Detective Comics #992 Review

Two for Hack(ing)

Written by: James Robinson
Art by: Carmine Di Giandomenico, Ivan Plascencia, and Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: November 14, 2018

While some are waiting patiently for Peter Tomasi to start his run on Detective, I was actually looking forward to this James Robinson story.  I love Two-Face and liked how it all started off, but boy, it's gone downhill since that first issue.  Still, if you listen to our podcast, you'll already know how much I loved "Rootin'-Tootin'" Two-Face at the end of last issue!  Comedy gold that was!  Well, do we get some more laughs this week and does this story pick up the pace and give us all something to smile about?  Let's find out...



Instead of rootin' and tootin' we open the issue with Batman and Two-Face talking about religion, cults and of course, Kobra.  As we see Kobra doing their thing, we get one of the most forced setups I've ever read to get Batman to explain to Two-Face what Kobra is all about.

I'm not sure if this background is needed since it all just leads to a big fight anyway and not much more.  I guess it's cool if you don't know much about Kobra, but it's all told in a bunch of uninteresting narration boxes that also serve to keep your eye off the action going on...but sadly, that's pretty generic as well.

The fight just kind of ends with another bit of forced setup that really feels like the scene with the Kobra agent a couple of issues ago.  The leader of this attack group gets caught and activates an electrical charge that kills him instantly and destroys his tech...except it doesn't.  Batman still can jack into Kobra's system.  What?  No wonder Kobra is having so many problems!

We keep the forced nature of things going as we peak into what amounts to the Outsiders kicking Kobra butt downtown, the Fireflies helping out (shouldn't they be in jail?) and the Signal and Batwoman making an appearance.

It all ends with Batman finding out that everything we've seen was just a diversion and Kobra has been planning something entirely different.  Yea, this issue pretty much makes everything we've seen up until now null and void to give us yet another threat next issue.

This run started out with some promise but has just devolved into nonsense.  We get a lesson on Kobra that was not really needed and find out that everything we've seen before was bullshit.  I didn't need Batman to hack into Kobra to tell me that!  I liked the art in this issue, but it gets overwhelmed by narration boxes and in the end, this issue is unnecessary as is this entire story.  Tomasi can't get on this book quick enough!

Bits and Pieces:

James Robinson wastes Two-Face, Batman and everyone's time with a story that is boring, convoluted and just plain unnecessary.  I was hoping this could at least be some fun, but it's not.  Give this story a big pass.

4.5/10