Batman: The Detective #1-6: Just Trying to Find a Balance

Batman: The Detective was, in many ways, a showcase piece. Since the 2019 Batman Annual in which Taylor broke the hearts of reader’s everywhere with his Father’s Day story, fans have clamoured for more Taylor Batman. And I may not speak for all of fandom, but I believe none of us are ever mad to have the wonderful Andy Kubert return to draw Bruce and company. The pairing, along with finishes by Sandra Hope, colors by Brad Anderson, and letters from Clem Robins, all but guarantees a good read regardless of story.

Fortunate for readers, though, the team had a story to tell and they told the heck out of it. At it’s heart, The Detective is a story about unintended consequences. It’s a Butterfly Effect tale of how even the most righteous moment of saving a life can alter numerous trajectories down the road. We see in Equilibrium, clad in the starkly contrasting white Bat-suit, a mirror image of Bruce. There is an inversion of the symbolic tensions between polemics here, in good versus evil, black versus white, light versus darkness, order versus chaos, loner versus a pack. The narrative is constantly toying with these tensions and their problematics all the way through the final epilogue. Even in design matters, Kubert toys with these, creating this trench-coated, large gloved look for Batman to contrast the sleek elegance of Equilibrium’s design.

In trademark Taylor fashion, the character work throughout the series is remarkable. Relationships find their way to the center of the text as we explore this tangled web of friendship and allies with Ducard, Knight and Squire, international powers and even Equilibrium herself. To grasp the full scope of the intricacies at work here would entail far too many spoilers, dear reader, so I recommend you go and read the book for yourself. Do so with high recommendation from me, as Batman: The Detective is a near perfect, self-contained Batstory full of neo-noir charge and actual detective work.