Detective Comics #1023 Review

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Pencils: Brad Walker
Inks: Andrew Hennessy
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letters: Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: July 7th, 2020

The last issue was outstanding overall and it left off with the realization that Harvey Dent was being played by the Joker, and the imagery of the Joker breaking into the ruins of the Court of the Owls. What the heck is he doing there?


Well, first of all, he's being the Joker. Talking to himself and saying great Joker things the whole time. But the answer to why he's there is to wake up a specific Talon: Lincoln March. This takes up a big portion of the book but it's also the best part of the book because in my opinion, Tomasi writes a great Joker. And Walker's version of the Joker with his art has a certain creep factor, as well as being a neat hybrid of different versions of the character.

Watch our Detective Comics #1023 Review

The rest is Batman trying to find Harvey Dent, and the art is so friggin' good. He starts putting pieces together. He finds Hugo Strange, who put the device into Harvey's brain. Mad Hatter is there too, who was also a part of that scheme to control Harvey. But Mad Hatter is messed up, man. He's not looking too good. And he takes over Batman's mind for a bit and makes him hallucinate about Alfred, starting with Alfred in front of him with his neck broken.

Batman is able to get out of the situation, of course, and he finds Harvey in the Gotham Armory of all places. When they finally meet again, Harvey is wearing a Batman mecha-like thing "prototype that the GCPD squirreled away." Squirreled away? How the heck did they get that thing? Did Batman just leave it somewhere and they took it as evidence? Why would they squirrel that away? Hop into that, Jim, and wreck house!

Batman's in a pretty bad position, up against a psycho in mech armor that he himself made. What's gonna happen when Lincoln March shows up?

Bits and Pieces

The art is so fantastic in this issue throughout the whole thing. Tomasi writes such a great Joker and Walker draws him great too. But the rest of the issue story-wise kinda bored me. I like how the narration tried to go with a Detective Noir feel to it, but it just didn't play out well. As ridiculous as seeing Two-Face in a Bat-mecha-suit that the GCPD hoarded away in their basement is, the action that came from that was pretty cool. Taking the good with the bad, it balances out.

7/10