Ricky Church reviews Batman – Detective Comics: Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 2…
In Batman – Detective Comics: Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 2, the Dark Knight and his group of crimefighters continue to protect Gotham City from villainous groups new and old. James Tynion IV continues his epic story from the first volume of Detective Comics which doesn’t just deliver compelling action and mystery, but nice character work on Batman and his team of heroes. Tyion shows a clear understanding of how this world works with some nice artwork to boot.
Picking up where the first book left off, Batman and his new team are still mourning Tim Drake’s apparent death when Gotham City is attacked by Lady Shiva and her League of Shadows as well as other threats. Tynion explores Batman’s grief some more, but where he really succeeds in is examining the supporting characters in these stories. Cassandra Cain and Azrael benefit greatly from Tynion’s writing, the former in particular as she has to deal with a personal crisis and slowly opens up more to the team. It shows his own skill as a writer that he can convey everything Cass is thinking and feeling with her one or two word sentences while giving her a nice arc and a lot of heart.
The first story, ‘League of Shadows’, is an action filled adventure as Batman and the team confront Lady Shiva, one of the world’s deadliest assassins who makes even Ra’s al Ghul nervous. The action flows pretty nicely and Shiva is made to be a true threat to Batman, but this is the story that focuses heavily on Cassandra. Batwoman and her father also play important roles, but for fans of Cass and Shiva it’s a nice treat, especially for readers who may not be as familiar with the characters as other fans and get a fresh experience. Fans of Ra’s al Ghul should also be happy as his hand in the events of Tynion’s Detective Comics run grows stronger.
‘Intelligence’, meanwhile, is an Azreal-centric story as the Order of St. Dumas returns with a deadly A.I. as their assassin to kill all their old members. ‘Intelligence’ plays a bit more into the mystery side of Detective Comics rather than the action, but the action presented here is nice and focuses more on the team fighting this threat on their own with Batman getting sidelined somewhat as he deals with another mystery leftover from ‘League of Shadows’. Azrael’s development is nicely done, focusing more on his new friendships with Batwoman and Batwing that also examines just how far he’s come since his Knightfall days. Tynion also utilizes the fan-favourite magician Zatanna, guest starring in this arc, very well by examining her past and present relationship with Batman while also emphasizing just how powerful she can be.
The art is done primarily by Christian Duce, Marcio Takara and Alvaro Martinez throughout the book with Duce and Takara splitting ‘League of Shadows’ between them and Martinez having ‘Intelligence’ all to himself. Their art is very good and captures the dark atmosphere of Gotham very well, though the styles between Duce and Takara can be a bit jarring once it changes over halfway through ‘League of Shadows’. Takara’s art is much rougher than Duce’s which makes it a little inconsistent visually and even seems a tad rushed towards the end of the story. It’s still good though and both Duce and Takara make nice use of the layouts to convey some clear and concise action when Shiva and Cass are concerned. Martinez’s art is also concise throughout his story with good facial work on all the characters, but particularly Batman, Zatanna and Azrael.
Included as well is a short interlude featuring Spoiler as she continues to fight against Batman’s current system of crimefighting following Tim’s demise and several variant covers from Rafael Albuquerque, but unfortunately nothing in the way of character sketches or early pencils from Duce, Takara or Martinez. Despite that, Batman – Detective Comics: Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 2 is a very nice and hefty collection of Batman stories from James Tynion with good artwork. The different art styles could have been a bit more consistent with each other, but each artist captured the dark and gritty atmosphere of Gotham City and the world Batman inhabits.
Rating: 8/10
Ricky Church
