Detective Comics #1002 Review

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artists: Brad Walker, Andrew Hennessy, Nathan Fairbairn, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: April 24, 2019

Review by Joey Casco of TheWineStalker.net

This is Part 2 of "Medieval". The Arkham Knight has forced the Dark Knight into the light by setting off a Day Bomb in the middle of the night, and his Knights of the Sun have brutally taken him down. At the end of #1001, the Arkham Knight stood over a defeated Batman, who was beaten and bleeding and impaled by multiple arrows. How can Bats possibly get out of this one?

That's where this issue starts off, and the Arkham Knight gives Batman a speech about how he's only pushed Gotham further into darkness. He compares Batman to a kidnapper and Gotham to a victim. "Who's worse? The monsters, or the monster who scares the monsters?" Then he raises his sword to finish Batman... but he's promptly shot on his armor by the GCPD who have arrived on the scene.

Batman tries to deescalate the situation by insisting everybody put their weapons down, but to no avail. The Knights of the Sun fire back at the police and the Arkham Knight collects himself and jumps on a cruiser, deflecting the bullets with his shield.

He looks at Batman and says "Innocent bystanders and police all around. Make a choice." Then there are two pages of an intense stare-down with no words. From Arkham Knight to Batman, to the Knights of the Sun, to the GCPD, to bystanders filming it with their phones. Batman answers "Another time.", and Arkham Knight responds "Yes. Another time.", and uses a smoke bomb to disappear.

Batman is beaten the hell up. He got his ass beat and he's got arrows sticking out of him all over the place. And who is there to help him into the Batmobile? Jim Gordon. This is just a great moment that I really loved.

Bruce gets back to the Batcave where Alfred starts patching him up while he begins his analysis of what just occurred. And this is where Damian, who's hanging out in the Batcave at the time, takes over the issue.

Damian hunts down residuals from the Day Bomb and ends up diving into the ocean. He's followed by the Knights of the Sun, and he does his best to fight them off but is attacked from the behind by the Arkham Knight himself and blacks out. He wakes up in a castle (where the hell is this castle???) tied to a chair, with the Arkham Knight waiting for him to awake. He asks Damian to join him and leaves.

Damian scootches the chair back into a lamp, catches the cup containing the fire as it falls, and uses it to burn the ropes that bind him. Then he climbs into the vents, crawling through tunnels, and thinks he sees an exit... only to come up into a room where the Arkham Knight is waiting for him.

"Well, Robin", he says, "It seems like I'll need to try harder to convince you to join me." He takes off his helmet but we only see the back of his head. It appears that we'll find out who the Arkham Knight is in two weeks!

Bits and Pieces

I enjoyed this read so much that I couldn't believe how quickly 20 pages came and went. The art is great and I like how the white eyes on Batman and Robin were handled. The GCPD coming to Batman's aid and Jim helping him escape was a wonderful moment, and that this was a Robin heavy issue after that was a breath of fresh air. We need more Robin in the Batman books, and I hope it continues.

9.5/10