There’s a crooked cop in Detective Comics #43 written and colored by Brain Buccellato, Fernando Blanco on art, and Wes Abbott on letters.
Last issue Jim’s suit was disabled and forced him to exit the suit to confront his attackers. This issue Montoya and Bullock run to his aid, who managed to hold his own, but a core generator for the suit was sto
len while Jim was out as a member of the attacking La Morte was able to get away. The core had been their goal the entire time. La Morte then delivers the core to Joker’s daughter and they request to renegotiate their contract which technically had just been fulfilled. Meanwhile Bullock has to deal with Montoyas goals of purging the system of crooked cops as Nancy Yip, his partner and current girlfriend is confirmed as being crooked; leaking important seating arrangement information for an upcoming city event. Bullock confronts Yip but she strikes him and walks away. The next day further information comes to light that Falcone has hired La Morte for a hit. Threads start to converge and Bullock requests Jim to help him kill Yip. Later, when a police transport carrying La Morte members, a giant mecha rises from the bay and destroys the bridge. Enter Jokerbot.
POSITIVES
This is the right balance between realist street-level crime (mysterious deals and hit contracts, police procedure) and over the top Superhero action that leave me thrilled. This al
so feels really appropriate for Detective. I always consider this book to be place for truly “better” Batman stories with one foot in crime drama, noir, and action films so Jim’s taking of this title is thus far working. The mecha is icing on the cake since now we have a giant “Jokerbot” most likely driven by Joker’s Daughter. Like how great is that? Montoya is awesome and I’m convinced Blanco uses actors for references (not like Greg Land) and it actually works unlike a lot of other artists who try the same. So yeah she looks like Michelle Rodriguez but she looks realistic. The color is nice too.
NEGATIVES
I’m curious why Harvey resorts to wanting to kill Yip so let’s hope there’s more to that than we may think.
VERDICT
Go get this. It has this.
Montoya is great (I hope she’s not crooked herself in some way).
