Bruce Wayne is on his way to a business conference in Shanghai, but before he can arrive, Deadshot takes over his plane. Minor spoilers for Detective Comics #1009 follow.
Detective Comics #1009 is coming off the back of its worst issue since Peter J. Tomasi took over the series, it was poised to be looking up. Mister Freeze was seemingly going to be featured heavily in this issue and potentially the next couple. However, that very much is not the case and the cover is not what this issue is about. This is exactly what Superman #14 and Supergirl #33 reportedly got recalled for earlier this week. This issue isn’t bad, but is severely disappointing given the differences between what the cover was advertising and the end product.
It’s hard to put into words where the disappointment regarding this issue stems from. The issue isn’t bad, but it’s not what we were necessarily expecting to happen. This isn’t a subversion of expectations thing either, it’s simply not what was advertised. Could it be considered false advertisement? Sure, but you have to look at what is actually there than what you were expecting a certain point.
All that being said though, this issue does a decent job of showing the two sides of Bruce Wayne, the vigilante, and the playboy. It does focus more on the Bruce Wayne side of the character in this issue, which really leans into the arrogant playboy personality. This is something that we really don’t get to see very often and it proves realistically why others can’t deduce his identity. When in danger though, he immediately switches that personality off. It’s a great look into the dichotomy of the two.
The story, as of now, isn’t the most interesting though. Deadshot isn’t the most captivating of villains, especially when you are continually waiting for Mister Freeze to show, and there are really no personal stakes. He’s a hired gun and nothing more. There’s nothing tying him to his actions, or Bruce Wayne for that matter, other than money. It’s honestly pretty boring.
Christian Duce’s art is decent throughout the issue though. He doesn’t really have much to do for a good portion of the issue, but once the action ramps up, his art is exciting. In his time on The Flash, it became obvious that he wasn’t the most comfortable doing simple dialogue scenes, which is what this issue mostly contains. However, his action scenes were continuously great. Those distinctions continue with this issue and its sad that he didn’t have more action to work with.
Some of his figures at times did look a bit odd as compared to the other characters. Like they were compressed to fit into a panel almost. However, this happened once maybe twice, so it was that big of a deal, just noticeable for at least one of them.