New 52 “The Flash” luminaries Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato bring ANUSTART to “Detective Comics.” What, it’s right there on the 2nd page. Ah, nevermind. Let’s see how they did, after the break.
Written by Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato
Illustrated by Francis Manapul
Lettered by Jared K. FletcherA bold new direction for DETECTIVE COMICS as THE FLASH creative team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato take over the creative reins! Batman finds himself knee-deep in a new mystery involving a deadly new narcotic that has hit the streets of Gotham City.
“Detective Comics” declares this new start through the introduction of a couple new characters, Elena Aguila and her motocrossing daughter Annie. Elena has a philanthropic proposal for Bruce Wayne, which she hopes will trigger his sense of hope in the city and to invest in its ability to clean up the drug-related crime. Little does she know that he’s knee deep in those drug scourges as Batman just about every night – something we see play out in Manapul & Buccellato’s opening “letter of intent” Batman vs. the Drug Peddlers sequence. The inclusion of Elena and her daughter not only end up playing upon Scott Snyder’s approach to the Bruce Wayne character by directly referencing his personal vision of Gotham City, but also extends to the recent loss of his son Damian. In this way, “Detective Comics” #30 is an example of how DC could have approached continuity better throughout their line.
The “Batman” corner of the DC Universe has been so popular and narratively strong for so long now that it’s one of the few aspects of DC Comics that didn’t philosophically reboot when the ‘New 52’ happened. Batman is also essentially the “centerpiece” of the DCU right now – everything else feels as though it’s built out from Batman at the center. Manapul and Buccellato show a strong sense of collaboration by building of elements that Snyder and Tomasi have been developing and utilizing them as key character traits for the Bruce Wayne character. Basically, they treat the continuity as an essential element of the characters as he presently exists – not as trivia.
While they nail the intentionally aloof Bruce Wayne with some nicely muted core character bits, it remains to be seen just what their vision of Batman will be, even though the one Batman sequence we get is nicely done. Manapul & Buccellato earned a lot of accolades for their work on “The Flash”, one of a relatively small handful of DC Comics’ ‘New 52’ relaunch titles that had a distinct and cohesive vision and from a visual standpoint is about as iconic as it gets as an approach to the speedster character. Manapul’s gorgeous spreads were always story-driven in addition to being physically creative, so there’s not much worry that this writing team wouldn’t find ways to apply the same sort of visual acrobatics to the caped crusader.
Though the opening sequence doesn’t embed the title into the art the way that they did over and over in “The Flash” – their penchant for experimenting with the layouts and the pacing remains at least to some degree, though there’s nothing here that demonstrates the same sort of awe-inspiring spectacle that “The Flash” did. For now, their approach is more muted and subtle by comparison. Their vision for Gotham, too, is successful but not yet iconic. Their opening sequences paints Gotham as a pretty scary place, even with Manapul’s typically soft, warm watercolors. Gotham is beautifully tragic, under his creative vision.
But while they carved out a new vision for “The Flash” – it was always going to be tougher to do the same for “Batman” – by far the character that DC Comics puts the most resources into, and one that has been such a beacon of quality for so long. It’s very early. Batman busting up yet another drug haven in stylish fashion is good enough for now, but hopefully future issues stretch the visually inventive muscles more so that this book can begin to carve out a place in history, rather than just a place on the pull list. Not to put the cart before the horse – this book is absolutely a quality “Batman” title – but these guys have set a really high bar for themselves.
“Detective Comics” #30 is a relatively routine debut for “Batman” under Manapul & Buccellato, but a surprisingly winning one for “Bruce Wayne.” Since super-heroics have tended to be this creative team’s strong suit, it stands to reason that things will even themselves out over their opening arc. As of right now, “Detective Comics” looks to be a needed change of style & tone for a character that is crowding even himself in the ‘New 52’, while still referencing and staying true to what is making “Batman” such a strong comic property at this point in time. A strong debut with plenty of room to grow.
Final Verdict: 7.9 – Buy
