Detective Comics #974 Review

Break Up The Band

Written by: James Tynion IV
Art by: Philippe Briones, Allen Passalaqua and Sal Cipriano
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: February 14, 2018



The cliffhanger of the last issue of Detective really had Clayface fans worried.  However, after the Annual (which seemed only there to make Basil look like an ass), I figured we had seen the last of Clayface, at least for now.  Of course, there is still the whole thing with Kate killing him and how Batman will deal with that as well as if this was what the Future Tim tried to warn everyone about.  With all that, this issue has to kick ass, right?  Let's find out...

The issue opens with a scene to get everyone up to speed...Clayface is dead.  Yep, it's pretty well spelled out and while we all know who did it, Tim declares he does too and soon the whole Detective Squad has joined Kate on the rooftop where she took the shot.

We get Batman yelling, Tim bringing up his future self and Cass ripping Kate's Batwoman symbol off of her suit, before Batman pretty much kicks Kate off the team.  I figured this would happen and whether it is temporary or permanent, it looks like Batwing and Azrael may go with her.  Hey, I don't mind about Kate as much since she has her own solo book, but if Luke and Jean-Paul go, they really are gone.

Off to Arkham, we see that Basil's wish of Mudface being restored to her old "Glory" has been granted, even if Dr. October seems a bit pissed off about it and at the Robin's Nest,  Steph says goodbye to Tim and hopefully this book for good.  I know there are Steph fans out there in troves and believe me, I thought I was one of them, but Tynion has ruined the character for me and the further she is away from any book he writes, the better!

After a scene with Tim and Batman that makes me also wish Tim was leaving, we go off to the most interesting part of the book...Kate.  She is with her father and he brings out the Colony Batwoman suit that popped up in the beginning of the Batwoman solo series.  Believe me, it still looks badass!  Then we get a cliffhanger that again shows that Tynion likes to take a step back before ever moving forward with a villain and a setup that already feels tired to me.  Hopefully, you all feel differently, because I desperately want something new to happen in this book.

As you can probably tell, I was not a fan of this issue.  I have grown bored of the series in general and this issue did nothing to change that trend.  That boredom seems to keep me from ever getting the feels from anything going on and so what should have been an emotional issue just fell flat.  We do get the ending of the Mudface/Glory stuff, but even that felt like an afterthought.  Oh well, I guess we get to continue seeing the ramifications of Future Tim play out, but that is another thing I hoped we were done with.  The art by Philippe Briones was good, but I need something big to spark my interest here.

Bits and Pieces:

James Tynion breaks up the Gotham Knights here, but the same old issues seem to be hanging around.  Mainly, this book is boring and I need something to get me excited again.  Unfortunately, the cliffhanger doesn't point in that direction and I keep wondering how much more of this I can take.

5.5/10