Did this series crack the top 50 last month? Nope, so that makes what the 5th month in a row this series is falling flat? This series needs to be mothballed and the real Superman needs to have multiple series running again. 4 books, 1 issue a week.

Truth is, hardly anything matters in comics. Every now and then publishers reset continuities either because they became convoluted, messy and often self contradictory, or sales dropped alongside readers' interest. DC'a last big official reboot was Flashpoint, which sadly opened a new universe of grimness, boredom, poor writing, edginess and straight up butchery of beloved characters (Lobo, Harley, Wonder Woman and Mr. Freeze all send their regards!). Flashpoint itself, though, was pretty fun and I still like it all these years later. Sure, it may not be the best event of all time, and its collected edition consisting only of the main 5 issues, ignoring all the tie-ins may be a straight up insult, but I can't deny that its dark and hopeless universe and characters had potential. Seems DC's editorial had the same thought, because they brought back Thomas Wayne's Flashpoint Batman in Tom King's oh-so-awful Batman series and now he landed his own series. Good for him, I guess, but is the comic any good?

First two thing that striked me after opening it, was how much baggage its story carries, forcing you to read Flashpoint (preferably with at least Batman's tie-ins), King's Rebirth Batman series (including The Button event, which sucks no less), Doomsday Clock and Justice League Incarnate to actually understand everything. I get it, Geoff Johns likes to use references, easter eggs and throwbacks, but hot damn does it make it hard for you to get into this particular plot itself.
Plot that isn't even particularly compelling, if I have to be brutally honest. Granted, mystery is there, as well as some weird omniversal shenanigans (because multiverse is not enough for DC these days), but I can't say I'm hooked. Maybe next issue, the actual #1 will be better, but for now I... yeah, I'm not excited about this project.

Art-wise the comic is below mediocre. Eduardo Risso illustrated Flashpoint: Batman Knight of Vengeance miniseries back in the day, so on paper he was a good pick to do this one as well, but his panels lack details, dynamism and often look just empty. It could be passable if only it had some unique quality to it, artistic identity, but nope, it's pretty generic and uninspired. Best panels here look okay, worst like they were drawn by a 16 year old in their bedroom. Maybe it's a matter of taste, like with Tim Sale whose art I'm not very fond of personally. Or maybe it's a relatively low effort book made this way to avoid delays that plagued Doomsday Clock's run, and ultimately the end result didn't feel worth it to a solid portion of the fanbase? Don't look at me - I liked it a lot, actually, but can't deny that it was a pretty irrelevant event in the large scale of things. more

Pure Garbage

This comic is fan fiction garbage. Bendis and Taylor completely ruined Jon Kent.

Completely mediocre.

ok let's review this book like a mature person.
first thing with the "They're trapped" part in the beginning
don't know you john but i swear i can see some windows there that people could've Rescued themselves by using them instead of Having an argument with you. Of Taylor wants to create a conflict with stakes he at least has to put some effort in it.
second wth is wrong with art, specially the faces.
third about the ending if batman knows Jay and his Dollar store squadron is not to be trusted why he doesn't handle the situation himself considering he knows that they might cause a international war by their stupid actions.
fourth why the hell Luthor is acting like a idiot here. is this guy the smae writer who wrote the injustice luthor? because if god damn he has fallen a lot. more

Eww

Looks like Taylor only knows how to write when Nightwing is in the story

For a children's delivery it's fine, however the characterization that has been made of Talia and especially Ra's does not convince me at all, I feel very out of place and there are many things I could say about this story that they would not do so predictable of what comes next, I thought it would go better since it opens a whole arc which I think I will pass since it is not bad, however it is too childish for me.

Good points, Damian the non-Robin coming home. Maybe to the disaster made in Batman/Catwoman, now we will have a Batman/Talia (I'm honest I like this couple better) more

Worst characterization of Bruce I've read in a while, imagine blaming Damian for Alfred's death while you were on a honeymoon. Garbage.

No more sewers. 24 issues of Detective Comics later, Mariko Tamaki gets The Batman back out of the sewers, where she has had him for so long. What a "great" achievement (slow handclap), and there is the return of some form of "Batcave"... with waterfalls? But Mariko is "historic." And so are some of the past 24 Tec pratfall story lines. Bringing us to this epilogue as "epic finale" of "Shadow of the Bat" in Detective Comics #158. A "finale" where very little is actually resolved except burying Dr. Wear, and rounding up some of Penguin's drug sales criminals and thugs. Don't blink. There are a few pages of "action," though.

And what happened to the Medusa mask? WHO KNOWS? Maybe Koyuki kept it. Maybe Batman has it. Maybe Psycho-Pirate still has it. Maybe it was a figment of our imagination as readers. Regardless, the "plot" (massive eyeroll) by Mariko Tamaki for "Shadow of the Bat" moves on, that is, it changes to another story, not actually "completing" one.

And do we not **ALL** know of horrific criminal Psycho-Pirate's crimes? Should we make a list of them? (Now THAT would be a good comic.) But the Psycho-Pirate, an aide to darkest villain Darkseid seeking to ***DESTROY THE UNIVERSE*** is now just "misunderstood" poor Psycho-Pirate. (I could hear the "Officer Krupke" song from West Side Story every time that psycho whined about "poor me." Poor, poor Psycho, the mass murderer. Just like poor misunderstood Harley Quinn.

So what should be done with criminal Psycho-Pirate? Put him in prison? Oh no, not to Mariko Tamaki. Batman should help the poor misunderstood Psycho-Pirate. (Which is why I am not consistently reading and funding this version of Detective Comics.)

