, Annette also goes beyond the point of no return as she kills the Squid’s brother.

Holter though gets some bad news, as he learns that their cargo has escaped and we see him glowing as destruction and havoc is all around him.

The waterfront is now a radiation zone and Batman goes in with his armored suit, even as Holter arrives on the scene to reveal he was behind the entire Icarus production and that the glowing child is patient zero – the one from whom he has been making the drug.

Batman manages to knock out an agitated patient zero before confronting Holter with the fact that he had Elena killed.

The unstable ground gives way as Batman and Holter are both grabbed by the actual Squid from earlier. Even as Holter sinks to literal depths of darkness, Batman is ‘saved’ by Bullock, who proceeds to handcuff him only to suffer a lockpick.

Next day, Bruce attempts to pacify Annette and make her stay, but without revealing Holter’s actual actions, he is unable to change her view that Gotham got her mother killed.

Elsewhere, Bullock (who’s relapsed into smoking) and Yip locate an apparently demonic sign on the inner walls of one of the confiscated crates.

There are still mysteries remaining. Who was Patient Zero? A Metahuman? What does that symbol at the end mean? Still those are for another day – the story is that a woman came to Gotham with hope and dreams and it wasn’t Gotham but her past that claimed her and her daughter.

Still, it’s Gotham’s fault as usual.

SPOILERS END…………….

This was a thought provoking examination into how Gothamites tick and their relationships with ‘outsiders’ who view this as a city lost.

So, I give it 9.0 out of 10.

+Some great themes

+The visuals

+Great character moments

+Excellent resolutions to the main plot threads.

-Too many open ended B-plot threads