DETECTIVE COMICS #1047

The Tower

Part 1 of 12

    This is the first part of a weekly 12 part story called "The Tower." It's weird that it's called that, though, since it never says "The Tower" on the cover, it says "Shadows of the Bat." Either way, DC's idea to do a weekly event in Detective Comics got me to read this book, so perhaps it worked in getting more sales on this book. I have read Detective Comics off and on for the last few years and it's never been any good. The last time this B book was any good was when Scott Snyder and Jock were on it, and that was at least a decade ago. And while it's still early and this book could become a massive trainwreck super fast, so far this story is excellent. The basic premise is that Arkham Asylum is now a skyscraper tower led by a fashionable doctor with questionable beliefs and history that's trying a new way to reform the insane inmates. Quickly the book jumps into the future where Arkham Tower is in chaos and taken over by the inmates and the doctor is dead and Nightwing, among others, is trapped inside. I'm not sure if this first issue is just a glimpse into the future for one issue only or if perhaps they're going to split the book into an amalgam of past/future sequences. While it might have worked better to build up to the destruction and failure of Arkham Tower, immediately showcasing that did make this issue highly entertaining. The writer for this part is Mariko Tamaki and the artist is Ivan Reiss. Considering this is a weekly book for the 12 parts, I doubt we'll get the same writer/artist throughout. That's a shame, as Ivan Reiss really knocked it out of the park here (I still fondly recall how awesome his Geoff Johns written Aquaman was when the New 52 debuted). There's a backup in this book that's also going to continue for 12 parts. It deals with a child whose parents are murdered by The Joker and the kid is sent to Arkham Asylum for some reason. Matthew Rosenberg, who's writing one of the best comic books out there at the moment with What's the Furthest Place From Here?, writes the backup and it's at least readable and interesting. I haven't really enjoyed much of anything from the big two lately, so reading this book was a surprise because of how good it is. ***