Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Detective Comics #851, about which I write the following sentences: "So Batman's M.I.A., and Nightwing is on the case. It's a Nightwing comic masquerading as a Batman story, and it offers nothing you couldn't get from an average issue of his own soon-to-be-cancelled series. O'Neil is an efficient storyteller, using narrative captions and dialogue to move the story along and explain everything along the way, but there's little thematic substance here. It's just another story about a Gotham City madman and a costumed vigilante on the prowl."Read the entire review HERE.
4 comments:
I agree completely with this review, and was very disappointed with this issue. I was looking forward, nostalgically, to seeing O'Neil back with Batman but that was shot down pretty quick.
I enjoyed the issue for what it was, a simple tale about Gotham City without Batman. Certain demands you placed on the story, like information regarding Bruce's whereabouts, isn't possible because it's a story about living in a world where no one has the answer to that. I feel like it would be similar to criticizing Final Crisis for not talking more about the New Gods' whereabouts other than saying they were "defeated."
There were several small moments that I found particularly illuminating on how characters like Dick Grayson and Alfred felt internally about what had happened and what they expect will happen. It wasn't an above average comic by any means, and I had plenty of problems with it myself, but on a five star scale I think this issue easily warrants another star. Maybe the artwork soured your opinion on the book more than it did mine? Or maybe I'm just inured to the fact that quality level aside, DC is basically rolling out five months of filler in the bat books until they decide to begin the new status quo in June.
I was really let down by this issue as well, as I'm sure I'll be by Batman #684 at this point - it just felt so canned and generic, for reasons that I'm not sure are completely the fault of Denny O'Neil. I wish we had an iota of a concept of what DC was planning to do with the Bat-franchise; all we know is Tony Daniel on Battle and a bunch of other miniseries with no creative teams attached, and then... who knows? It's hard to get invested.
Kris--I certainly didn't place any demands on the issue other than it be good. But it isn't even that.
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