The New 52 Review: Detective Comics #1

It doesn't look like much of a reboot for Batman so far. I haven't been keeping up with the mythos for a long time now but this seems like a well written Batman story plain and simple. Is it good? Even very good? Yes, but with all the excitement regarding the reboot the lack of surprise in this title is somewhat disappointing.

So what we have here is a a strong Batman story. The fact that it's also the origin story for the Batman taking on the Joker helps to enhance what may have otherwise been far more pedestrian Batman fare. This title tries to hark back to classic Batman tales of yesteryear and it pulls it off well, but it's a little more nostalgic than original. The problem here is that it's not that hard to write Batman well. The cliffhanger ending promises intrigue and I'm hoping it delivers.

Yep...that's Batman alright.

The artwork here is a little up and down, some beautiful gory and grimy scenes are contrasted with iffy panels throughout. The Joker just doesn't look right on a few pages. I'm interested to see where this goes, and this is the saving grace for this relaunch, the fact that people will be giving the books a while to settle in before deciding whether to stick with it or not.