Batman- Detective Comics, Volume 1: Faces of Death

 When will I learn to trust my instincts? When, I ask you???? After forty years (FORTY YEARS!!!!) of reading comics, starting at the tender age of two, I generally know, sight unseen, when I will enjoy a book, and when I will loathe it with every tiny fiber of my being. I just KNEW that Tony S. Daniel was not going to be a good Writer, but my Wife's best friend's Husband was raving about how good a book this was, and I did want to see exactly WHY The Joker had his face skinned off, so here I am.

 Oy yoy yoy, this is a bad book.

 Generally, I would give a brief synopsis here, but I literally have no idea what this book is about or what happened in it, aside from the fact that it's as gory as hell, and I would never let my kid read it. I mean, I realize that most people reading comics are my age, or slightly younger or older, but Batman should be accessible to younger readers, and all of what was shown here could have been implied , or maybe less of it could have been shown. I mean, there;s faces being taken off, cops being decapitated, Commissioner Gordon gets abducted and has a Kidney removed against his will, there are dismembered body parts, eyes taken out by throwing stars....it's a real Horror show. I could probably accept this, if it was a competently written book, but as a Writer, Tony S. Daniel is a pretty good Artist.

 BATMAN- DETECTIVE COMICS, VOLUME 1: FACES OF DEATH presents the first seven issues of DETECTIVE COMICS, and starts off with Batman chasing The Joker, who may or may not be on a serial killing spree. This is never really explained, nor is the reason why he may or may not be killing people buck naked. Some loon called The Dollmaker is also maybe killing people (Again, bad writing, so I really have no idea...), and he comes over to The Joker's cell in Arkham Asylum to take his face off and helps him escape. Why The Joker would want his face removed is never explained. Then there's some nut little kid, who apparently comes and goes as she pleases, be it in a Hospital or a Police Precinct, places where I would expect better security, or at least someone to say "Hey kid, what are you doing here?", but I guess not. The book ends with Batman fighting The Penguin, with a one-eyed woman thrown in to complicate matters for some unclear reason. I don't know...I was just praying for this to end, and kicking myself for having bought the second volume as well.

 This is bad, bad stuff, and doesn't do much to make me a "New 52" fan. I'm still totally perplexed at just what DC was aiming for here. It was presented as a total reboot, but Geoff Johns kept going with GREEN LANTERN as if nothing happened, yet JUSTICE LEAGUE was a ground-up, day-one reboot. But Batman seems like he's been around forever, complete was his whole slew of Robins. I'm so confused. And in Scott Snyder's BATMAN, Bats works with the G.C.P.D., yet here, they shoot at him on sight.

DC is just a sloppy fucking mess, isn't it?

 BATMAN- DETECTIVE COMICS, VOLUME 1: FACES OF DEATH presents the first seven issues of DETECTIVE COMICS, complete with covers as well as the black-and-white versions of the covers (I just don't get the whole black-and-white cover variant thing at all...), and a sketch Gallery by Tony S. Daniel.