With respect to the great Jeffrey Lyles, I had to literally laugh out loud when he gave this an "8," and wrote: "As disappointing as The Tower's finale was The House of Gotham shined. This was a case where I'd prefer to rate the stories separately, but the higher mark here comes solely from House of Gotham." Because that is why people bought the issue. OK, Jeffrey. Because Matthew Rosenberg's “House of Gotham” was a "great finale" (heavy sarcasm). OK.

Both stories ultimately bomb in their "finales."

24 largely disastrous issues later, next month Mariko Tamaki will have a co-writer, Nadia Shammas, for a new Riddler story. Nadia Shammas is known for "Squire," "Care Bears: Unlock the Magic," "Summer in Brooklyn," etc. YA, real YA, graphic novels and horror. Hero comics? Detective comics? (Could Detective Comics get worse?) Let us hope not.

(I for one, would like to see DC Comics readers, who are willing to shell out $5 for Batman and Care Bears.)

I would have rated this a "2," but indeed The Batman does get out of the sewers.
So there is that.

Postscript: I just want to thank writers like this for making me grateful to be old. There is really very little to be grateful for in aging beyond survival. But knowing the Detective Comic stories that I grew up with reminds me of how lucky I was to live during a time when heroes could still be heroes. And I didn't have to wonder from week to week if the Batman will get out of the sewers in Detective Comics. And I grew up with a Batman who knew how to shave.
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All the criticisms from other users are spot-on… just like the first 500 parts of this storyline. Good riddance.

And what the hell happened to Psycho-Pirate? Am I dense? Batman confronted Hayden but their convo was mostly off-panel. Does he even still have the mask or does Tamaki’s wife???

I have had great doubts with this series due to the writer, I doubted that it would be good, I refused to sign up for the series, much less to do the double purchase (digital and physical) that I used to do with some issues of DC, however this number I I really liked it to the degree that yep, it will be the only DC comic series I subscribe to this year, as long as the quality is maintained. r/>
The way Jason confronts Batman with hard truths and still tells him what Bruce really means to him, just ouch. This was something that I hoped Zdarsky would write that would give it depth and take canon and read it and not cleanse himself of it just to say that Jason is an indiscriminate killer and mostly out of the blue.
Rosenberg and I have had a difference because of this, however the man is doing well and I give him credit. more

Wooow someone dropped the bomb here, this was really good.

Psycho Pirate is a Crisis-level villain by DC’s own design. In this series, he goes from “worlds will never be the same” to “let me create a diversion for drug dealers.” Stupid. Mad Hatter would’ve fit the plot way better. That’s what an editor would say but DC doesn’t really care anymore.

Tamaki, you’re lucky to be working on ‘Tec. A lot of readers are dropping the other DC books in droves but Batman is the surest bet. Everybody loves Batman, right? Nobody will drop Batman. more

Great art, but a story that is all this happens and then this happens. Unfortunately nothing happens organically.

Batman wins because it is his book. We don’t see him develop his plan and we don’t get any clues. We are just told, not shown that Batman and his League of Ethnic stereotypes were on the ball and saw through Luthor’s plan. apparently they didn’t work with Batman but Bats and the league still managed to figure things out separately.

Luthor’s plan was to create his own league of Batman. But I only read this I issue once, so many of the details may have escaped me. But what does Luthor’s plan get him? Control of bat groups around the world? So?

And Luthor’s is told by the league that they never cashed his checks? That is what detectives call an important detail, and Luthor never noticed. I also missed what Abyss was all about. He could blind Bats until Bats pulled out his anti-abyss tech and got his sight back?

Again, I am glossing over details, but no bread crumbs were laid out so that what happens in this issue makes sense. We are just told that everyone figured out stuff off page. In the golden and silver age, writers would actually leave clues that paid off. Example in one Batman Superman tale from the 1950s, Batman busts a crook’s alibi based on the shoes the crook is wearing. The crook said he was an electrician doing a job and that was why he was in the area when a jewel heist took place. Bats noticed his shoes had leather soles, not rubber, which is what electricians wear. Bats also figured out where the diamonds were hidden, in the bullets of the suspects’ guns. Superman searched the ship with X-ray vision and could not find the jewels. Bats figured the lead in the bullets made a great shield to hide the jewels.

Now that is clever, and that was playing fair. Showed what Bats brought to the table. None of that here. I will say that I liked that Bats learned the importance of teamwork in this issue. It as “after school special” obvious but made for a nice change from “Stay out of my city, I work alone except for my 47 Robins and Batgirls, who I never use in my big events.”

So nice ideas but bad execution. The status quo of Lex knowing who Batman is, but not actually doing anything Green Goblin with this info also bothers me.

Or I could be wrong. more

I had enjoyed this arc, but this ending just felt rushed and incomplete.

Garbage from a garbage writer

Ha! As I guess, Merlyn clearly said it, in the end Dick would be rescued, he narrowly missed him, of course Kate intervened a lot.
The backup issues was good

For a moment I thought about buying this number, until it became an emotional fanfic.

Richard's time as the batman wasn't him being an imposter Taylor you obnoxious idiot, unlike the new Jace fox, Richard john grayson actually earned the title not once but twice after the knightfall and after bruce had died. also why the freak Richard is acting like a goofball. if 3 heroes are dead and one of them is a former Titan he should be a lot more serious about it.

Incredibly, it wasn't that bad until Dick decided to treat Jon like a moron. Dude you can't treat a young man who is already exploring his sexuality in such a childish way, it's not Damian. Such a forced interaction.
The art is really good.

It's a solid delivery, even though we're still mulling over who are allies and enemies, its goal is still unclear.