The thing about Batman comics is that there's an overwhelming amount of shit to read, but like with most long-running series especially in the comics medium, the best thing to do is to pick an era and stick with it. That's what I did with New 52 even if I was solely following Bat-related stories and not the entire DC lineup (unless to contextualize crossover events; but even then I merely just do minimal research).
I disclose this because reading the first six issues of this MYTHOLOGY arc for Detective Comics meant there were a few head-scratching instances because I cannot recall a certain callback to a previous storyline that had been covered before. However, it's a good thing I have this blog because Tomasi actually pulled from his own canon from BATMAN AND ROBIN that happened to have been influenced by Grant Morrison's BATMAN INCORPORATED events as well. One of these days, I'll read my reviews so I can refresh my memory. In the meantime, let's contend with my initial assessment for the debut issue of Tomasi's Detective Comics arc called 'Mythology'.
Everyone grew up with Batman; the post-millennials may had been the last batch who were aware about the 'mythology' of this superhero, and that knowledge was mostly derived from the DCEU films, if not the Nolan trilogy. So we can all collectively say that Batman's origin story of trauma and trying to cope/rise above it by becoming a vigilante had been done to death already. And that's the task Tomasi decided to tackle here; how do you make something as common knowledge as the recipe for, I don't know, casserole, and mix it up so it can be made fresh for not just new readers who will pick up Detective Comics for the first time ever, but to the devoted fanbase who have close to twenty or more years of reading Batman? The answer, apparently, was something macabre.
(Oh, and it's worth noting that this Bat-title has now been numbered according to how many issues there have been from the beginning of its publication, hence why this is #994. I think it's actually pretty cool. I'm not sure if the flagship titles is doing the same.)
After the pages open to a young Bruce Wayne seeing his parents die then years later he's Batman, gracefully moving across the skyscrapers during patrol night, the next pages cut to Commissioner Gordon and our hero looking at a pair of corpses preserved inside a large water tank. They've been dressed as no other than Thomas and Martha Wayne--except that the uncanny likeness went so much deeper than designer wear and accessories. These victims had even undergone extensive cosmetic surgery, and the bullet wounds they each sustained were an exact match from the original crime scene. Now, who would be cruel enough to do this? (I actually started typing this review of the first issue of the arc already knowing how it ends because I finished Mythology in one sitting yesterday. Usually, I start typing a review after I finish an issue to build up excitement, so you can imagine how much I'm trying not to hint my overall opinion for now until I finished typing all the reviews for the six issues). Whoever it is, I speculated they must have known Batman is Bruce Wayne. This was clearly a theatrical way of explicitly stating such a well-guarded secret. Honestly, any of the Rogue's Gallery would have pulled it off, if they knew who Batman is under the cowl. A few would have such attention to detail, however.
Normally, I'd say I can only imagine what it must have felt like for Bruce (even as Batman) to examine dead bodies that were specifically made to resemble his parents right down to the most dastardly detail of violence. But since I lost my own father two years ago, I know exactly how I would feel if it was me in his situation. I'll be rightfully pissed and vengeful. Losing a parent unexpectedly was bad enough; losing both to a murder you witnessed as a child is a thousand times worse. And now as an adult man dressed as a vigilante trying to make something out of the grief, you find yourself staring at copycat versions of people you love most in the world being paraded as ghoulish attractions? The absolute WORST! Still, that's probably only the cherry of this shit-cake.
Wile still in the middle of putting things together with Gordon, Bat's attention abruptly shifted to a drastic call from one of his secure com lines. The issue reached an action-packed climax in which he's trying tor rescue Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who was his psychiatrist as a child, and one who made such a huge impact in his journey of recovery. She was chased by a...morphing monstrosity that looked generic and yet terrifying all at once. Why did it try to lure Batman using Leslie as bait? Did it have anything to do with the copycat Wayne corpses back at the crime scene? In any case, it was ravenous and seemingly unstoppable. One of the things I like about Doug Mahnke's art so far was that it had the right kind of 'broody' that was definably Batman: dark shadows against surprisingly clean lines even during more kinetic sequences. As far as action goes, the issue delivered well, though nothing groundbreaking, really.
I thought that the twist at the end with Leslie, as horrible as it had been, was very well done and certainly made me look forward to the next installment. For a monthly release, that's always the goal of a single comic book issue. Exposition and Rising Action were both established for Raze, the first of a six-chapter arc. Like I said, I read all of the issues, so my next reviews may be shorter than usual (or combined, depending on my mood), on account that the middle installments didn't engage me as much.
RECOMMENDED: 8/10
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