Writers: Ram V (Main Story) Si Spurrier (Back-Ups) / Pencillers: Rafael Albuquerque (Main Story) Dani (Back-Ups) / Colour Artist: Dave Stewart / Letterers: Ariana Maher (Main Story) Steve Wands (Back-Ups) / Editors: Ben Abernathy, Jessica Chen, Arianna Turturro / Collects: Detective Comics #1062 - #1065 / HC / DC Comics
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Review by Paul Dunne
23rd August 2023 (Released: 15th August 2023)
The Pitch: It’s a new era for the detective of the night as we introduce award-winning writer Ram V (Catwoman, The Many Deaths of Laila Starr), and artist extraordinaire Rafael Albuquerque (American Vampire, Superman/Batman)! Together, they’ll turn Gotham into a tragic yet beautiful gothic opera for our eyes and ears to feast on. Something is terribly wrong with Batman. No matter the tests Bruce takes, nor the numbers he counts, the greatest detective in the world can’t pin down the source of this creeping dread—of his own inner demons and a looming mortality. Meanwhile, real demons roam the shadows as an ancient melody haunts the Gotham night. Here now the curtains rise and as the eerie tune streams in…who is human, who is demon, who is to tell? As Batman investigates the songs and the demons of Gotham, he is forced to confront the oldest question…whether there has been a demon within him all along…and if so, what does it want…and why hasn’t it taken over yet?
Comics and opera. Two unique art forms heralding from different parts of the world. Will they mesh together in a satisfying way? Good question. Although not really one I would have asked had this book not come along. Trust Ram V and Rafael Albuquerque (admittedly, two of my favourites in comics) to come up with something that makes you think! It's a tall order these days in Batman Comics. In fact, in any legacy character. After over eight decades, I pity any writer and artist who has to come up with something new and keep it thematically true to the character and their attitudes, yet thrill the audience with something they just haven't seen before. So how do Ram and Raf handle this? By not handling it. Yes, there is a new enemy. Yes, there is something deep in the recesses of Gotham waiting to emerge and strike. But this 'Overture' has a familiar tune, a baseline you know. But they rearrange the notes and chords to create a score that threatens and unsettles. Gothic Opera gives way to Gotham Opera. Regret fills the air. The sodium hum of the city's streetlights gives way to the smell of gas lamps as the creative team jumps us back through time, yet keeps us in the present. Gotham's past lays the stones for its ruinous future. There is action, there are thrills... but the big thing here is the atmosphere, soaked into this place where it always feels like an autumn evening, no matter the time of year.
Action. Thrills. but the atmosphere is the thing.
At the story's heart, lies reclamation and identity. The Orgham, hitherto unheard of, make a return to Gotham, organising its unsavoury elements into new forms. They have ties to the city, ones that have been severed in the official history, but still exist in their souls and unluckily for Gotham's officials, on paper. They're here to lay claim to the city starting with its most unpopular landmark, the now-fallen Arkham Asylum, and importantly, the serious earth the serious house once stood upon. But there are other creatures that lay claim to Gotham, and they too begin to surface. The book becomes a battle of demons, with four sides converging: Batman – Gotham's demon, at least to its populace following the Joker War and certainly according to Mayor Nakano. Talia Al-Ghul, daughter of the Demon, whose loyalty shifts like the wind. The Orgham, seem to possess transformative powers that make them demonic creatures, so much so that perhaps they truly are of Gotham. And Barbatos, who through Bruce's nightmares is once more planting his flag in the city of dreadful night.
The Daughter of The Demon. One of four beasts staking a claim in Gotham.
With these four beasts battling over the same territory, depth and ideas are added. There's the question of who actually has more right to the city – the people who live in it, or the people who once called the land home but were driven from it? And is any one side of a political spectrum or ideology better than the other when they might all seem like a form of dictatorship, benign or not? Remember that people often (erroneously) label Batman a fascist. Bruce feels a sickness throughout the book. One that could be age, or that could be Barbatos exerting his control. Or could it be The Orgham exerting theirs?
Barbatos returns.
Ram creates a horror-tinged stage in which to play his grand design. This feels in line with the things that Tynion IV and White Noise stable-mate Dan Waters were orchestrating in their Batman and Arkham Asylum runs respectively. He bleeds in creping dread, turning our eyes away as horrible things befall nasty people, but we're not being spared. We know what's happening in those locked rooms. You feel him building to something major, that may just change the direction of the Bat-books. This could be a reclamation of Detective Comics as a title, hopefully restoring its place as the premiere Batman book. As with many of the books he's written outside of the big two, you get the sense that Ram is concerned with the fickle finger of fate, not just where it points at individuals, but societies as a whole.
Grand opera… Or Grand Guignol?
Albuquerque plays up the horror. Gotham feels drenched in a fog and never sees daylight. Things growl at you from the night. But what's most interesting is his spreads, which recall stages, the play laid out for the audience. The grand opera, or perhaps grand guignol, for a hungry crowd. Albuquerque has a talent for the grotesque and Gotham is full of those. The backup stories, featuring a now retired Jim Gordon sharing a Private Detective's business with Harvey Bullock also have a dark charm. Spurrier captures Gordon's aimless, hopeless life after the GCPD, a man who wants to be needed but can't adjust to what the city is becoming. Dani's art is never less than grimly beautiful. If Alburquerque's run on this book draws to an end eventually, then Dani should be the one to get the big show. Stewart's colours are as always, impeccable. He adds to the rich atmosphere in both the main story and backup, creating a kind of 'dark light', the kind that can only be really found in old, gothic cities. It's not the sodium piss of Los Angeles or the bleeding neon of Osaka. It's something else, a light you can vanish in. Maher and Wands, give voice to this new Gotham, essaying the fear in Bruce and the deep, rich horrors of the voices of the Orgham. Special mention should go to Evan Cagle's covers for the original series, which have the look of old, magical novels. Welcome to Gotham, where the music you hear may just be orchestrated screams.
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