Detective Comics #17 Review

Since the new creative team came on this book a few months ago; we have seen a major increase in quality of the overall product. Detective Comic used to be rather boring. In fact, I did not care for it much at all. Now, although it is not at the top of my reading list each week, I know that it will be an above average read every month; this month is no different. This issue is stepping away from the "Death Of The Family" tie ins, and because of this we get a very interesting little one shot story. I say it has stepped away from tie in territory, but there is still a Joker presence lurking in this book.

In this issue we become aware of a group of Joker followers called "The League Of Smiles". The name is pretty lame, but I strangely like it. This group of baddies are being led about by someone called the "Merrymaker". It was obvious throughout the issue who this was going to turn out to be, but as I said earlier it was still enjoyable nonetheless. We knew who the ringleader was going to be all the way through, but we did not know exactly why. I thought the explanation for why was pretty clever, and it was an explanation that I did not think of.

It was just a one shot issue here so there was nothing ground breaking in it; but it is always great to pick up a book and finish the story in one issue. At the end of the main story we also got a little bit of back story about the ringleader of the group. This was something I was not expecting at all, so I was very happy to see it included. It was just a one issue story line, but it is great to see just how detailed an issue this turned out to be. It also leads us to believe that maybe we will be seeing more of the "League Of Smiles" in future issues. Hmmm.

The one thing I did not like about this issue was how Batman seemed to connect everything up so quickly. He told the GCPD to arrive at a certain building as he knew that there was where everything was going to go down. I am not too sure he connected the dots so fast, and that was never really explained. It is one of those things which you just have to accept. Of course this is not a major gripe with the issue, and overall I am happy to accept a detail as small as this one.

So as I mentioned this was yet another fun issue in what is turning out to be a great run this new creative team are putting together. If you want to read good Batman stories, as well as seeing some top drawer art, then I highly recommend this series. Obviously the main Batman book is kicking ass all over the place right now, but who can ever have too much Batman?

Rating: 8 / 10