Published on July 12th, 2017 | by Chris O'Connor
Detective Comics #959 Comic Review
Summary: Everything seems to be happening at once and Batman is on the trail while his team come to grip with Azrael's past.
4.5
Zatannananana Batman
There’s a reason why Batman is my favourite superhero (even despite some claiming he’s not technically a “super”hero). It’s his humanity that appeals to me a lot. Detective Comics #959, “Intelligence” opens with a very human Bruce Wayne… trying to perfect a sleight of hand trick. This is a moment that will be referenced again later and is a wonderful little acknowledgement of the fact that Batman is still just a human… he may be the world’s greatest detective… but that doesn’t mean he can do anything/everything.
Writing
As mentioned there’s a lovely interplay between Bruce Wayne and Zatanna at the start of this comic… it’s a wonderful down to earth moment that really says a lot about the character of Bruce Wayne. These little seemingly minor moments can add so much to the overall character that they shouldn’t be overlooked for just how much depth they add. In this story the interaction between Bruce/Batman and Zatanna are only a small portion of the story but they do work as wonderful bookends to the overarching storyline.
Artwork
There are some stellar tonal choices throughout the story here. From the opening neon glow of the bright lights of Las Vegas to the more sombre blue darkness of Gotham the colour choices really go a long way to bringing the emotion out of the story.
Final Thoughts
Batman continues to hold his place at the top of my hero list…. this comic fleshes out the man behind the cowl some more and I like him even more for that fact. It’s somewhat surprising just how much story has been put into these pages… we have a whole deep conversation between Batman and Zatanna… we have the team learning more about Azrael and the Azrael suit.
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: James T Tynion IV
Artist: Raul Fernandez, Alvaro Martinez
Cover Artist: Yasmine Putri
Genre: Superhero
Format: 32pgs, FC
Release Date: 28th June 2017