Batman: Detective Comics vol. 5 — A Lonely Place of Living

The smartest thing about Tim Drake’s “death” from the first arc of James Tynion IV’s run on this title was its immediate reveal that it wasn’t a death at all.  Tim had been spirited away from certain death at the last second by an unknown player leaving everyone around him to believe that he was dead and deal with it in their own way.  It was an excellent use of dramatic irony as most readers were never likely to believe that Tim was dead in the first place (or at least cynical enough to believe that he’d come back sooner or later), but it felt real to the core cast and that’s what matters most here.

I bring this up because in case you hadn’t guessed from the title or seen the cover to this volume, Tim Drake is back.  Spirited away from outside time by Mr. Oz, who no longer has need of his captives, he comes face-to-face with an older, bitterer, meaner version of himself who eventually became a Batman that sees no problem with shooting people dead.  Just as this older version of Tim looks to be the kind of time traveller who exists only to pass on cryptic warnings about the future, they both make it back to present-day Gotham and Bat-Tim finds out that his awful future can still be averted.  How does he plan to do it? By killing off the person who brought it about: Kate “Batwoman” Kane.

As has been the case for the majority of Tynion’s run, what’s here isn’t bad.  The problem is that it’s as predictable as you’d expect. From the way Bat-Tim tears through the entire Bat-Family to his final conversation with Tim before he winks out of existence.  Same goes for the story that follows as Spoiler learns that while Anarky’s ends are just fine and dandy, his means leave a lot to be desired. “A Lonely Place of Living” never quite dips to the irritating level of “The Victim Syndicate,” but it does leave me wondering why Tynion is apparently determined to follow and not subvert convention in his run.  I’m also wondering whether or not I should stick around for his final two volumes given that it’s pretty obvious how things are going to end at this point.