Detective Comics #957 Review

This review contains minor spoilers.

After such a mesmerizing start, James Tynion IV’s Detective Comics run hit a bit of a stumbling block with the overly lengthy “League of Shadows.” His next big arc is “Intelligence,” which starts in Detective Comics #958, so we won’t have too long to wait to see if he’s able to recapture the magic of his earlier work. For now, though, he’s teamed up with Christopher Sebela to pen the one-issue story “The Wrath of Spoiler,” which focuses on Stephanie Brown.

After her fallout with Batman, Steph makes it her mission to stop costumed vigilantes and villains from tearing Gotham City to pieces. This new crusade of hers includes sabotaging the Bat-Signal every time that it’s lit up by the GCPD. It’s actually funny to see how she does it while managing to annoy Harvey Bullock and spoil his donuts at the same time.

Apart from irking Harvey and denting the GCPD’s donut budget, Steph faces a foe named Wrath in this issue. Fittingly, the villain attacks a television station, so that he can challenge Batman on live television and make a name for himself in the process. It all plays well into the narrative that the Bat attracts the crazies merely due to his presence, which is an idea that Christopher Nolan splendidly tackled in The Dark Knight.

Even though I’m more of a Swamp Thing than a Spoiler fan, I must admit that I enjoyed this “filler” issue a lot more than I did Batman #23. It’s a simple, self-contained story that gives reason and justification to Steph’s motivations. While it’s far from a novel concept, she sincerely believes that masked heroes attract criminals – and she’s right in a way.

Sure, Steph shows her hypocrisy by continuing to wear her costume, but Tynion and Sebela use this as a method to show that she’s not quite in the right state of mind and confused after Tim’s “death.” She’s angry and lost, and could be about to make a big mistake – as the end of the issue hints to.

Unlike the “League of Shadows,” this story covers a lot of ground in a short space. It’s reminiscent of a Batman: The Animated Series episode, whereby it’s fast-paced, humorous, and introduces and resolves a conflict while never becoming clunky or unclear in its narrative. This goes to show that it’s possible to create great one-issue stories.

Carmen Carnero’s illustrations complement Detective Comics‘s art style rather well, proving to be the perfect merger of Christian Duce and Marcio Takara’s techniques. While the art in this series hasn’t been outstanding for some time now, Carnero at least moves the penciling side of things in the right direction. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come and we can expect a better-looking book in the forthcoming weeks.

All in all, Detective Comics #957 acts as a good breather in between storylines. It could’ve easily been nonsense, but it actually serves a purpose and furthers Steph’s arc. It’ll be interesting to see how the events in this issue affect her and Tim’s relationship when he inevitably returns. Something tells me that they won’t be sharing ice cream and kisses for too long.