Detective Comics #824 Review

Dini is pulling off the impossible by making The Revolution really enjoy one-shot issues. Dini’s run on Detective Comics have been nothing but on-shots, yet I have loved them. I’m sure that Detective Comics #824 is going to be another one-shot issue. And I’m sure that it is going to be another great read. Plus, we get treated to Kramer’s art on this issue! Let’s hit this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Paul Dini
Penciler: Don Kramer
Inker: Wayne Faucher

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: The issue begins with the Penguin having captured Batman. The Penguin collected some old debts and has now returned to Gotham ready to do business. The Batman is shackled and dangling over a pool full of extremely vicious leopard seals. (Now before you start laughing about the idea of vicious seals, let me tell you this. Leopard seals can get up to thirteen feet long and weigh up to 990 pounds. Plus, they are aggressive predators who kill humans.) Batman takes out the leopard seals right as Penguin releases the shackles to drop Batman into the pool. Batman then takes out the Penguins goons. Batman also demonstrates that he has kept his pimp hand strong by taking out Penguins female bodyguard with one slap.

Penguin tells Batman that he wasn’t trying to kill Batman. That he left Batman’s utility belt on him and knew that Batman could escape such an easy trap. Penguin claims that he is totally clean and legit nowadays. Batman tells Penguin that he will be watching him. Penguin then gives Batman an invitation to the grand re-opening of the Iceberg Lounge.

We shift to Bruce Wayne in his limo with his date, Jackie Vaseux, an heiress/media maven. She is also a total blonde bimbo who is constantly yapping into her cell phone. Bruce looks miserable.

When they arrive at the Iceberg Lounge, Penguin greets Bruce at the entrance. Bruce then spots Lois Lane. Lois has been sent by the Daily Planet to investigate the Penguin’s claims to being a legit businessman. The Riddler then enters the club. Lois says that she is suspicious that both men are now legit.

We shift to the gambling room at the Iceberg Lounge where a man named Mr. Zzz is playing poker. He is hired muscle who usually works for Anthony “Little Italy” Marchetti. Mr. Zzz suffers from a bizarre form of Narcolepsy that makes him sleepwalk through life, though his reflexes always kick in allowing him to be a dangerous thug to fight. Mr. Zzz is winning each and every hand.

We cut to the Penguin talking in his office with the Riddler. The Penguin shows the Riddler the T-shirts he is selling at his club. They cost 23 cents to make and he cells them for 38 dollars. Penguin says crime is pointless. That the real money is in branding, merchandising and franchising. That Penguin is planning to open Iceberg Lounge locations in Vegas, LA and Metropolis.

We then shift to Bruce and Lois talking at a table. Suddenly, the Penguin starts screaming about Mr. Zzz breaking the house by winning every hand. The Penguin says that Mr. Zzz must be cheating. That Mr. Zzz must be working for Marchetti. The Penguin says that Marchetti isn’t getting his money back. Bruce then uses his Bat computer via his cell phone to scan Mr. Zzz. He sees a fiber-optic camera implanted over Mr. Zzz’s right ear. That he must be relaying the game back to someone else.

Bruce then calls hottie Zatanna and asks her for the name of a genius level card counter. Zatanna says the best in the business is Ivar Loxias. Bruce thanks her for her help. Bruce then tracks the camera’s signal to a location across the city.

We then cut to that location. We see Marchetti holding Loxias captive. One of Marchetti’s thugs is at a computer hooked up to the camera on Mr. Zzz. With each hand, Loxias tells Marchetti what cards the other players are holding. The thug at the computer then relays that information to Mr. Zzz.

We see Penguin in a panic since he put all the money he had in this grand re-opening. Now that Mr. Zzz has beaten the house, he has won all the money that Penguin has. We then see Mr. Zzz leave with all the Penguin’s money. Batman follows Mr. Zzz who leads Batman to Marchetti’s hideout. Batman crashes into the joint and begins brawling with Mr. Zzz. Loxias frees himself from the handcuffs binding him and Loxias takes out Marchetti. Batman then takes out Mr. Zzz. Loxias admits that he could have freed himself at any point, but that he found the clownish thugs more amusing than threatening.

