REVIEW: ‘Detective Comics,’ Issue #1061

Detective Comics #1061 from DC ends the runs for two great creative teams. A round of applause from the start for writers Mariko Tamaki, Nadia Shammas, and Sina Grace. Let’s keep it going for artists Ivan Reis, David Lapham, and inker Danny Miki. Brad Anderson and Trish Mulvihill on colors, Rob Leigh and Ariana Maher on letters are top-notch in their fields. They definitely end things on a high note.

First up, we get into the conclusion of the mystery that is ‘Riddle Me This.’ The end of this enigma begins with a conversation between the Riddler, who has been broadcasting mysterious foreshadowing about crimes in Gotham, and Talia, who is in Gotham for…reasons. She is connected to the Riddler’s game of using citizens with secrets to commit heinous crimes. This is going to be interesting. I’ve never much liked Talia. She comes off as two-dimensional, but this role as a scheming background player in Gotham looks like a good story. I can’t wait to see how it blossoms.

The story moves into the conclusion of last month’s standoff at gunpoint. Judge Caroline Donovan has the gun, and there’s no turning back now. The eyeless Batman, drawn so well by Reis and inked darkly by Miki, holds the victim, yet there’s power and care in his stance. The artwork in this story has been graphic in its beauty, especially considering much of it is of ordinary people, with action scenes or superhuman acts kept to a minimum. 

Anyway, the mystery ends with a bang, the artwork is phenomenal along with the depth and skill of colors and lettering. The writing by Tamaki and Shammas made Batman humane and introspective with art to match it, and the city has never looked brighter and grimmer all at once. A satisfying conclusion that again took me back to how this title felt in the late 70s.

And I love how the Riddler was portrayed. Highly effective and incredibly slick, I always felt he should be Batman’s biggest rival, and this story made him so. And worse, he has attained the respect of Gothamites, giving him added resonance. 

The same holds true for the conclusion of ‘Gotham Girl, Interrupted.’ Claire has breached the confines of Arkham Tower (it’s had a lot of remodeling in its first few months), certain that Dr. Chase Meridian is responsible for all of her woes. But don’t worry about her being helpless. A guest star arrives not only to give Lapham some time to flex his artistic muscles on action panels but to deepen the story and give Claire some focus. 

This story ended so well that I really want Gotham Girl to get her own book or a miniseries at least. She was written in a way that depicted mental illness without demeaning it, and overall this story deserves a sequel. It’s nice to see Chase Meridian continue to play a role in Gotham. The colors by Mulvihill were bright, solid, and a bit more old school, and there was a lot of lettering SFX for Leigh to toy with.

I will miss this book being done the way it has. Thankfully, you can reread each issue and buy the trades when they come out. But by gosh, they knocked this out of the park, and the ending defined the greatness and the sorrow that Batman and his city represent.

Detective Comics #1061 is available wherever comic books are sold.