Detective Comics #1050 Review

 

Tower Heist

Writer: Mariko Tamaki

Artist: Ivan Reis

Cover Price: $5.99

Release Date: January 25, 2022

It's time again for the weekly Shadows of the Bat / The Tower story, and I keep making fun that it's the story so nice they named it twice, but that is the theme for me reading and reviewing it.  I don't know what story Mariko Tamaki wants to tell.  Who are the real villains?  What is their plan?  Is it about the revolving door of mental health treatment?  Is it just a bad guy looking for the big score?  Why does Mayor Nakano keep messing up, and how can he possibly keep his job?  Those are just some of the questions that go through my head each week reading this story, but it all comes down to two simple questions.  Is it a good story, and is it worth buying? 

Detective Comics #1050 starts with a flashback to No Man's Land and narration from Dick Grayson about Huntress.  There is nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't give the reader much information besides Huntress being one tough cookie cut from the same cloth as Batman.  We get this because Helena wants to stay in Arkham Tower, which bothers Nightwing something fierce.

Everything gets twisted and turned into a giant heap of nonsense because it feels like Tamaki can't make up her mind about what this story is.  On the one hand, Helena is brave to admit she has a problem, but on the other hand, Dick knows something's wrong because of that.  Also, this whole mouth monster, Vile visions continue without ever making much sense or even explained except that she has them from being infected.  Why didn't Batman get them?  Who knows!  Besides, this whole thing with Helena isn't that interesting anyway.

I can't say the stuff with Dr. Wear is any better.  He continues to obsess about getting the big check from Nakano, but it's already obvious this is all get rich quick con.  That makes this story feel small and questions the intelligence of everyone involved, especially Nakano.  

While all this is going on, Ana Vulsion flips out and kills Marc the Party Crasher (who might be getting hands with her), Dick Grayson gets a maintenance job at the Tower, and we finally see Dr. Ocean.  The last one is the wow moment, though the naming convention feels straight out of a Batman '66 riddle and not in a good way.  I won't spoil who it is, but he doesn't make sense if you look at it through the big picture lens of Infinite Frontier.  Like everything in this story, this reveal raises more questions than it solves.  I have concluded that Mariko Tamaki thinks the Bat-Family and everyone in charge in Gotham are complete and utter morons.  There is no other way to describe how so many things were seemingly overlooked and still get an insane asylum with the most violent criminals built in the middle of the city.

I have enjoyed this weekly book less with each issue, which continues here.  Mariko Tamaki doesn't seem to have enough story to fill all the pages, so we get pretty meaningless flashbacks and exposition along with ridiculous setups and situations.  Again, this all looks like a con by Dr. Wear to cash a big check which seems small when dealing with Arkham Asylum, especially in the current continuity.  The book looks fantastic, but there is no substance to it at all.

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Bits and Pieces:

Detective Comics #1050 continues the downward spiral of this weekly "event" book.  There isn't enough story going on here to warrant it coming out every week and what we do get isn't that good.  

5.5/10