Detective Comics #1052 Review

 

It Doesn't Matter

Written by: Mariko Tamaki, Mathew Rosenberg

Art by: Max Raynor, Luis Guerrero, Ariana Maher, Jordie Bellaire, and Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: February 8, 2022

I am still waiting for this Tower story to hook me.  It's going along at a snail's pace and seems to lose focus and not follow up on important details with every issue.  Hopefully, now that we've hit the midway point, that will all change.  Let's find out!

Detective Comics #1052 opens up with a flashback scene of Dr. Chase Meridian that does nothing more than allow Tamaki to insert Batman into the book.  We then spent a large part of this issue going back to the events of the last issue, and all I could do was roll my eyes.  It seems evident that this story did not need to be released weekly because of how big it is, but only to grab more money from fans!

So, what do we get this week?  Well, Dr. Meridian sent a voicemail to Dr. Frow (Batwoman) that gets her fired.  Is this a big thing?  What has Dr. Frow done so far anyway?!?  What has Batwoman done?  What this does is send a flashing neon-sign clue to the Bat-Family that Arkham Tower isn't on the up-and-up.  Really????  This is needed, again, because nobody has done shit so far!!!!

We continue with Dr. Wear using Psycho-Pirate to control Dr. Meridian, but all that does is make me wonder why he didn't do that before.  Last issue, they did it to Mayor Nakano to sign the big check because they were tired of waiting for Chase to write her recommendation.  So why didn't they influence Meridian right away since she wouldn't sign off on anything until she met Dr. Ocean, something that Wear knew he'd never allow?  This is the sort of thing that keeps popping up in this story!

Meanwhile, the Bat-Family does come up with something, though it's a stretch.  Meridian had mentioned the patients all having visions of movies "about underground cities and killing" in their heads and used that to deduce that the Party Crashers must have an underground HQ.  It barely makes sense, but at least they are doing something!  They immediately find and take down the Party Crashers and seize their Numb. 

The issue ends with Cass talking with Ana Vulsion and both of them feeling something's wrong like they are in a movie in a movie.  The actual line from Ana is hilarious, as is the sudden importance of everyone's mind movies.  I hope all of this doesn't make their eyes rain!

I know that others are enjoying this story way more than I am, but it's getting to where I think this has been a back door gag book.  Mariko Tamaki has done little to explain or show anything up to this point and adds more convoluted nonsense on top of it.  It's a race to see what topples first, the Tower or this story.  Tamaki built both on foundations of sand, so it might just be a toss-up!  I do still love the art, so at least I have that to enjoy.

I continue to like Mathew Rosenberg's House of Wayne backup story way more than the main one.  Yea,  I want to know who the hell the boy is, but at this point, I am enjoying his Forest Gump-like trip through the Gotham criminal underground.  I wonder how he will get away with screwing over the Penguin here, but that's what a cliffhanger is all about.  I like Fernando Blanca's art, and this backup did raise my overall score if you can believe that!

Bits and Pieces:

Detective Comics #1052 recaps a large portion of the last issue and tries to make up for it by forcing the overall story forward with a brunch of nonsense.  But, unfortunately, Mariko Tamaki doesn't seem to want to let the Bat-Family do their own work, so (convoluted) clues are just handed to them, and away we go.  I'm left wondering why this needed to be a weekly story or anything at all.

4.0/10