Review – Batman: Detective Comics #1061 – The Price of Justice

Batman: Detective Comics #1061 – Mariko Tamaki/Nadia Shammas, Sina Grace, Writers; Ivan Reis/Danny Miki, David Lapham, Artists; Brad Anderson, Trish Mulvihill, Colorists

Ray – 8/10

Ray: It’s the last act for this run on Detective Comics before Ram V takes over next month, and there’s a final showdown with Riddler awaiting. The infamous supervillain has turned himself into a radio broadcaster and is pulling a high-stakes game to expose criminals who got away with their crimes—including the disgraced judge Carolyn Donovan, who became a brief love interest for Bruce before being forced into terrible crimes and killing someone at the end of the last issue. A flashback shows that she was part of a secret support group organized by Chase Meridian for people who had dark secrets weighing on them—and no one there actually signed up for it, they were recruited after being found out.

Meridian has been a fairly ambiguous character over the course of this run, and this issue definitely takes her in a darker direction. Talia’s involvement (which seems to be a guarantee every time Nadia Shammas writes a DC comic) also makes her more morally twisted than she’s been in recent comics, and sort of flies in the face of her characterization in the last act of Shadow War. However, this issue does have one fantastic set piece as Batman and Cassandra Cain battle to save two of Riddler’s hostages from a particularly clever trap. I’m not sure how much of this story will be followed up on in future runs, but I’m particularly hoping we see more of Deb Donovan in Gotham—the city’s journalistic scene could use the edge.

The Gotham Girl backup has outshone the main story for the last few issues, and that continues here. Seeing Claire slide out of control as she becomes convinced she’s on the track of a deadly conspiracy is compelling and terrifying, as are the reminders of just how powerful she actually is. There might be a little too much random violence at one point—kind of a Lapham trademark—but it’s a solid story as Claire hits rock bottom, only for that self-destruction to lead her to a major revelation. The ending promises more of her as a player in Batman vs. Robin, and I would say this story has been good setup.

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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.