Batman: Detective & Death and the City

I’d meant to pick up these collections of writer Paul Dini’s “Batman” work when they came out, but I just never got around to it.  Reading them now, I don’t feel that was a big mistake, but they still have their charms. 

Dini’s initial run was characterized by doing lots of “done-in-one” tales that emphasized the character’s detective skills, while putting new twists on familiar villains and creating new ones as well.  The majority of these stories didn’t really set my mind on fire, but they were competent, well-constructed tales that showcase the writer’s affection for Batman’s rogue’s gallery as well as his understanding of the title character himself.  Twists like making the Riddler a freelance detective, introducing the new female ventriloquist and giving us an issue where Harley Quinn makes a surprisingly honest and true-to-character effort to reform are genuinely inspired.  Though the majority of the stories aren’t as inspired, the “Joker takes Robin hostage” story from the first volume, and Batman’s team-up with Zatanna in the second certainly are.  Had the rest of the stories been as good as these, I’d have no trouble recommending these volumes to anyone rather than just “Batman fans.”

These volumes also contain four fill-in issues by different writers.  The two by Royal McGraw are just “okay” while the two-parter by Stuart Moore is slightly better than that.  They’re not terrible, but I wouldn’t have lost sleep if they were left out of these collections.