Comic Review: Detective Comics (2016-) #986

Detective Comics (2016-) #986

DC Comics

Writer: Bryan Hill

Artist: Philippe Briones

After hitting a speed bump with the previous issue, the book picks up its pace again. Batman instructs Alfred to activate the “signal-breaker” – a system that takes over every screen in Gotham to show-off the Bat logo over a green background. The purpose of this is, I assume, to let the people of Gotham know that he is on the case.

While Batman is busy showing-off, Jefferson is trying to work out a plan with the kids. Unfortunately for him, it’s not going as planned as Orphan has already gone to take on Karma. As she is preparing to engage, Batman interrupts her and tasks her with saving the hostages, while he deals with Karma. Jefferson arrives pretty soon, and the trio takes on Karma and tries to foil his evil plan.

What’s Good

As mentioned, the book picks up its pace after the really slow and dull previous issue. Karma remains a solid and ruthless villain, and I hope to see more of him in the future. Another character I’m really enjoying is Orphan, aka Cassandra Cain. She has had a great arc during Tynion’s run, and Hill is continuing to build on top of it. I also enjoyed seeing Barbara take on her classic Oracle role, even for a brief moment.

Philippe Briones does an okay job on the art front. His lines are nice and clear, and his costumed characters are great. There are some genuinely nice looking panels and pages, especially the escape splash and the final page splash.

What’s Bad

The story hasn’t been delivering much after the great setup. Karma has been really good, but he feels greatly de-powered compared to the first couple of chapters. Batman has been acting completely out of character for the majority of the arc, only for that to be thrown out the window with this issue. The new team got me really excited with it’s hypothetical team dynamic, but it never really delivered on it. What’s worse is that Hill’s run is ending with the next issue, #987, so there isn’t much time left for improvement.

While Briones’ lines are good and the overall look of the book is fine. I need to criticise the colouring; it’s not good. The digital colouring looks okay at times, but there are a lot of instances where it’s really bad. Some scenes look really disjointed, as the colouring does not compliment the lines at all. At times, the book will feel really flat because of this.

Another aspect of the art I did not enjoy is the overuse of the motion blur effect. While it can be okay in some instances (hell, I even praised it’s use in some of the previous issues), it did not work in quite a few panels in this issue. 

Verdict

Hill’s tenure with Detective Comics had a promising start, but, unfortunately, it did not maintain that promised level of quality. There are some really nice moments in the book. Karma, Cassandra, and Jefferson have had some good character development. Briones’ art is okay. And that’s it. Everything else is forgettable, and that’s a shame.