Detective Comics #3

I've been critical of this series, and for good reason. For the series that DC Comics is named after, the quality of the comic, especially after the relaunch, should be top notch. But they assigned Tony Daniel to create this book, and well, not much more needs to be said. The two books he's been assigned? The Savage Hawkman book, which is better kindling than it is an actual book, and the second is this book.

Simply put, Tony Daniel has been handed books and squandered both opportunities. He is a fantastic penciller, yes, but after Hawkman is cancelled and Detective Comics reassigned, I dearly hope he isn't allowed to write again. The third installment of the Dollmaker storyline isn't much better than the second, suffering from lack of "so what?" What are the stakes here, besides the whole save Gotham without trying to die in the process thing.



Also problematic is the resolution to the cliffhanger from the last issue. When Batman thought the Dollmaker got to Gordon, he was livid, frightened, stressed, exasperated. A few pages in it's all but forgotten, with Bruce claiming he knew all along that it wasn't James Gordon ( yeah, right, that freak out was an act). After he escapes this "trap" (wait, what was the point of all that? they had Batman right where they wanted!) he returns to the cave, revealing that he has this whole mystery solved, not that Tony Daniel showed us any real detecting inside the book named for detective work.

How I feel, reading Detective Comics

I like the idea of the Dollmaker, but as per usual, Tony Daniel has good ideas, just terrible execution. If there's one positive in all this, by the time Tony Daniel is done writing Batman, he will have created a lot of great characters and character dynamics, without plowing much ground so that others could follow behind him and have plenty of opportunity for original stories.

What I enjoyed: This comic isn't terrible, it's just not up to par. Decent adventure, and this cliffhanger (yes, another cliffhanger) is a very cool one. Maybe he should only use the Joker for cliffhangers, because that seems to be a good strategy for him.

What I didn't: Crappy dialogue, moves too slow, art suffers because he has to do both writing and pencilling.

Conclusion: Counting the days until Tony Daniel stops writing. 6.8/10 (D+).