Batman: Detective Comics vol. 3 — League of Shadows

It feels like damning with faint praise to say that writer James Tynion IV has turned in a better volume of “Detective Comics” this time around by simply not attacking the underpinnings of the superhero genre.  Tynion instead delivers a story that, as you’d probably expect given the volume’s title, pays off on all the setup regarding the League of Shadows buildup over the past two volumes.  For years Batman has dismissed the existence of the League as a ghost story — something Ra’s Al Ghul told his men to keep them in line.  Batwoman’s father, Jacob Kane, believed differently and created an entire military-trained organization to fight it.  Now the League is finally ready to make its move and someone far worse than the Demon’s Head is leading the charge.  Her name is Lady Shiva and she’s come for two reasons:  To burn Gotham to the ground, and to see if her daughter is worthy of her attention.

Tynion is nothing if not a capable writer and the results of his efforts here are entertaining enough.  He does a good job of making each member of the rather large cast gets a moment to shine, with Orphan making the most of her time in the spotlight here.  The main issue I have with his story is one of familiarity.  Once things get going it’s pretty easy to see the scope and direction of the plot and there aren’t any surprises along the way.  Well, save for the reason why Batman was ready to dismiss the League as a myth all this time.  The explanation behind that was pretty clever and delivered with relish by one of his oldest villains.

Marcio Takara and Christian Duce handle the majority of the art for this volume and they both turn in capable but unexceptional work.  They certainly tell the story well enough, though the only real difference between their styles is how Takara really likes to dial up the shadows in his work.  I just expect better art from a mainline “Batman” book in the end.  That sentiment can probably be applied to the quality of the writing as well, but it’s still nice to see Tynion put some effort into making you care about this fairly straightforward story.