Rafaele delivers fantastic and beautifully immersive art throughout the issue. The art is beautifully detailed and enhances the emotional moments of the story while capturing the immersive nature of the world being created. Read Full Review

Gotham is a big, gothic city that always feels a little distant from reality, and never more so than in this run. What this issue maybe lacks is a few more moments with Batman's supporting cast, so he feels less like a force of nature. But maybe that's what's needed to defeat an enemy like the Orghams, and there's a great sense of ambiguity headed into the final act. Read Full Review

Detective Comics #1085 shows the darker and more focused Batman in action, not only with his brutal fight against the Orghams now fully underway, but also with Batman taking steps to counter their supernatural powers. Read Full Review

The pieces continue to fall into place as Batman forms an attack plan in Detective Comics #1085. It seems the Orghams couldn't rule over Gotham for long, and why would Batman ever allow it? Read Full Review

Detective Comics #1085 shows a new kind of Batman. Both in tactics and in disposition, he's able to finally move past his childhood trauma in order to act as a more well-rounded human being as he takes down the Orghams' oppressive state from the underground. It's a much grittier atmosphere than what we've seen from this title recently as it lays the groundwork for the run's final act. Read Full Review

Detective Comics #1085 is exactly what I expected it to be. I hope the next issue's better. Read Full Review

Gotham Nocturne is trudging along to its finale with a few pockets of interesting events, but not enough to have made this commitment worthwhile. Read Full Review

Five issues from conclusion, Ram V adds a new element to the final struggle, perhaps to avoid the predictable outcome of a Batman vs. supercriminals story he's setup. Raffale and Loughride provide suitably operatic visuals, but the story continues to move glacially, with too many thematic frustrations. Read Full Review

Detective Comics #1085 puts Batman on the offensive as he methodically starts assembling what he needs to take back Gotham. This is the most active Batman has been in over a year, and the series feels like it has purpose when moving into Ram V's final issues, but the metric tons of unanswered questions and go-nowhere plot points continue to go unaddressed. Read Full Review

‘Crescendo Part 2’ feels like a misstep in an otherwise promising storyline set up in the previous issue. Batman’s personal vendetta against the Orghams seemingly outweighs his mission to save Gotham from their evil control. It’s starting to feel like a “Bruce Wayne revenge tour” rather than a heroic crusade.

Catwoman seeks out Joker to try & stir up some chaos, while Batman seeks out the Maestro and Mr. Freeze for different parts of his own plan. It all raises questions about the ends justifying the means. When you need to enlist the aid of villains, can your end-goal still be considered heroic?

The art team delivers solid work. Stefano Raffaele provides really cool designs for Batman’s new HQ & the scene with Freeze. Lee Loughridge’s colors are sharp w/ unique color palettes that help each scene stand out. Ariana Maher’s lettering is helpful to keep the various speakers & transitions in order.

The backup story, written by Alek Paknadel & illustrated by Christopher Mitten, w/ colors by Triona Farrell, & lettering by Steve Wands, had potential to add depth to Mr. Freeze’s actions, but ultimately felt inconsequential.

We’ve only got a few more issues on Ram V’s ‘Tec run & it doesn’t feel like we’re picking up the pace at all. This is still a slow drip of building drama that would make more sense at the start of a run, but here it feels like we’re starting to run out of time. more