Marv’s Picks: Detective Comics #1000

A review by Marvin Capistrano

Writers: Scott Snyder, Kevin Smith, Paul Dini, Warren Ellis, Denny O’Neil, Christopher Priest, Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns, James Tynion IV, Tom King, Peter J. Tomasi

Artists: Greg Capullo, Jim Lee, Dustin Nguyen, Becky Cloonan, Steve Epting, Neal Adams, Alex Maleev, Kelley Jones, Alvaro Martinez-Bueno, Tony S. Daniel, Joelle Jones, Doug Mahnke

I admit I am a sucker for these huge milestone issues. Lately, these types of anniversary issues have been used to either end a long running story or begin a brand new one. However, much like last year’s 1000th issue of Action Comics, Detective Comics #1000 has gathered the best in the comics industry to celebrate the main character of the series since its 27th issue 80 years ago.

I’ll admit, like all anthologies, not every story contained within hit it out of the park, so I’ll bring focus to the installments I did enjoy. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo begin the issue exploring Batman’s detective skills since, hey, this IS called Detective Comics. If I recall, this may serve as a bit of a teaser of Snyder and Capullo’s last Batman story they will tell together. If this bit is any indication, I will definitely check it out.

Kevin Smith and Jim Lee, without spoiling, in a sense bring full circle the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne into the current mind-state of Batman. You know, I will admit that I had outgrown Kevin Smith’s writing. His movies don’t really hold up to me anymore. Here, he reminds me again that he can still write some good comics (it is, after all, his Daredevil run that brought me back to comics). And I don’t think I need to say anything else about Jim Lee.

*Image courtesy of DC Comics. View a preview of this issue, here.*

If there was ever a pairing of creative talents meant to do a run on Batman, it is Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev. Their legendary run on Daredevil definitely serves as proof that they may have a Batman story in them. In this story we get a glimpse of a potential future of Batman having possibly his last face-off with one of his greatest villains.

Tom King along with Tony S. Daniel and Joelle Jones shifts the focus to the many, many sidekicks that Batman has had throughout his career. I enjoyed the banter amongst the sidekicks and felt how much of an impact Batman had on all these characters.

And for a taste of things to come, Peter J. Tomasi and Doug Mahnke introduce the character of Arkham Knight into DC canon. The Arkham Knight is a character introduced in the Batman Arkham series of video games, which really is one of the greatest series of games I ever played. Doug Mahnke gives us all splash pages of Batman’s encounters with villains past and present and they are all mind-blowing! As a fan of the video games, I’m interested to see this take of the Arkham Knight.

All in all, another great celebration of one of the most popular figures in pop culture and definitely worth a read for any fan of the Caped Crusader.

Marvin Capistrano is a big fan of comics and provides occasional insights on choice comic book picks.