Detective Comics 1068 (2023)

 All you really need to know about this comic book is that it features The Batman fighting a Wolfman.  My favorite literary genre is Fights a Wolfman.  And the drawing is incredible.  These are probably the best drawings of The Batman fighting a Wolfman that I have ever seen.  And I’ve seen multiple! I have seen and heard some criticism that this run of comics is slow and boring and I’d like to know what comics you guys are reading where someone fights a Wolfman that are better than this?

Before we get into the scoring, I wanted to talk a little bit about how great Evan Cagle’s covers are. When I first considered using a scoring system here at file under other, I considered giving the covers their own score but I gave up on the idea because of variant covers. I do not have any opinions about variant covers worth getting into but it’s hard for me to rate a book based on its cover when there are six variants out there that I may have never seen.  Nevertheless, I have seen Evan Cagle’s covers and they are great.  Literally, the reason I got back into buying Detective Comics.

All right, on with the scores.  This is a comic with two stories by two creative teams so we will judge them separately.

“Half a Chance in Hell”

Writing: Ram V.  I think Ram V is great and other than Grant Morrison’s Batman Inc. stuff, this is probably my favorite Batman run since the Legends of the Dark Knight series started in 1989.  This feels like that stuff. It feels stand-alone.  I truly have no idea if it has any connection to the current DC Universe or not.  And that’s fine!  I love what Ram V is doing here.  And did I mention there is a Wolfman!  Score: 4.5

Drawing: Ivan Reis & Rafael Albuquerque.  Rafael Albuquerque has been killing it on this book.  I might get that fight scene with the Wolfman as a back tattoo.  I would give this a perfect score but the art is split between two artists so there is some inevitable inconsistency. Score: 4.5

Coloring: Danny Miki.  A little dark for my tastes and it can get a bit muddy but it works well enough with the story. Score: 4

Lettering: Ariana Maher.  White letters in red boxes.  Do not like.  Score: 2

“A Tune That Listens Back”

Writing: Simon Spurrier.  I like the idea of this. Jim Gordon PI with a sidekick. I just do not care about the sidekick.  Score: 3

Drawing: Dani. Is there a word for this style? Alex Maleve, D. G. Chichester… you know. It’s like Frank Miller’s blacks without Klaus Jenson’s lines against photocopies of pictures of buildings.  I do not care for it. Score: 2

Coloring: Lee Loughridge.  It’s the Lynn Varley style that works with Batman.  It still works. Score: 3

Lettering: Steve Wands.  This one is very text heavy.  Wands is doing a lot of work here but there is that one panel with yellow letters in a red balloon.  No thank you.  Score: 2

Total Score: 3.125 out of 5 Shanos.

Love always. Your best pal ever, 

Shano