Detective Comics #2:
What Happened: Bruce Wayne randomly sleeps with a reporter before heading out to Arkham Asylum after learning of Joker's escape. While meeting Commissioner Gordon at the Asylum, Gordon mentions another case, this one involving a kidnapped girl. As if on cue, Gordon gets a radio report from a cop telling him he'd spotted the girl and the kidnapper heading into some building. Bats races off in front of Gordon and enters the building, finding the corpse of the recently murdered kidnapper, as well as the several hours dead body of the cop who supposedly sent the call. Bats is then attacked by several freaks wearing the skin of others stitched onto their bodies. The freaks manage to put Bats down, and this issue ends with the leader of the freaks, the Dollmaker, tossing Gordon into the room, with his skin all cut up like a jigsaw puzzle.
The Good: The story moved at a relatively fast pace. The artwork was good. I enjoyed the interaction between Dr. Arkham and Gordon.
The Bad: Basically anything that I didn't list in The Good section of this comic fits in this section. I don't particularly care about the Dollmaker nor his group of freaks. Bruce randomly sleeping with that reporter seemed kind of odd... The story just didn't interest me much.
The Verdict: Come on, how am I supposed to take a villain named The Dollmaker serious!? That right there handicaps the poor guy, because that name sucks! “Call me the Dollmaker!!!” It just doesn't work. Besides the unfortunately named villain, the story fell flat for me. We get Bruce talking business, sleeping with a reporter, going to Arkham, talking to Gordon and then losing to a parade of freaks. The fight with the freaks was okay, but the rest was kind of boring. As for Gordon, I'm going to guess that the guy we saw at the end of this one wasn't Gordon, but was some poor sap dressed in Gordon's clothes, because really, the Dollmaker would have had to move at super-speed to have done all that work to Gordon in such short order.
Score: 5 1/2 out of 10.
I'm sorry, but “The Dollmaker” is just a terrible name... Good design though.
I too am kind of on the fence with this one. I felt like the cliffhanger was another shock value effort, but it does at least keep readers curious enough to pick up the next issue. Some of the dialogue was a little clunky aagain but overall it was pretty well written. The art is always good with daniel. A grimacing batman is a winner in my book. THe dollmaker is a dumb name and i feel that they could have come up with something more creative like i dunno... the piecer? haha i dunno anything is better than dollmaker. Anyway he does have a decent design but the typical pretty lady working as a family henchman was a negative for me. Bruce rock climbing and sleeping with the reporter was just sort of awkward to me. I JUST finished reading this so it is really fresh in my mind. ANyway i'm giving this one a first arc look. If the arc comes full circle and is enjoyable I will stay on.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on giving this series the first arc too, Cap... I mean it's not been terrible, but if this issue is an indication of things going forward, I'm not sure if it's worth keeping. Last issue's cliffhanger was better because it seemed more believable than this one... I just can't see that guy at the end really being Gordon, but who knows I guess. And yeah, the Dollmaker makes me think about the Toyman, who is one of my least favorite Supes enemies. Different characters I know, but the name is just too similar, and quite honestly, too childish. But art: good. Story: not quite as good...
ReplyDeleteYes. If daniel digs this thing deeper though we could be in for a treat. The first two issues have been set-up but I have a feeling that there may be something major going on in this series eventually. If it pans out I will gladly stay for another arch. Its easily not the worst comic im picking up. That honor goes to... None! I drop them when they get bad haha unless its at the very end of the series. I have managed to control my completionist attitude fairly well. I am looking forward to a few light weeks of pulls though because Arkham city comes out on my birthday! I am currently trying to figure out where to preorder from to get the sweet incentives though.. decisions decisions...
ReplyDeleteDUDE DUDE DUDE
ReplyDeleteHOLY SHIT!