We shift back to Penguin’s office. Batman has returned the Penguin’s money. Batman said that he returned the fifty thousand dollars that Marchetti claims the Penguin stole from him. The rest of the money is the Penguin’s. The Penguin is thrilled to have his fortune returned to him. Batman then tells the Penguin to stay clean and legit or else he will have to deal with the Batman. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Detective Comics #824 was an O.K. read. I thought this issue was nicely paced. Dini started the story with a fast and interesting beginning and kept the story moving at a quick pace. Dini serves up some good dialogue. I thought that Lois and Bruce engaged in some pretty good banter. Dini also does a nice job fleshing out the various characters. All the characters are well developed and they each have plenty of personality.

I liked that Dini had the Riddler go legit and I like it that Penguin is also going legit. Both the Riddler and Penguin are a little on the lame side as far as villains are concerned. However, by making them legit, Dini is breathing new life into these characters. The Riddler has probably been more annoying to Batman lately now that he has gone legit than he was back when Riddler was a criminal. I’m sure Penguin will be just as annoying.

Dini did hint that the Riddler is fondly remembering a life of crime. Now, there is a possibility that the Riddler and the Penguin use their status as clean businessmen to pull off a big criminal enterprise. Of course, this could just be a red herring where Dini is trying to get the reader to believe that neither criminal will stay reformed for very long. Either way, I think that Dini has something rather interesting planned for both the Riddler and the Penguin.

I liked Dini’s Bruce Wayne. He has more depth than just acting like Batman in a tuxedo. Bruce’s pure misery of having to put up with his incredibly annoying date was hilarious. I liked the cameo appearance by Lois Lane. Dini created some nice comfortable chemistry between Bruce and Lois. You could tell that these were old friends.

I was psyched to see Zatanna make a cameo as well. I love Zatanna. She wears a sexy outfit and is just a cool character. I wish DC would give us more Zatanna! Unfortunately, Zatanna didn’t play much of a role in this issue. I would have been nice to see her in action.

And speaking of Zatanna, that leads me to Kramer’s art and his smoking hot version of Zatanna. I’m a big fan of Kramer’s artwork. He draws a great looking comic. I also dig Kramer’s Batman. I would be thrilled if Kramer stayed on as the regular artist on Detective Comics.

The Bad: Detective Comics #824 is Dini’s weakest issue to date. It wasn’t bad or poorly written. It just didn’t particularly hook me or get me all that interested. It may be my bias against one-shot issues finally surfacing after so many one-shots in a row on this title. I just thought this story required too many leaps of faith on my part in order to really enjoy this story.

First, Bruce watching Mr. Zzz deduces that the camera in his ear must be relaying the game back to a master card counter. Leap #1. Then Bruce deciding to give Zatanna a call and ply her for information about master card counters. Leap #2. Then the fact that best master card counter, Loxias, that Zatanna mentions just happens to be the master card counter that Marchetti has captured. Leap #3.

That is just too many. I mean, that Bruce would automatically see the hidden camera and think that the only possible explanation is that someone has a capture master card counter helping out Mr. Zzz. Then Batman casually calls up Zatanna, who I thought Batman seriously disliked ever since the events of Identity Crisis, and Zatanna gives him the name of the best card counter in the world: Loxias. Then it just so happens that Loxias is the very card counter being used in this story! That is too much.

Plus, what did it matter if there was a card counter or not. That part of the story was useless since all Batman did was trail Mr. Zzz back to the hideout, beat up the bad guys and retrieve the money. He didn’t even need to call Zatanna or even know how Mr. Zzz was able to keep winning at the poker table.

At any rate, this story was just didn’t “pop.” It lacked anything really interesting. Maybe it is that we have had nothing but one-shot issues and that I wish that Dini was building to something. It feels like we are simply treading water. That is the problem I have with so many one-shot issues in a row. I’m not too sure Dini has a long term vision for this title. Maybe I just don’t see it yet. Right now, the Riddler plotline is the only re-occurring theme that keeps resurfacing in all of these various one-shot issues. I don’t know how much longer Dini can keep delivering simple one-shot issues. At some point, we are going to have to build up to something a bit larger and more substantial.

Overall: Detective Comics #824 was a well written and entertaining read. However, the one-shot format is starting to wear thin with me. I hope that Dini starts to build to some sort of multi-issue story arc. At any rate, due to Dini’s one-shot format, this is an easy title for new readers to jump on and give it a try.