Detective Comics #1058 Review

 

Rough Landing

Writer: Mariko Tamaki, Matthew Rosenberg

Artist: Ivan Reis, Danny Miki, Fernando Blanco

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: March 22, 2022

Mariko Tamaki wraps up her weekly Detective Comics event this week with Detective Comics #1058, and it's been a roller coaster ride of emotions.  Unfortunately, one of those emotions has been confusion over whether there was enough story here for twelve issues.  So let's see if this finale makes it all worthwhile.

Detective Comics #1058 opens with Deb Donovan doing an "I told you so" newspaper piece about the Arkham Tower. It's funny because it plays off one of my most significant issues with this event. Why did anyone think the Arkham Tower was a good idea?!? It was only a thing because Arkham Asylum was destroyed during A-Day. Not a good reason to relocate in the middle of Gotham right there. Plus, everything involved with the setup of the Tower was either nonsense or unexplained. At first, nobody could even figure out Tobias Wear's credentials, but here we find out that he used Dr. James Wear's medical license to fool everyone. Besides the fact that this is out of nowhere, Dr. James Wear is dead. Toby didn't use the alias of James Wear, and we see that Tobias has a long record of cons that are found easily with a simple search. What is going on here?!? Did Toby cross out the "James" on the medical license and write his name above it in magic marker??? Again, Mariko Tamaki thinks that the Bat-Family are morons to believe they wouldn't have figured this out! To add to that feeling, Oracle found out the whole construction of the Tower was done off the books, and they couldn't figure out who was involved in putting in the security system! I understand this is comic books, but things need some semblance of reality to make a story work. I guess we can chalk it up to Mayor Nakano fucking up yet again! But wait, there's more! He decides that Arkham Tower will continue! What the Fuck?!?!?! If this guy gets reelected, it will be the craziest thing since Marion Barry!!!!

As far as a finale goes, this is more of an epilogue.  With everything still on the table, that is a disappointment.  Most of the things here feel like a setup for more stories down the line, but some big things are swept under the rug or not even discussed.  Those looking to get a new Psycho-Pirate might be upset, and anyone thinking they will see any real justice for the horrors during this event is sadly mistaken.  Toby Wear gets buried, Psycho-Pirate gets Batman's help, and Anna Vulsion and the rest of the Arkham inmates are MIA.

The one thing not disappointing is the art, which has been good this whole event, but everything else falls flat here.  This Tower event was a huge disappointment.  Tamaki never focused on an overall story and instead relied on seeing the Bat-Family work without Batman as the primary drive... until Batman showed up to take everyone down in an issue to end it.  Hopefully, the Riddler story hinted at the end of the issue will be better.

We also get the finale to the House of Gotham story, and while I have enjoyed seeing the "Boy" go through some significant Gotham events, this ending also fell flat.  It wasn't as bad as the main story, but it didn't pay off in a way that made me happy I stuck with it for twelve straight weeks.

Bits and Pieces:

Detective Comics #1058 ends the twelve-week Shadows of the Bat event disappointing and unsatisfying.  Mariko Tamaki ties some things up, leaves a ton behind, and has me questioning if there was anything to this story.  Even if there was, I don't think it needed twelve issues to fall flat at the end.

4.9/10