Mister Freeze’s plan to revive Nora has begun, leaving Batman on his backfoot to save those being hurt. Minor spoilers for Detective Comics #1012 follow.
The last several issues of Detective Comics haven’t really been that great. There’s been uneventful build-up for this storyline that hasn’t been connected to the rather lackluster story. Now that there’s actually an interesting villain in-play in this issue, as well as a potentially interesting story, the quality of the series has returned. Mister Freeze, since “Heart of Ice” in Batman: The Animated Series, has been one of the best Batman villains and that continues in this issue.
One would think that the back-up stories over the past several issues would be all the set-up this story needed before it got into the nitty-gritty of the story. However, this issue ends up acting as set-up for everything to follow, which could be a bad thing considering the lackluster build-up so far. In the end though, its better because of the set-up in this issue. It establishes where Mister Freeze is at this point in time, emotionally and physically, as well as his new plans to revive Nora. At a basic level, this is par for the course for a Mister Freeze story now, but there’s enough new and different things involved to make the story feel fresh.
Because this issue is heavily focused on its set-up of the story though, not much actually happens. The stuff that does happen plot-wise is interesting enough to keep the momentum of the issue moving forward though. The way that this issue is formatted though leads to an almost surreal style early on in the issue, which creates a slightly unsettling feeling as you read. The issue also manages to make you feel cold from the outset, which is fitting given the villain of the story.
One of the reasons that this issue is better than some of the previous issues is that Doug Mahnke has returned as the artist. For years, he’s been one of the best Batman artists, so whenever he’s a part of Batman book, it automatically becomes better. He nails to the look of Batman and Mister Freeze perfectly in this issue. There’s such beauty in the way that he lays out his pages and connects them all together in such smart ways. Even if his line work isn’t quite as clean as several years ago, this actually benefits his art. It creates a grittiness that fits Batman’s world perfectly and organically makes this world look lived in and not perfect.