Batman and Bruce Wayne are dead in the eyes of this new Gotham, but still Bruce persists to try and save Gotham from the Magistrate. Spoilers for Future State: Dark Detective #1 follow.
Being one of the two main Batman titles released during “Future State,” Dark Detective is the more traditional Batman story of the two. Whereas The Next Batman follows a new Batman learning the ropes in this future Gotham, Dark Detective follows Bruce Wayne as he is struggling to keep up with the authoritarian changes that have come. Broke and on-the-run, he has to decide what he needs to do stay alive and, in his mind, save Gotham.
The premise of this book very much feels like it could land flat and feel like just another Batman story, but there’s an energy presented here that makes it really stand-out. Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora have crafted a gritty, down-to-earth Batman story that really hones in on Bruce Wayne’s headspace. This issue isn’t really focused on the overall narrative of the story, but rather the character of Bruce Wayne. That’s not to say that this issue doesn’t set-up what seems to be a gritty, neo-noir detective story, because it does, it’s just not the purpose of the first issue of this mini-series. The purpose of this issue was to establishing a broken-down Bruce who continues to push forward despite his fears. This issue establishes what it means to be Batman and it does so in an incredibly engaging way.
Probably the best thing about this issue, other than establishing a Blade Runner-esque Gotham City, is the portrayal of Batman. So often in Batman comics, he’s portrayed as someone who can win anything and barely take a scratch doing it. However, that very much isn’t the case here. Similar to Batman: Earth One, Dark Detective revels in making Batman human. He gets shot multiple times, his grappling hook doesn’t work perfectly, he gets distracted. All of this makes him just feel all the more real within the fantastical nature of this story. It also ups the stakes of the story quite a bit. Just like how you fear for Indiana Jones as he’s being brutalized, you fear for Batman here because he actually gets hurt. It creates for a more intense read that keeps you engrossed while reading it.
And not enough can be said about Dan Mora’s art. It’s phenomenal. This is his first full issue for DC I believe and it’s honestly kind of frustrating that it’s taken this long. His work on other series, namely the Power Rangers franchise for Boom! Studios is fantastic. Because of his work there, he started doing some anthology entries in multiple DC books, as well as a bunch of covers, but it’s clear in this issue that he should’ve been put on an ongoing title a while ago. His work here is absolutely gorgeous to look at and is only accentuated by Jordie Bellaire’s always excellent coloring work. It’s so great that he’s continuing on after Dark Detective and staying on Detective Comics.
As for the secondary Grifter story, it’s ok. There’s nothing particularly interesting that happens in it, other than an appearance by Huntress, but it’s an enjoyable enough read just for Carmine Di Giandomenico’s art alone. Giandomenico hasn’t done much for DC lately, outside of one issue of DCeased: Hope at World’s End, so it’s nice to see him back in the fold, even if it’s only for just a couple of issues. It is kind of disappointing that the Grifter story is the size of a full issue though. I’d argue that it should’ve been cut down to 18 pages, making for some more pages for Dark Detective.