Art By: Brian Buccellato, Francis Manapul
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 4, 2015
The Hatter's Comeuppance
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
In this late review of Detective Comics #39, I'll try to remind everyone what was going down so to have some context to what you're reading....... Yeah, this isn't going to be easy. Now in the last issue we saw Anarky causing a ruckus throughout Gotham when he sent everyone a Anarky mask as an early Christmas gift. So what does everyone do in Gotham when they're sent a mask? Why they go crazy with anonymity of course. Riots, bank robberies, pretty much anything that one could do with a mask and it all boils down to a kid getting shot because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time...... wearing a mask. Now even though we all know that Detective Yipp took the shot, when we ended the last issue it seemed like Gotham was ready to simply pin it on the Batman. Let's see if the Dark Knight can beat the shooting wrap and take down Anarky before anymore awful parents let their kids out of the house wearing masks. Let's check it out.Explain It!:
Our issue begins with Detective Yipp only getting suspended from the GCPD if she plays ball with the story that Batman is a gun toting maniac, who shoots kids and it looks like she's going to go that direction. I guess with her off the force for awhile it will give the writers ample excuse to bring Renee Montoya into the fold and give fans a character that they want....... Poor unpopular Yipp. Comic books are like Highschool Yipp.......... Everyone's an asshole....... or something about popularity........ I don't know. So now that Yipp is temporarily off the force that leaves Batman only having to deal with Bullock when he hides in the back seat of his police car and runs down the evidence that he's collected with the Detective......... and a little vise versa. A little department/vigilante cooperation.
Even though it seemed like Councilman Sam Young was a great big Red Herring two issues ago, it seems like the evidence keeps pointing to him as Bullock tells us about a briefcase he found at Jeb Lester's murder scene, that his gut tells him belongs to the Councilman but when he went to evidence to get it dusted for prints, it mysteriously vanished. During Batman and Bullock's conversation, it seems like Mad Hatter is recreating some of his most tender moments with Alice and luckily for us Anarky blows the wall out and with a team of Anarky groupies, drags Mad Hatter away........ I say luckily because we all know that Jervis was going to hump the hell out of that pillow and there are only so many things that I can see before my mind goes forever sideways.
In the end, we find out that Mad Hatter left Batman with a crucial clue in the issue before this, that brought him and Bullock to the "Blue House". I don't know about any of you but I had to go back and read the last issue to find out what Batman was talking about and it was all from one panel where Jervis was spouting some rhyming nonsense and after waiting a month in between these issues I had no idea what was going on here. But apparently, in this story we find out that Mad Hatter was like the remake to Freddy Krueger and even though he's a genius that makes mind controlling hats, he was working as a caretaker for an orphanage, where he'd live out his sick fantasies with the kids and as the issue closes we see Batman and Bullock try to take on the Anarky group before they could execute Mad Hatter for the crimes that he committed against them when they were younger......... But if they do that, from what I understand then he'll forever haunt them in their dream........ with tea parties.
That's it for this issue of Detective Comics and even though I've been enjoying this story arc so far, this damn "Blue House" clue that leads Batman to where Anarky plans on killing Mad Hatter was just out of left field for me and I did actually have to go back and read the previous issue to make sure that this hunch wasn't bullshit. It's a stretch, but I'll still go with it...... "World's Greatest Detective" and all but taking Anarky from trying to tip civilization and government on it's head to making him a vigilante against child molesters and murderers was a strange choice to me. The art was great as always though and I hope that the ending to this story arc is as strong as it began.
Bits and Pieces:
While the clues leading our Dark Knight to the final setting in this issue was a bit of a stretch for me, I enjoyed this issue for what it was and really enjoyed the artwork that got me from beginning to end. Mad Hatter's become a bit more of a monster here and apparently Anarky has become a thing that stops monsters and I guess that's okay since we're in the New 52 but I'm not sure that long time fans will appreciate the drastic change in the characters that they love.
7/10
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