DC's "Future State" continues to be a fascinating set of stories about the future of the DC Universe, but just as was the case with the first issue, Future State: Dark Detective #2 is easily one of the best. Read Full Review

I love what the creative team is doing here. Tamaki is doing a great job again writing this but I also have to praise artist Dan Mora. He does one of the best jobs in recent memory making Batman and the world he is in unique. His art is simply gorgeous. Read Full Review

Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora have made the most of their time with their Future State run. They only have four issues to tell their story " jamming their foot on the gas with no intention of slowing down. Read Full Review

Unlike The Next Batman, this one feels like it's setting up major developments in the future of the Bat-verse"and it's doing a hell of a job. Read Full Review

Dan Mora delivers some awesome art in this issue. The details ae beautiful and the character designs are fantastic. Giannis Milonogiannis delivers some great action in the Red Hood story. Read Full Review

I loved both of these stories and would highly recommend you pick up FUTURE STATE: DARK DETECTIVE. The writing and art were top notch and really portrayed a fresh take on members of the Bat-Family. I also loved the Gotham shown in these two stories. Gotham City has finally progressed to a gritty and dirty tech city where being a vigilante (good or bad) can literally kill you. The Bat-Family has had it easy in Gotham. No one has really questioned them and the other heroes. The Magistrate and the Peacekeepers, however, are sticking to their guns (literally). No citizens are to wear a mask. To tie it all together imagine this, the vigilantes are Dumbledores Army, and the Peacekeepers, are Delores Umbridge and her cronies. The tension and build-up are there, and I am ready for the explosion. Read Full Review

Bruce Wayne is in full detective mode as he uncovers the mysteries of the Magistrate. A sterling creative team, anchored by Mariko Tamaki, Dan Mora, and Jordie Bellaire, makes this one of Future State's best-looking books. Read Full Review

DC Comics 'FUTURE STATE: DARK DETECTIVE #2 shows the chaos of Gotham under the Magistrate. And it does so on both sides of the aisle. Whether you're working for or against the Magistrate, your life is in the crapper. Read Full Review

Despite that rough artwork, the book is still worth picking up. Read Full Review

Even though Bruce Wayne's suffering a case of the sophomore blues, Williamson and Milonogiannis' punchy and fun take on the Red Hood means there's still a lot to like in Future State: Dark Detective #2. Read Full Review

Future State is weird, but Dark Detective is a strong, entertaining story of what it might be like if Bruce Wayne was stripped of everything. Read Full Review

In this issue, we see how the confusion of Bruce being dead occurred when he's still alive, and verification that the two days of obits for Batman and Bruce were intentional to hide the secret identity of Batman. And it was awesome. I loved everything about it. The storytelling is great and the art is amazing. The Red Hood backup is not good at all in any way, so that drags my score down but not too much because I don't want to think about it. Read Full Review

This is Batman, this is Bruce Wayne, and this was a great comic. Read Full Review

Future State: Dark Detective #2 builds on the atmosphere and Gotham City futurescape that grabbed our attention last issue. The main story is definitely intriguing, and the art is absolutely gorgeous! Read Full Review

This issue contains two stories that couldn't be any more different. The main Batman story is slow and leans into the mystery, whereas the Red Hood story is fast and action-packed and comedic. It's nice to have that variation. The writing is a bit hit or miss throughout the entire book, but every artist has done a great job. Read Full Review

Batman fever is overtaking Future State but the status quo of The Magistrates is starting to wear thin. Hopefully Tamaki can find some interesting angles to explore as the event plays on. Read Full Review

Future State: Dark Detective #2 presents a lot of interesting ideas behind how the Magistrate rise was tied to big Batman events like 'City of Bane' and 'Joker War.' While those ties continue to keep you invested in what Bruce Wayne is doing by the end of this issue we are not any further along in this story than when we started. Luckily we got Dan Mora's phenomenal artwork to always keep us engaged in the world that we are dropped into with Future State: Dark Detective #2. Read Full Review

Overall, I am continuing to love the direction of Future State: Dark Detective #2.However, as a reviewer, I still found the second story from Joshua Williamson to not have as much depth or polish as the Dark Detective storyline. For six dollars, I don't think it is worthwhile to pick it up. It isn't easy to see such a great comic release hindered by another creative team. Read Full Review

