Detective Comics #1070: The Chess Pieces Move Closer to Conflict

Detective Comics #1070 expands on the mystery of the Orgham family and the ongoing conflict without losing its mystery and pacing. It’s an excellent world-building issue that deepens the history of all players involved while bringing in new ones.

This issue opens up to an angry Solomon Grundy taking round after round of gunfire. The undead giant makes his way through masked soldiers only to be pinned down and given Azmer, a known chemical agent that takes control over its subjects. He punches himself to release the chemical. Realizing it is a losing battle, a soldier releases grenades to take down everyone involved as a cat-masked person watches the violence.

In many ways, this scene could be viewed as a representative of how this issue plays out. Solomon Grundy, a staple of Gotham City, is facing violence despite doing nothing to deserve it. The new masked onlooker brings new characters into the saga, which fuels the chaos that lingers forever.

Ram V’s writing and pacing have been top-notch in this series, and issue #1070 keeps up the quality. Multiple threads are being weaved into the conflict, and with this comes a lot of mystery. This lends itself well to the experience of reading an issue of Detective Comics as readers slowly are given pieces and, by the end of the issue, are shown how they all fit together.

This operatic story arc began with Batman feeling slower and more tired. What this issue does well is continuing Batman’s internal dialogue about how long he can put on the cape and cowl and whether or not it was a mistake. It’s a clever way to throw back to the beginning of this story arc and a lovely subtle payoff.

This series has included several members of Batman’s rogues gallery, and in this issue, there are some small insights as to how all of the pieces connect and how they are all headed in the same direction. It’s brilliant writing and makes this issue incredibly enjoyable.

The backup story also has a theme of connecting to previous issues. A kidnapped woman having to keep hope to motivate herself to stay alive while being stuck in Mr. Freeze’s lab has a connection to an earlier backup story.

The art feels a little rougher than in previous issues. However, this is not a bad thing. How the line work is thick, giving the colors by Adriano Lucas a nice layout to enhance the art, is done well. Stefano Raffaele is two issues into this arc and has kept up with the quality expected of a Detective Comic issue while keeping its own identity. With all of the characters within this story, the lettering helps signal where the dialogue comes from. Done by Ariana Maher, it matched well with the entire issue.

Simon Spurrier handles the backup, and the art is by Caspar Wijngaard with letters by Arianna Turturro. The quality from the last issue remains, and the story has kept me engaged and curious about what will happen next.

Before wrapping up this review, it is essential to highlight the fantastic cover art done by Evan Cagle. The continuation of colors reflecting a theme of the issue remains. Oracle is a pivotal part of this issue, and it’s always great when other members of the Bat-Family are allowed to be recognized.