Batman: Detective Comics vol. 2 — The Victim Syndicate

The title of this volume refers to the group of people who have had their lives ruined by the collateral damage from that no-good Batman and his vigilante antics.  What’s their plan for revenge?  Why to become supervillains themselves and cause some collateral damage of their own as they work to take down Batman, and maybe even convince Spoiler to come over to their side.  It’s not just that this setup is kinda dumb, but it’s also wholly predictable as well.  Having people who have felt wronged by the actions of a superhero show up to get revenge is not a new concept for the genre.  The way these stories usually play out is that after making the hero question his cause he winds up reaffirming it after pointing out where these people got it wrong.  That’s exactly how it plays out here with the only notable quirk being a new status quo for the Spoiler in the context of the series.  Which you’ll likely be able to see coming long before it happens because writer James Tynion IV effectively railroads the character into it.

Working in this story’s favor is generally decent art from the likes of Alvaro Martinez and Eddy Barrows.  I also liked the addition of Luke “Batwing” Fox to the cast as his arrogance clashes entertainingly with the rest of the cast (even though he’s basically just “Iron Man” in a Batsuit here), and Tynion’s rehabilitation of Clayface continues to pay off well here.  Better was the two-part “Batwoman Begins” story that rounds out this volume that Tynion co-writes with Marguerite Bennett with art from Ben Oliver.  Here, the writers flesh out Batwoman’s first encounter with Batman while also letting us know that the Colony still has business with them in Gotham.  It’s actually a pretty nifty setup to the new “Batwoman” series and actually manages to start the rebuilding process in regards to a relationship I was disappointed to see torn apart in the previous volume.

So I’m left feeling optimistic for this new “Batwoman” series.  Less so for “Detective Comics” itself.  Except that Tynion has made it clear that he has a story regarding these characters he wants to tell and that earns him some leeway with me.  He would do well to look beyond rehashing the superhero genre playbook if he wants to keep me around, though.