Batman in a flat with a conspiracy theorist meets Red Hood becoming a sell-out to the government - featuring the best retelling of the Red Hood legend. With the most childish artwork on that side story, which was a standout, this Dark Detective title is at the top of Future State. Forget what the Magistrate has to say !
-
audiomack.com/cvrthebard

" I fell into darkness. Opened my eyes. And saw death starting back at me."
- BRUCE WAYNE

Dan Mora art is really shining on Batman.

the back up is very generic

If you were turned off by Tamaki's short and painful Wonder Woman run, give her another shot here as she and Dan Mora turn in another tense story of Bruce Wayne's survival in Magistrate-run Gotham. Even the secondary story featuring Red Hood--a character I have no love for whatsoever--is a winner.

Loving the Bruce Wayne story. Cannot wait for the post-Future State stories by this creative team. The backup was pretty good too, which was a surprise as I found the majority of backups on this line of books very hit-or-miss.

I'd say a 9 for the Batman story and a 7 for the red hood story

I think the dark detective has been way better than new Batman. It gives depth to the story its telling where new Batman gives me no reason to care. Even the back up story felt more meaningful.

Bruce story: 10

Jason story: 6

I still like the Dark Detective storyline. It is not groundbreaking or anything, but good enough for me.

As for the Jason part, it would be better if the art wasn't so lackluster. I don't mind simple art but this one felt like the artist stopped working on it midway.

+ Like • Comments (2)

•

SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 26, 2021

artist stopped working on it midway. jajajaja That was good

SenpaifenixJäger - Jan 26, 2021

Jason's story left a bad taste in my mouth, betraying everything even what he believes. Don't be done with DC, I won't buy a comic from them again.

Sign in to comment

I still really enjoyed the main story by Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora, but that Red Hood story was pretty weak all around. The writing was passable but nothing interesting and the art really doesn't make sense for a superhero comic, at least one like this.

4 for the first story, Tamaki (as always, I should add) comes with the most stupid explanation for the mystery set up in the first issue and the dialogue is all cringey. Red Hood's story needed more context given that it's over in two issues but still, it was interesting.

Emo teen Bruce Wayne is back and narrating this story again, showing how poorly Mariko Tamaki seems to understand the world around here. The internal dialog of Bruce is much worse in this issue than it was last time while also providing one of the biggest plot holes outside of a Looney Tunes train tunnel painted on a mountainside. Why Tamaki thinks that police detectives will mistake an old rotting corpse floating in Gotham Harbor for the supposedly freshly killed body of Bruce Wayne is beyond me, and it’s also beyond reason. This is the writer who will be taking over Detective Comics after Future State and it’s a pretty safe bet that I won’t be paying money for those issues. It’s a shame because the story makes some interesting steps forward with links back to Waynetech and the old Gotham City, but these could be more skeletons set in place by editorial which could explain why they seem satisfying while the rest of the writing is terrible. Dan Mora and Jordie Bellaire provide some more great artwork, it’s just a shame it’s attached to this book.

The follow-up this issue is a Red Hood and Ravager story about former heroes who now work for The Magistrate to bring in the masked vigilantes around Gotham City. Apparently Red Hood brings them in alive while Ravager brings them in body bags, and the two have some sort of a relationship outside of the workplace. While Ravager seems to enjoy taking them down, Red Hood is apparently not 100% on the side of The Magistrate and his attempt to figure out what’s really going on with some old villain tech being used to possibly control the minds of these masked vigilantes appears to put him on The Magistrate’s hit list.

This follow-up story is from Joshua Williamson who is a tried-and-true comics writer and it shows in how this story is laid out, layered, and revealed. Even if you aren’t a fan of the Red Hood, you’ll probably enjoy this story simply because it’s good. Giannis Milonogiannis provides the artwork and his unique style adds a manga-flair, though it’s kinetic feel does look a little sketchy and rough in a few spots. I like it overall, but I can see how not everyone would.

