REVIEW: ‘Detective Comics,’ Issue #1001

Detective Comics #1001 is published by DC Comics, written by Peter J. Tomasi, with inks by Andrew Hennessy, pencils by Bradley Walker, colors by Nathan Fairbairn, and letters by Rob Leigh. Previously, the final story in the Detective Comics #1000 anthology teased a new villain, the Arkham Knight. But this is not the one of Rocksteady’s fantastic video game, Batman: The Arkham Knight. Instead, this version has a more medieval origin.

This issue, things in Gotham take a turn for the bizarre – well, more so than usual- when hundreds of bats in the city and Batcave turn up mysteriously dead. When hoping to find answers from Francine Langstrom, Batman ends up on a chase through Gotham only to be face to face with the Arkham Knight and his Knights of the Sun.

For a villain that has been teased since the beginning of Detective Comics #1000’s marketing-push, back in November 2018, we learned absolutely nothing about him in both Detective Comics #1000 and this issue. The choice to revamp this villain at all confuses me to begin with, but further keeping him in the dark doesn’t set him apart or even build suspense.

This revamp honestly feels like a cheap cash grab based on an already successful franchise. Ironically, the Batman: Arkham Knight tie-in comic for the Rocksteady video game following the original character was also written by Tomasi, furthering my confusion with a lot of creative decisions here. Also, in my opinion, that comic was not great.

However, Walker’s pencils with Hennessy’s inks look fantastic and the two clearly work well together. Their work with the coloring of Fairbairn create a very classic but modern Detective Comics issue. Additionally, Leigh’s lettering does its job and never makes the panels feel crowded. The work here is solid and minus the unusual villain and the fact that the issue lacked any plot, the mechanics of it are fine.

That being said, almost nothing happens. The long-awaited meet between the two characters is lack-luster and diluted into a cliffhanger. While there is a very big chance this character is not Jason Todd, the decision to still call him the Arkham Knight is strange, especially considering how drastically different this origin is from Todd’s origin in Rocksteady’s game.

This is only issue one of the arc, but this version of the Arkham Knight somehow feels like Batman: Arkham Knight‘s version of Azreal, but with the namesake of another. While not every comic reader has played the Batman: Arkham Knight game, I would bet that most have, or at least know the character. In fact, it is hard to separate this new iteration with Rocksteady’s version, especially since the designs are still so similar. Obviously, there is a lot more story to tell so the two could be linked but unfortunately, this is not the strongest start for the comic.

Detective Comics #1001 is available now wherever comic books are sold.