DC Comics 2019
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Illustrated by Alex Maleev
Lettered by Josh Reed
It's DC’s biggest whodunit in years! The world’s greatest detectives—Batman, Green Arrow, Lois Lane, Plastic Man, the Question and Martian Manhunter—have gathered to solve the mystery behind the true identity of Leviathan’s leaders and the destruction of the world’s top intelligence agencies! Red Hood is their leading suspect—and he is on the loose! Plus, the Silencer takes her shot! This mystery will unleash a new evil on the DC Universe!
I am absolutely loving this book and it actually is the perfect reminder why I am covered in DC characters. Finally we see a story that is self-contained, of the highest calibre of story and art combined so that not only are we engaged in the story as it takes us off page so that each individual will try to explore the DCU to find answers, explanations and so on and so forth. This is the kind of storytelling where we get lost in the storytelling and are swept up in this resplendent grandeur of what we see. This is the kind of mystery that we'd see in the Batman books years ago when he was actually a detective and honestly it has been sorely missed that specific part of his reputation.
The way that this is being told is like a dream come true. This issue we start off with the events that lead to what we saw last issue. I'm down with all that too because I have questions and I'm dying to see them answered and among them is why there are two Questions? After all there's no way that this is Renee Montoya so while I adore that there are two of them also with the addition of Manhunter, thank god she's back, we still get more questions than answers.
When we get tot he part where we are caught up from last issue and we see more and more about what is going on here we get to see something that I absolutely adore. This group may know each other but they aren't a team, they don't working together down pat or have any training together so to see what happens when everyone is basically tripping over the feet of the others it's a very nice thing to see.
Oh Alex the work you do here is bloody brilliant and practically perfect in every way. The man has one of the best eyes in the business for visual storytelling. Right off the bat to see this group in the Fortress of Solitude with that blue hues and tones that permeate what we see is expertly applied and rendered. The attention to detail is stupendous and that we get to see so much emotion and feeling associated with the art really does envelope the reader. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels just reinforces what I think of his eye for storytelling.
With all the heroes we see here it really should as no surprise that it's Lois who is the last one standing as the saying goes. She isn't exactly a stranger to this world and all but one of these masked heroes have no powers puts her in good company. Also her husband and her son allows her that unique perspective that the others will never have. So yeah I am totally digging this and the fact that it's a old school mystery that has the best detectives on the case is bringing Detective Comics back to DC. Oh and the ending here yeah well okay then that just makes me quiver in antici,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,pation.