Art By: Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 11, 2014
Batman Vs. A Big Fucking Squid!
The hunt was on last issue for the person who murdered Elena Aguila. While the Dark Knight Detective's investigations lead him to Sumo, Detective Bullock's centered around Bruce Wayne being the main suspect. After following a tracer he placed on a car, Batman found cargo containers loaded with Chinese children that are to be used as mules, and pushers for the Icarus Drug. This also led to a confrontation with Sumo, who apparently only got rid of Elena Aguila's car, and after a proper thrashing dimed out The Squid as the person Batman wanted. So will Batman be able to uncover the murderer when Bruce Wayne is the main suspect? Let's find out.
Explain It!:
Detective Comics begins with Batman searching through the sunken car of Elena Aguila, looking for clues to the whereabouts of her murderer "The Squid". Batman seems to find what he was looking for and we're shown the police later recovering the vehicle, who's location was called in by an anonymous tip. Can you guess who called in the tip boys and girls? I really hope so because we're going to have to have a talk if you're not picking up on this. Anyway Bullock's still being a dick and is adamant that Bruce Wayne is still behind Elena's murder. At the shipping yard the police find that all but one of the containers is accounted for, so it's time to check who signed in the containers. Bullock's money is on someone acquainted with Bruce Wayne, but how likely is that?
Elsewhere Batman finds Elena's daughter Annie staring out into the ocean, and the two have a big heart to heart talk about Annie's mother. It's a very beautiful looking scene, but ultimately the conversation leads to nothing but Batman promising he'll deliver justice to Elena's murderer, and Annie being all "Meh".
Back to the police work, we see Ole Harvey Bullock is becoming a bit of a crazy cat lady, and someone who doesn't return his mother's phone calls. Okay I'm going to stop right here folks, because I just got frightened. You know that feeling you get and we say that someone just walked over your grave? Well I got that looking at this page. I think I just saw my future. Now I'm not saying I'm going to start returning my mother's phone calls, but I will resign myself to only one cat, and maybe start doing some crunches or something, but damn could that ever be me in the not to distant future. Sorry let's get back to it. So the police find out that the person who signed for the containers is a Wayne Industries VP named Jeb Lester, and when we cut to Ole Jeb we see that he's trying to destroy the paperwork tying him to it. He's also talking to a mystery man on the phone about it, but all we get is the name Sam. I'm going to go with Sam Axe from Burn Notice just because I don't get enough Bruce Campbell in my day to day. Too bad that Jeb wasn't quicker though because as he tries to make his way to the elevator with the incriminating evidence, Bullock and a team of officers are waiting for him. Harvey's really getting a case against Bruce, we'll need to cross universes and get Matt Murdock to represent him when this goes to trial.
Now it's on to the hunt for The Squid, and for some reason we start that hunt with Batman standing on top of a church without his cowl on. Okay the cowls on and he's off. Weird. So Batman used Elena's phone he found in the car to triangulate calls made, and pinpointed the spot from where most of the calls came from. Now imagine where you'd think a guy calling himself The Squid would set up shop. I know what you want to say, but you're thinking no that's way to cliche and obvious, but you'd be right. The Old Aquarium. Batman stands above a giant tank of water, and is grabbed and pulled in by The Squid's giant squid. That's some good detective work there Dark Knight. So Batman fights a giant squid as The Squid and his younger brother we saw in the first part of this story look on and make bets. Well Batman's not going to take any nonsense from some tentacled fool and he proves it by electrocuting the squid, and then uses his utility belt's explosives to blow up the giant tank of water.
In the end Batman stands over The Squid and his younger brother as they try to shake off the explosion and then the massive water saturation, but the biker gang that The Squid owes "The Kings of The Sun" surround them all with guns drawn. Hopefully next issue Batman can take them all out even though he has a water logged suit to deal with. See you in thirty as we continue in ICARUS PART 4.
Bits and Pieces:
While I'm not sure about how the story is working overall I do have to compliment the creators for the beauty of this book. It's really something to look at, and is something that should carefully be eyeballed every time you turn the page. But the story seems a little too convenient at times, and almost laughingly cliche. Now I'm not going to fault the writing for this, because Batman even makes mention of it, but it really caught me off guard. Even with my gripes though this is a fun book to read, and is really Bullock filled for those of you missing this curmudgeon of a character. Go check it out.
7.8/10
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