Detective Comics #790

December 7, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title:Scarification & The Tailor Part 2

A new designer drug is polluting Gotham – so why is the Batman taking it so personally?

Writer: Anderson Gabrych & A.J. Lieberman
Pencils: Pete Woods & Jean-Jacques Dzialowski
Inks: Cam Smith & Dan Green
Colors: Jason Wright & Giulia Brusco
Letters: Clem Robins
Editor: Bob Schreck & Matt Idelson
Cover Art: Tim Sale & Mark Chiarello
Publisher: DC Comics

This done-in-one story is one of the better issues of Detective Comics that’s been put out in quite some time. A new drug called G.H.D has been on the streets for three weeks and it’s already claimed 16 young lives. Batman, of course, is hot on the trail of the source, but he’s acting far more aggressively than even he usually does, and Batgirl wants to know why.

Although Detective Comics is really where Batman should get the best mystery tales, this issue is much more of a character study than anything else. We get a nice insight into why Batman reacts a certain way to crimes like this one, and it’s a bit that makes perfect sense. It also finally sheds a little light on a plotline that’s been dangling in the Bat-family titles for far too long – why Batman “fired” Spoiler some time ago. Fans of Stephanie Brown who want to know why Bruce doesn’t want her going out in her mask anymore really should read this issue.

Pete Woods, hot off a decent run as the Robin penciller, tells a good story in this issue. An early splash page at the coroner’s office is suitably gruesome, and his bits with Batman and Batgirl swinging across the rooftops is especially good. Colorist Jason Wright deserves credit here as well – he employs a very dark palette, mostly a mixture of blues and browns, that give the issue a very hardboiled look.

The second part of future Batman: Gotham Knights writer A.J. Lieberman’s “The Tailor” is our back-up story in this issue, and again, it’s a good one. It focuses less on Batman and more on a man who makes costumes and weaponry for the superhero and supervillain set, and what he does when the crime of one of his clients hits too close to home. If that sounds familiar, it’s because J. Michael Straczynski did a similar story in Amazing Spider-Man just a couple of weeks ago, but with a far more humorous bent – this is a very different tale, and you shouldn’t be put off by the familiar premise.

This is not a great Batman issue, but a solid one, and one that most Batman fans will be pretty much satisfied with.

Rating: 7/10