Detective Comics #958 Review

Magic Show

Written by: James Tynion IV
Art by: Alvaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, Brad Anderson and Sal Cipriano
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: June 14, 2017

Now that the League of Shadows has gone away and we got a Spoiler issue to remind us she's still around, it seems time for James Tynion to start exploring his Detective Squad.  It looks like Azrael is first up and that is okay with me...I really like Azrael.  Maybe it's because I wasn't reading comics back in the day, but I think he's pretty cool and hopefully this story pays off.  Well, does it start off on a good note?  Let's find out...


The issue opens in the Dixon Center where Luke, Jean-Paul and Kate are taking in a Guardsman game.  Luke seems like one of those douches who sits and looks at his phone, even when he has court side seats, but actually he's just a boring jerk who wants to take all the fun out of basketball by studying it way too much.  It's a pretty boring opening scene that picks up a bit when an old St. Dumas friend of Azrael crashes the party.  Did I mention he's a midget werewolf?  Well, that's what he looks like.

They take Nomoz (midget werewolves do have names you know) back to the Belfry, but first we catch up with Bruce Wayne who is doing some undercover work at the Iceberg Lounge and Cass and Clayface running some lines from The Tempest.  The Bruce stuff was intriguing, but I wanted to get back to Nomoz and when we do, we find out a lot of fucked up shit about the current state of affairs of St. Dumas.

After a brief Azrael origin story (Hello, Mother), we get another look at Ascalon (remember "it") and find out it's in Gotham with a few hours to kill.  I thought this was a pretty good way to get readers up to speed on what we have and haven't gotten about Azrael.  If you have read Batman and Robin Eternal you will have a little more detail around the edges, but I would never ask anyone to go back and read that.

The issue ends with Bruce Wayne at the high stakes card game...where shit gets real.  I laughed at the "celebrities" at the game and the cliffhanger brings a character into this book that I'm sure everyone will love instantly.  She stops the big bad and makes it clear that her and Bruce have a past.  I know that I complain that Tynion already has too many characters doing nothing in this book, but I am pretty pumped going forward from here.

This is a very fast moving issue with a ton of full page spreads making everything fly by at double time.  Even so, it's a rough beginning that had me a bit bored until it picked up.  Even so, the whole issue's enjoyment pretty much hinges on what you think of the cliffhanger and like I said above, I'm in.

Alvaro Martinez's art is good.  After the mess this book went through during the League of Shadows, I'm so glad to be back to art that doesn't hurt my eyes.  The character work in this issue is top notch and this issue is all about the characters.

Bits and Pieces:

James Tynion starts off his Intelligence story and while it features Azrael, the issue is all about the cliffhanger.  Before that, it was a boring issue with really good art.  I am looking forward to what comes next, I just hope it gets a bit more exciting.

6.8/10