Stranded on a deserted island, Batman must defeat Deadshot if he’s to save the businesspeople also marooned. Minor spoilers for Detective Comics #1011 review.
The past several issues of Detective Comics have been mediocre at best. The series was excellent for its first three arcs, but now, it has taken a bit of a downturn in quality. The stories being told simply haven’t been that interesting or as risky. With this latest issue, there really wasn’t anywhere that story could go that wasn’t predictable. Lo and behold, it ends pretty much exactly as one would think. Because of that, this story ends exactly as it began. Lackluster.
There really is just nothing going on in this story. It’s Batman versus Deadshot. That’s it. Yes, it’s on a deserted island, but nothing about that really feels like it fully plays into the story. There seemed to be plenty of opportunities for the story to do something interesting with this dynamic, but it never does. There was ample opportunity for the story to go to places that could be interesting to read, but it never does. Rather it instead chooses to play it completely safe and feel like a slightly dumbed down episode of Batman: The Animated Series.
This is even more frustrating given that the first two arcs in Peter J. Tomasi’s run go to such lengths to take risks. It’s not like he’s a writer who hasn’t done so before. So, the fact that this story is so basic and boring is out of the ordinary for his writing. The Mr. Freeze portion of this issue demonstrates that he is stilling willing to take risks, which makes the rest of the issue so frustrating.
Just like the previous two issues, Christian Duce’s art is serviceable. There’s not much that he has to work with. Both his lines and inks are well done, and he tries to make the action as exciting as possible. However, because the story isn’t that interesting at this point, it’s hard to get invested in the action. This isn’t Duce’s fault, but it’s definitely the case with this issue. He creates some striking images during the course of this issue, but that’s all they are striking images. They have no true story or pathos to make them truly pop or be memorable. Duce’s art is not the problem with this issue, as he makes it as enjoyable as it could probably be.
CHECK OUT: Detective Comics #1010 Review: The Stranded and The Lost