Detective (The New 52) # 1

By Mark Rodriguez

We go back to the New 52 which started in 2012. It apparently never stopped being New since even years later the comics still had the New 52! label slapped on it. While most characters got rebooted, Batman's history got streamlined. He also had 4 comics come out at the same time, Batman, Detective, Batman and Robin and Batman Dark Knight.

In this title-less story, Batman is on the prowl looking for the Joker and he tells us that the Joker has killed 114 people in the last 6 years. There’s been a series of murders with people being mutilated and missing organs, and Bats now gets a lead on a motel room, east side, around 15 minutes ago.

In said motel room, we see some guy with random flesh on his face, like Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre, beating the crap out of the Joker. Considering that he grabbed the Joker by the neck… he somehow bit him across the throat… how does that work?

 Anyway, Joker stabs the man to death, as this random freakshow considers himself being a fan of his and an honor to be killed by him. Just then a flying Batarang camera thingie, called the Ro-Bat (…really??) tips Joker off that he has company. As Batman swoops in, Joker makes a break for it, tossing a dufflebag full of exploding dollheads. Batman is about to give chase, when he hears a random girl trapped in the building. As Batman rescues the poor girl, the Joker got away. As the fire from the explosion spreads, Gotham PD busts in and try to take Batman down… while Bat’s main concern is getting the girl to safety and making sure none of the cops get killed in the fire. Batman escapes and Commissioner Gordon shows up, angry that the cops opened fire on Batman. It seems Mayor Hady has it in for our vigilante hero.

Batman returns to the Batcave and checks up on the Batcomputer for any new leads. Alfred reminds him that he has a date with Charlotte Rivers, and Bats asks him to make up some excuse to stand her up. Alfred also mentions he should ‘shed a certain cat’ to complicate his relationship matters a lot less.  so I guess we can assume this happens sometime while Bats was banging Catwoman on the rooftops, as seen in Catwoman # 1 and 2. I'm not kidding.

 Batman talks to Gordon and finds out the girl Batman rescued from the fire is named Olivia Carr, and the guy that was stabbed to death was her uncle. She was picked up by a family member and said the Joker was staying in a pharmacy, so Batman goes on the hunt again. At the pharmacy, the cops surround the building and start going in. The Joker they find is actually a dummy with a pull-string… which blows up the building and sends Batman flying onto a cop car.

Throughout the crowd Bats notices someone walking away.. the real Joker… and boarding a train. Batman boards the train and Joker uses an umbrella full of his lethal laughing gas to escape. He leaps off the train with his Joker grappling hook and Batman tackles him onto a rooftop. Dazed with the gas, Batman gets stabbed a few times by the Joker, and even gets shocked by his joy buzzer. 

During the fight, Joker warns of a bigger threat in Gotham, but Bats is so focused on him that he misses seeing the ‘bigger picture’. As the Clown Prince of Crime leaps in to finish him off, Bats tosses him off the building. Injured by the fall, the Joker is taken to Arkham Asylum.

Once he’s alone, someone steps into the room with the Joker. It’s revealed that Joker was purposely captured in Arkham so he could have the following event take place. The man Joker killed earlier was the man’s son… but for this procedure, Joker didn’t want anyone else but the man himself… And the procedure was for this mystery man to cut the Joker’s face off. 

My Opinions

As a first issue there was a lot of speculation, criticism and curiosity. As it is, I liked it and considered it a good Batman VS Joker fight, which is a good way for new fans to hop aboard. I also liked seeing the Joker using his crazy clown gadgets again, like the grappling hook and his joy buzzer, since lately he’s been reduced to just using knives and such like the Heath Ledger version. Awesome as that movie was, to me, Joker without his little toys is like Scarecrow without his fear gas. 

Little details like Joker’s reduced kill count, Gordon looking younger, Arkham running the Asylum while he was seen an inmate in Batman # 1, and Joker already seen in Dark Knight # 2 (before issue 3 would reveal he was Clayface impersonating him) made people wonder if Detective comics was set in the past, like Action comics # 1 and Justice League # 1… but again, things like the upcoming Suicide Squad series bringing up the faceless Joker and Gordon mentioning this whole ordeal in Dark Knight # 4 does prove this takes place in present time, and any inconsistency was a miscommunication between editors.

This story was action packed and pretty cool, introduced a new villain and starts a long arc with the disappearance of the Joker after this.