Batman: Detective Comics #1050 – Mariko Tamaki, Matthew Rosenberg, Writers; Max Raynor, Fernando Blanco, Artists; Luis Guerrero, Jordie Bellaire, Colorists
Ray – 9/10
Ray: Mariko Tamaki might pull off the impossible this issue—she makes us feel bad for the utterly vile Psycho Pirate. Much of this issue is written from his perspective, as he makes one of his trademark quick escapes and heads directly for one of the few people he can trust—Tobias Wear, the future boss of Arkham Tower and an old friend of his going back decades. While Pirate is pathetic and broken down in this issue, Wear is utterly vile. He sees Psycho Pirate’s powers as something to exploit, right down to having his girlfriend briefly brainwashed as a way to test the abilities. And with that, Wear—at this point a low-level drug dealer who has ripped off both the Party Crashers and the Penguin—has a plan to get himself on top.
The big mystery of this run has been what exactly is putting the inmates of the tower in such a good mental state, and now we know. There is no miracle drug or therapy—it’s just all brainwashing, courtesy of a villain who Wear is pushing to his limit. And that raises the question—what happens when the power keeping hundreds of violent villains pacified goes out suddenly, and everything is unleashed at once? If the first issue of this crossover is any indication, the answer is nothing good. With more than one Bat-hero behind enemy lines, the cliffhanger sends us into act two of this event miniseries with a bang. Max Raynor’s solid art is well-suited to the flashback-heavy issue as well, although it doesn’t stand out like Mora’s does.
In the House of Wayne backup, our hapless hero’s situation has gone from bad to worse. He’s been locked up as an actual inmate after his dalliance with the Scarecrow, but now he’s been given a clean bill of health. To get out, though, he’ll have to be adopted—and a mysterious car pulls up to the asylum looking to make his dream come true. But while Scarecrow was a particularly twisted father figure, it’s hard to see whether Penguin is better or worse. A taskmaster with a sadistic edge who is oddly protective of his new ward/employee, he ends this issue on a brutal note that leaves me anxious for more.
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