Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Jock and Francesco FrancavillaThis is it — the finale so twisted, so shocking we can’t even begin to give away details here! Be there for the extra-sized conclusion of the acclaimed run by Scott Snyder, Jock and Francesco Francavilla. DETECTIVE COMICS #881 is the issue everyone will be talking about. Believe it.
Let me do you a favor and skip to the end: this is one of the best books out this week (if not the best book). You should have pre-ordered it already, but if you somehow didn’t then go buy it. It’s a great finale to what has ended up being a very memorable run, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be part of your collection someway.
If you want to see me elaborate on that, pop behind the cut.
I love finales; I really, really do. They’re probably some of the most enjoyable comics you can get, outside of a stray issue or one-shot here and there that catches you off guard. Finales, though? They’re always so jam packed with story and emotion as everything ties together for one last time, and you’re finally able to see the big picture that the creative team was assembling since you read your first issue of series X, Y or Z. That’s really the way to judge the life of any given book: if the ending really blows you away and not only finds a place to stick in your memory, but causes you to immediately go out and find a random person on the street, thrusting the comic into their hands while screaming, “Did you read this yet?!“, that’s how you know the comic did it’s job correctly*.
Such is the case with Scott Snyder’s finale of Detective Comics, starring Jock and Francesco Francavilla. Pulling together the story that began almost a year ago, this is one of those finales that you just have to read to believe. It’s fairly incredible to see a book that started with otherwise simple and earnest intentions turn into such a carefully and well constructed sinister mystery of betrayal. It’s one of those endings that we should’ve seen coming from the very beginning, but there’s no way that you could fully guess exactly how it all goes down, and when it finally does you’re left with a rather optimistic outlook.
The final issue of the book finds James Gordon Jr. standing fully revealed in his madness as Dick races against the clock to save Oracle. Given that the last issue found Dick facing off with the Joker, it certainly says something that this issue is rather dark in comparison. Snyder lets his imagination run with this issue, writing James in such a way that his madness is on par with that of the Joker. There’s one scene in which James tortures Barbara with only words in a way that is so gut wrenching for anyone with any kind of emotional attachment to the character, it really shows Snyder’s strengths as to why he was chosen as the writer for Detective Comics. Between the two flagship Batman titles, Detective has always been the “realistic” book, pitting Batman against villains who don’t have special freeze powers or the ability to fly. Snyder has been fully playing up the title of the book, weaving a mystery that is only fully unveiled in this issue, and it’s certainly one that will have most reader’s guessing up until the last second.
Now, there is one thing that bothers me about the issue. As much as this is a grand finale for the tale that Snyder has been weaving since the beginning of his run, it falls prey to the same problem I’ve had with every DC August finale I’ve read so far: it feels like the ending was rushed a bit. I can’t be certain that this wasn’t always the plan because things do tie up rather neatly, but there’s a point in the issue where I had to pause and ask myself if this was the original intent. (Mild Spoiler Alert: Barbara Gordon tells her brother that she always knew he wasn’t the type of villain to pull out a monologue, and he then proceeds to give Dick an incredibly long monologue revealing his place in the whole saga.) It’s the sort of thing that feels like it should be there, and it arguably makes certain parts of the run that much more powerful, but it’s also out of place; it’s the sort of thing that you’d imagine Batman would “figure out” over another five issues or an arc before everything came to a climax. Yet here it is, warranting a double-stuff’d issue and letting Jock and Francavilla have more fun. I find myself both up and down on this one singular element, but not enough to dislike the finale as I have others.
Continued belowThe true beauty of the book, though, and the thing that helps it stand out already as one of the better of DC’s finales, is how comparable it is to the book it takes one of it’s main characters from. James Gordon was introduced in Batman: Year One in 1987, and has been a simple footnote in the history of the Gordons since then. What’s clever to note here is that Batman: Year One was a story about Jim Gordon (almost) more than it was about Batman, and in a way so is Snyder’s work. While Batman is assuredly a starring character in this narrative, Jim, James and Barbara have been the focus of the central narrative for the larger arc, with Batman simply popping in and out to fight crime here and there. Given that the finale ties everything together with Jim’s emotional response to the entire ordeal (in a rather powerful scene, I might add), as well as pays tribute in the coyest of coy ways to Year One twice, is what really makes this entire run worth the effort on the fan’s part. It creates a colossal emotive response in the reader, which certainly speaks volumes to Snyder’s plotting. In a world oversaturated in Batman stories that range from mediocre to “meh”, Snyder has created a “wow”, which is commendable in and of itself.
It’s also impossible not to mention the brilliance that is Jock and Francesco Francavilla, playing off one another throughout the entirety of the double-sized finale. There’s no clear split between the workload here as there was earlier; both Jock and Francavilla take key moments of the book in an alternating fashion, with Jock perhaps taking some more of the action heavy sequences and Francavilla holding on to the darker and more twisted moments of chatter. Their two rather unique styles merge rather well, however, and from a visual and thematic stand point, seeing the two take up the duties of the finale together helps to further tie the run together. It’s been quite a visual ride the two have taken us on, and the book couldn’t have been done without them. Without Francavilla’s color palette and unique use of shadows, James Gordon’s revelation wouldn’t seem half as sinister as it does; without Jock’s eye for sequencing and characters in motion, the final scene wouldn’t be half as intense and nailbiting as it is. It stands to reason that, given their duality, the bar has certainly been raised for Detective Comics as a whole (and something tells me that the next creative team is going to have a difficult time filling in these shoes).
The long story short is that this was by far one of the more impressive non-Morrison Batman runs in recent memory. Obviously Grant Morrison sort of cornered the market on Bat-stories for a while at DC with his epic run, and while others made attempts to tell stories that just didn’t measure up to the creativity or the depth, in came Scott Snyder to pull the rug out from everyone. I feel like now it’s probably appropriate to mention that a) I’m really not a Batman fan and b) I, unlike others on this site, did not have immediate faith in the book. I enjoyed the creative team, sure, but unless I’m given an incredibly compelling reason, I’m not likely to buy a Batman title. Scott Snyder ended up being a compelling enough reason, and with Jock and Francesco Francavilla offering up absolutely gorgeous artwork throughout, this whole run has found a place in my Top 5 Non-Morrison Batman Stories Of the Past Decade list, claiming the Number 2 spot (right under Gotham Central).
I came in an unbeliever, and I’ve left with a pre-order for Batman #1 by Snyder and Greg Capullo for September. What higher praise is there than that?
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy and revel in the glory
*Oh, and myself? I’ve already given someone I know one of my issues, because I know they’ll ask me for more soon.
