Detective Comics #1064: Darkness Strikes Once Again I’m All Alone, It Feels Like the End

Welcome to the third chapter of Ram V and Rafael Albuquerque’s grim and gothic new symphony, and the team has added Talia, and the League of Assassins have joined the fray. Not only this, but the team introduces a new threat for Batman. No, it’s not a new villain, but his body is starting to tell a story that the physical trauma he’s endured for a decade + can be taking a deeper toll on him than he has previously realized. Bruce’s physical abuse could not come at a worse time in his life, since he no longer has access to the assets he once had, before the Joker War, where he was stripped from most of his fortune, so how will Batman cope? What does Two-Face have to do with this? What other classics we’ll see in the finale? Plus, we get the final chapter into Jim Gordon’s reintroduction to Gotham, after his two year absence he spent chasing the Joker, in the Coda. 

V and Albuquerque begin the issue giving us, what I assume is a flashback scene, between Talia and Damian, where she regales him with a story about Grim Soldier, Farhad. It’s a story about hubris, conceit, and failure, leading to something to something relating to Bruce, and the troubles the team is building up to. Or maybe something that will affect Bruce, Talia, and Damian, and their relationship with each other? I have to assume that the message has to be a foretelling of things to come. I wonder if the character is something from literature. I googled both Fahrad, and the Grim Soldier, but the only thing I could find was a Persian myth about a sculptor who fell in love with the Persian princess, Shirin. It’s definitely something I’d like to see more of. 

Albuquerque’s art continues to wow me with every new issue, bringing his own style of the macabre and the superhero aesthetic, flawlessly floating between the two opposing themes. It’s a trait that you’ll find in artists like Gene Colan, Kelley Jones, and Jae Lee. Albuquerque’s work emotes a darkness that seems to go deeper than what’s on the surface. It’s a depth that helps deliver a mood and atmosphere that’s perfect for these supernaturally charged stories. I hope we get to see something darker, that’s reminiscent of Gerry Conway and Gene Colan’s Bronze Age classic with the Red Monk. 

Not to be outdone, Si Spurrier’s story featuring Gordon, the Coda, where we see the former commissioner placed into a leading role where we get to see him react to these situations that we don’t normally see him in. Sure, Gordon and the GCPD have all dealt with the darkest monsters that go bump in the night, but they’re always portrayed as secondary, and there to support Batman, and his journey into the depths of darkness. Here, he’s the focus, and it’s a story that we should have had a long time ago. Spurrier and Dani’s tale feels like the now classic Batman: the Cult, by Jim Starlin, and the late Bernie Wrightson. If that’s where Si’s going, please sign me up for more.