Detective Comics #1091: The Twilight Years

With over 1000 issues published, it is amazing at the sheer amount of different stories that readers have enjoyed over the decades. With Detective Comics #1090, Tom Taylor set the tone of a back-to-basics detective story with stellar art from Mikel Janin. Taylor hit the ground running and introduced subplots centering around mysterious deaths of teenagers and a new wonder drug that stops aging. Batman grappling with the choice to utilize a substance like this is nothing new, and Taylor knows that. Detective Comics #1091, written by Tom Taylor, with art by Mikel Janin, and lettered by Wes Abbott, wasted no time answering the question posed in the previous issue: should he take the drug? After he gets a fresh knee injury and some wise words from a friend, Bruce agrees to start the drug. This friend, Superman, doesn’t outright tell him to take it, but he does say that Bruce always does the right thing. This scene is one of the highlights of the issue thanks to Janin’s art.

Mikel Janin’s colors in this issue are especially great. His character designs are always sturdy with solid linework, giving readers exactly what they expect. This issue uses vibrant pastels that tell a story of their own. Almost every part of the issue that features Batman is at twilight, so the colors pop. The issue opens with a nightmare Batman is having and readers see an older Bruce Wayne, but it’s after this in waking life that readers see Batman’s body taking a physical toll during a fight. After his talk with Superman and his first dose, Batman is in a similar fight that utilizes the twilight-colored palette. Janín’s art and Wes Abbott’s lettering do an excellent job conveying the change before and after he takes the medicine. The emphasis on the relationships between characters is a standout in the issue. Nearly every character that Batman interacts with is written in a way that helps the reader infer tone and voice while still being clear in defining their relationship with Batman. Taylor is fantastic at reminding readers that these characters are human. Superman is a fantastic moral compass and Taylor was smart to include him as such, but it’s his humanity, not his immortal nature, that helps Batman make his decision.