- Title: Detective Comics #1081
- Comic Vine: link
- Writer: Ram V, Dan Watters
- Artists: Riccardo Federici, Stefano Raffaele, Hayden Sherman
Starting with an admission that the events of the issue are real, whether or not they are true, the “dead” Batman has been taken into the desert by Talia and left alone to complete a vision quest to conquer the demon within him or become lost in the desert forever. To make it out to the other side, Batman will need to confront the Azmer and Dr. Hurt (who is also the focus of a backup story explaining the madman’s actions through the testimony of some of his victims).
The comic also features Renee Montoya picking up the mantle of the Question. I like Montoya, and I like the Question, but I’ve never been the biggest fan of Montoya as the Question much preferring the classic Vic Sage version of the character. The story is oddly intercut into the Batman story, without being intertwined, offering more distraction than anything else (although I admit, I did quite enjoy the art and probably would have enjoyed the story more in a separate setting).
While I enjoyed aspects of all three stories, I don’t know that the pieces of this comic all fit together as well as they could. Honestly, I would have preferred any one of them being fleshed out and given more room to breathe rather than the three incomplete stories we get here.
[DC, $4.99]