Once again, the back-up story that DC added to increase the page count and raise the cover price was better and more rewarding than the feature. This seems to be the theme with their marquee titles in Future State. I don’t know if this is a bad sign for the future of DC Comics publishing in general, but the days of the 400,000 copy print runs are long dead, and no one seems to be working for their return.

http://dirtmound.com
http://ThePopC.Net more

Most people liked the first issue of this comic. I didn't. I called it empty and devoid of any real plot, and it looks like in an ironic way I was correct, since even this issue doesn't bother addressing its existence. Everything you need to know about the Dark Detective is here, including a retrospective "origin story", which begs the question - was #1 an afterthought of sorts, written when the rest of the series was already done? Or was it created with the core thought of being a #0 while this book is the actual #1? I have no clue, but what I know is, you can confidently skip #1 and you won't lose absolutely anything.

For once there's some story and mystery here - something #1 was completely lacking. It may not be the most engaging and complex story, but it works. There are three corporations behind fascist militia in Gotham, and Bruce has to find out what's really going on. For once the title lives up to its name and features some, any, detective work (take notes, Detective Comics!), which I welcome.

Some minor plotlines get set up, some slight world bulding is done, and overall the comic is something I could absolutely recommend. What lowers my score from a possible 6.5/10 down to just 5/10 is the additional tale featuring Red Hood and Rose Wilson. Long story short, it sucks.
I don't know what was Joshua Williamson thinking, but half of his comic is completely hollow and features little to no text whatsoever, and then the remaining half tries to drown you in exposition and dialogues. Seriously, it all could have been executed way, way better, more even and engaging, because as it is now, you turn the half empty pages one after another, giving each less than 5 seconds of attention, just to find a wall of text you get bored with halfway, since, well, it is boring, what can I say? Shocking, considering how experienced Williamson is as a writer. more

dead but not dead, ah

this is not a comic i would recommend.
present and past tense jump back and forth for no reason. it tries to be noir, but ends up feeling random and jarring.
the plot is contrived, the story is very decompressed. much of this should have been in the first issue. this is a lot of nothing just spread thin.

not entertaining in the least. even the art seems to have taken a step down.

I said that Bruce Wayne came off looking like an idiot in the last issue. While he still looks stupid in this one, he is also laughably lucky. A dead body that resembles him floats to the surface allowing for his escape. His batarang blows up at just the right time. His crazy roommate just so happens to have a sane/attractive daughter. *Sigh* Batman is lucky, yes, but it was always his skills, intelligence, and training that made him successful.

Oh Red Hood, why can't they get you right?

The pros: I like the new mask. I like Rose being involved, I think the relationship works. I like that he's working with the magistrate, it makes sense, though I expected him to be a Peackeeper or something.

The cons: So much exposition, show don't tell! Rose is underdeveloped into a sexist representation of a sex-starved killer, ugh. In fact, both characters just seem criminally underdeveloped. more

Messy I would call the story as it goes for Bruce, it is not a bad story, the best I have read in more than a year but it is not excellent it has a lot of tinge of Marvel comics, the art is very good in this story..

As for Red Hood I swear that I do not understand what they are doing or why, Jason is rebellious nor could Batman himself control him even though there was a strange relationship between contempt and affection, suddenly they characterize Jason as a beaten woman who returns with the abusive husband in Joker War and now he's a traitor ??? please.
I don't like art, I've seen better drawings done by my 12-year-old cousin to be honest. There is no story of why Jason made that decision, he is simply painted as the one who betrayed the city and his family.

I confess that this number made me cancel the next number I had planned to do with DC, like this series and the anthology, and I am afraid to admit that I am not the only one since a fan's claim made me reason about not continuing to buy bad stories and This is not worth 6 dollars, 2 or maximum 3 perhaps. low quality at high cost no thanks. more

This book just continues on and fills in the gaps from issue one. I guess they wanted to charge readers money to answer questions that they really weren't interested in knowing in the 1st place. The story takes the part of Batman the Millionaire Playboy part of the character out of the story and what is left is basically a different and uninteresting character. What they are working with is a broke guy trying to continue to be Batman in a future where the main villain isn't believable as Batman has defeated much bigger threats in the past. The secondary story is derailed by the laughably bad art work. So save your money kids.