The first Batman book of the Zero Month has arrive in the form of Detective Comics #0. Will this kick off give us what we know or present a new side to the legend of Bruce Wayne? Major Spoilers has your answer now!
Detective Comics #0
Writer: Gregg Hurwitz
Pencills: Tony S. Daniel
Inks: Richard Friend
Colors: Tomeu Morey
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Previously in Detective Comics: Well on one hand twelve issues of story has happened, but chronologically speaking nothing has happened besides Bruce becoming a grownup orphan. Welcome to Zero Month.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
So in this Zero issue we are heading back ten years from, what I’m going to assume, the start of the New 52, or five years before Justice League #1. Somewhere in the Himalayas Bruce Wayne has finally found Zen-Buddhist Monk Warrior Shihan Matsuda. As Wayne’s training, what little of it that there is, begins it is quite evident that this master has a few ideas that conflict with the Knight we have come to know and love. As Shihan tries to teach him to let all love, compassion, and joy leave his body, Bruce is hesitant to follow and Shihan’s wife even tells him to not listen to the teacher. Shinan goes as far as to tell Bruce that the best thing to ever happen to him was the murdering of his parents.
Let that “lesson” sink in for a second.
Accompanying the training scenes, a romance story between Bruce and a young lady from the town is attempted, but is built up in such a rushed way that when it comes unraveled at the end the reader is left with a sense of indifference. And when it comes down to it that is the way the entire issue felt. Bruce’s training felt incredibly quick and none of what he “learned” has transfered to what he is today. If the decision would have been made to turn the seven pages used as a back up featuring Alfred into pages used to flesh out the main story more then what we were presented could have had greater weight. But in the end we are left with two sub-par stories.
AT LEAST IT LOOKED GOOD
Tony S. Daniel does the line art on the issue and that is what kept the issue above the water. Really the entire art team did a great job through it all. All the characters kept their same form, the colors worked extremely well for the story, and the inking kept all the pieces nice defined. The only slight hiccup was during the first scene we are shown Bruce’s love interest, Mio. The shading is done in such a way that she appears to have either a giant sized booger or a horn sticking out of her nostril. Besides that, good stuff.
BOTTOM LINE: SKIP IT
Since there are multiple Batman centered books I’m hoping for a connected story between them this month, but even if that does pan out Detective Comics #0 will not play much of a role. The story is far too rushed to make an impact on the readers and the content within seems to fall to the way side with stories Batman is currently in. Besides the art, the only other positive is the fact that this is the last issue before John Layman takes over the writing duties.
[rating:1.5/5]
3 Comments
Wow. I had a very, very different opinion on this issue… I would’ve probably given it a 4, maybe even a 4.5; I LOVED the Alfred backup, and enjoyed the Hurwitz-written main story as well. But hey, the variance of mileage is what makes Major Spoilers great! :)
^ This. I thought this was a terrific issue, with the Alfred backup also being the highlight. Different strokes, I guess.
“the best thing to ever happen to him was the murdering of his parents.” – yeech…the more I hear about the new 52, the less I like. I understand, I’m 42, I’m not the target demographic, but that doesn’t mean reading this doesn’t “ouch”.