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=34809
Well here's an early happy b-day, Cap! I REALLY want to play as Robin, being a Tim Drake mark, but I'll probably be pre-ordering from Amazon just to get the $0.99 same day shipping. You don't get anything special for the game from Amazon, but Amazon is shipping a $10 gift card with the game so it's like paying $51(and tax) to get/play the game on the 18th! I can always buy the DLC(Nightwing, Robin, etc) later on down the road. I've gotta ask, Xbox 360 or PS3?
ReplyDeleteThat absolutely made my day, Movieartman!!! I can only HOPE that is exactly what it looks like... Fingers crossed!
the thing is how its says "what if there wasnt only one" makes me think its not bucky but another winter soldier (the fack that its a red star - russian adds credence to this)
ReplyDeleteor mabye they cloned bucky when he attempted to rebel agenst his programing that would explain bucky/winter soldier being left inactive sense the late 80s/early 90s
Well, I'm still holding out hope that it's actually Bucky, and the "What if there wasn't only one?" means the obvious, Captain America. Granted, I don't know how Marvel would undo Bucky's death(although Steve and a cosmic cube COULD work...), but you know I'll be holding my breath hoping it IS Bucky that teaser was talking about.
ReplyDeletewell if nothing else it sounds like the story maintains that creepy Silence of the Lambs kinda feel to it. i only read the first one so far it was a loaner.
ReplyDeleteI think the art is helping the story way more than the story itself, if that makes any sense, Dave... The art makes the story look dark and ominous, but the names... I'm sorry, I just can't get behind "The Dollmaker" as a serious villain name. Plus we got no Joker here! What gives?!
ReplyDeleteExactly X- no joker in this issue, that was the problem for me, I came to this issue looking for him and he did not make any aparition ? so the clifhanger is only a Shoking scene to keep us reading?
ReplyDeleteso in issue 3 Gordon disaperars?
I dont care im not reading issue 3
HA!!! I'd laugh so hard if Gordon just suddenly wasn't in the third issue, Alien... That's when I'd know for sure that Tony Daniel was crazy!
ReplyDeletethanks man! I play it on 360 actually. I am leaning more toward pre-ordering at best buy for ol' time drake, but I am still unsure. Idon't understand why the UK is the only place to get all the other awesome costumes and characters?! i want those too. I too will be looking to get the dlc.
ReplyDeleteAh, so you're an X-Bot, eh? :P It's the PS3 for me. I haven't pre-ordered yet, but I almost definitely will by Thursday this week, and I'm still leaning heavily towards Amazon. I figure if the game runs about 20 hours storywise, plus the challenge maps for Bats and Cats, that SHOULD keep me occupied until they release Tim/Dick as DLC. I mean I REALLY want to pick it up from Best Buy for Robin but for the extra price I just can't do it... That's an extra $10 for comic books! :D But bottom line? I'll be spending TONS of money on DLC for this game I can see!
ReplyDeleteFirst, I'm counting down the hours until I can play the Robin DLC. I finished the main plot a week or so ago, so I'm now wandering around Arkham City trying to complete all the sub-plots. (I'm going to have to make some sort of decision about the Riddler Trophies, particularly since "Uncharted 3" just arrived...) It's amazing I'm even going to work at this point.
ReplyDeleteSecond, did you read issue #3? If not, you're not missing much. Things get even weirder...in a bad way.
Same here my friend! I'm currently using Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 to hold me over until the Robin DLC is up. And I've got to say, as a Marvel fanatic, UMvC3 is pretty impressive. It might keep me from DLing the Robin pack right away actually. As for Uncharted, that's a franchise I always wanted to get into(it always has some great reviews), but haven't yet... HA! Those Riddler trophies... I think I had managed to collect over 200 before I switched over to UMvC3. I finished up all of the side missions except for the advanced VR training, which is insanely hard! But yeah, I've been quite pleased with the comic related video games I've been playing these past two months.
ReplyDeleteAfter this issue I dropped Detective, JW... It was a tough decision, I mean it's DETECTIVE COMICS!, but I just couldn't rationalize spending the money on something I'm sure to not like. Maybe if we get a writer change, I'll give it another shot, but for now, I'll use that money for other things, like the Robin DLC! :P