Five weeks ago, I had the displeasure of suffering through a great deal of mild migraines while I was reading the first twelve issues for Detective Comics which were then written and illustrated by Tony S. Daniel. The bitter aftertaste of the two collected editions for those stories had lingered too long than I would've allowed, so I was very eager to wash off my Bat-palette for this title which was thankfully and mercifully cleansed by John Layman who has replaced Daniel as the current writer f...

I'm so glad they changed the creative team behind the series. John Laynam was a great change, but not enough to put the series on a 5 star track. The first couple issues introduces us to Emperor Penguin (an interesting character, but a little too obvious in his way doing things) and puts Poison Ivy in the spotlight. After that story finishes off, we get an interesting but still predictable storyline involving the Merrymaker and the League of Smiles. The series was still fun, but it closed off on...

I do like that this continues to feel like a serial with each issue focusing on something new. And while there are plot lines that carry through multiple issues, it doesn’t feel like you’re reading ONLY one plot that takes 75 issues, head wound induced amnesia, and a failed wedding or two to get to the point. 😒

OK, so this is my second reading of this, as I forgot to review and track when I first read this.John "Chew" Layman wrote this volume, a great improvement from Tony S. Daniel on 1-2.This volume concerns Penguin trying to take back the Cobblepot name, but being undercut by his right hand man, Ignatius Ogilvy, who takes the name "Emperor Penguin". That's the good part.The bad parts? The silly Joker inspired gangs and the idiot z-listers that are Penguin subordinates.The art by Jason Fabok and Andy...

Remember in my review for Volume 1 that I said one day someone would do a really good Penguin story? Well along comes John Layman to take over Detective Comics and elevate it to an all new level of awesome, as well as starting to do just that.This volume mostly seems like little done in one stories as Batman deals with Poison Ivy, Clayface, and a few other villains, before spiralling into the Death of the Family crossover. I've always felt that having books like Tec tie into Bat-Events seem a bi...

Although Detective Comics is not written by Scott Snyder like the regular Batman New 52 titles that I love, the character is still in great hands here with John Layman and Jason Fabok and Andy Clarke do a great job drawing Gotham and it’s hero. (I don’t love this artistic version of the Penguin, but I’ll live). The opening issues involving The Penguin, Poison Ivy, and Clayface are all great fun and have Batman being the Batman readers love to see. The second half of the volume goes darker as a

Pretty good. Not awesome. A righting of the ship after the atrocious volume two.There is some kind of longstanding rule that Detective Comics will have a back-up story in each issue.If the artists for these stories were all tryouts, I have to say Henrik Jonsson is ready for prime time. His five pages - the very last story in this collection - were better than anything else in it.

Another decently fun collection. 3.5 stars.

Liked it. Good mystery, good tie-ins.

So thanks to DC Universe I can pretty much read any DC comic made in the last 50 years. And right after I read Outer Darkness (and reallllllly enjoyed it) I decided to give Layman's Detective Comics a chance. As you can see this story didn't work much for me. It basically is a two parter. The first dealing with Batman taking out some goons on a night patrol and then Penguin taking credit. Right after that we're introduced to Poison Ivy's scheme and a weird Clayface plot with her. Then we jump in...

3.5 starsNot too shabby.The storyline with the League of Smiles was one I'd already read elsewhere, so there wasn't much tension for me with that story. The Joker is running around during his Death of the Family thing, and some assholes decide to take advantage of it. I'm a bit over the gross psychopaths carving others (and themselves) up in DC, but this was from a while back, so I'm not going to rant. Still...ugh. There's also a Poison Ivy story, where Batman tries to get her to see the error

I’m so relieved DC booted Tony Daniel off of Detective and replaced him with John Layman, the writer of the excellent Image series, Chew. DC must’ve been paying attention to the negative reaction of Daniel’s run because right on the cover is a blurb acknowledging that his series was dead in the water: “Layman has reinvigorated the book with his first story arc”. That said, while I think the new creative team - Layman is joined by artists Jason Fabok and Andy Clarke, both outstanding - is definit...

(B+) 76% | GoodNotes: An artful glut of dead-end detours and low-rent knock-offs, where appetite for ownage sows the supervillain drama.

The art is gorge but the story is really jumpy.

I really liked this volume but I liked the previous two by Tony S. Daniel better even though I'm in the minority on that. I just really love this series, & to be fair I've only read the first 2 volumes of Snyder's Batman title but at this point I like this one better. Looking forward to Vol. 4 with great enthusiasm!

I'm not too into the Emperor Penguin character... I would rather have seen a completely new character developed instead of a proxy-Penguin character. Plus, there is a lot of tie-in material for the Death of the Family event, which I found a little distracting in this collection. There was some very good artwork and some okay writing in these pages.... But this title is waning for me. It lacks individual substance to differentiate itself from other bat-books.3.5/5

A vast improvement over Tony Daniel's abysmal first two volumes, though the series still isn't quite firing on all cylinders. Layman's ability to flow seamlessly between scenes is admirable. He makes reading this comic feel like watching a very well-shot movie, with match cuts and overlapping dialogue between scenes creating a consistent narrative energy within the comic that never lets up.The plot itself feels a little forced, though. Suddenly, with no real setup, Ogilvy, Oswald Cobblepot's rig...

Great story about the Penguin's demise, orchestrated by the Joker, who is written almost as a phantom in this book. Excellent idea! I actually enjoyed this book better than some of the stuff Scott Snyder wrote for the flagship series. I loved the intelligent detective work by Batman for a change. His brain should always be his greatest weapon, not his fists. The art by Jason Fabok is absolutely stunning! He's my favorite artist by far. 4/5

This was a good one. Also a good place to jump on board if you’re new to comics or coming back to them. John Layman’s writing was also good and featured a few of Batman’s greatest villains: Penguin, Clayface, Poison Ivy, ZsasZ, and introduces a new one known as Emperor Penguin. It’s mostly about Emperor Penguins storyline with a few short ones about the other villains thrown in here and there, including A Death Of The Family where we see Joker pop up. The artwork is also terrific. JASON Fabok do...

Overall, classic Batman. I found it enjoyable although it does have a flaw in the plot very hard to overlook. Batman does a great job variously at outsmarting and outfighting the bad guys. I was hoping to see more of my favorite Batman villain, the Penguin, and in that respect, he's a comparatively minor character in this book. Ok ---- getting to the major flaw in the story. Penguin, for reasons never clearly explained, just turns over his entire operation to his second in command to depart on w...