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Just Read: Detective Comics #848
Looking at the next R.I.P. tie-in, this one even more inexplicably removed from anything remotely R.I.P.-ish, as Batman is whole, hale, and hearty and fighting crime like he always has in it. That gripe aside (though c'mon, saying something is something it certainly is NOT is NOT a small thing), this is thus far the most interesting of the Bat-books outside of Morrison's.
It's Paul Dini, who most people trust, though lately I've been finding his Detective pretty bland, not to mention his contribution to "Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul" was incomprehensible and a mess. Still, Dini now tackles Hush, and FINALLY it looks like someone's going to wrap this subplot up. Not since THE CLONE SAGA has such a storyline seemed so editorially mandated to remain mysterious and unresolved. Jeph Loeb started it all in his popular epynonymous 12-parter with Jim Lee that introduced the villain. But at the end it seemed Hush's identity was revealed to be (disappointingly) the most obvious (Bruce Wayne's old freind Thomas Elliot, who was always who Hush was supposed to be, so why the bizarre secrecy?), even though (big red flag here!) he escaped and was never in fact unmasked. Then came the longer serial wherein Alfred recognized the identity of Hush, an identity which was for whatever reason kept away from readers to see explicitly, and then the story ended with Hush still advertised as being the obvious doctor Thomas Elliot and possibly killed by the Joker (in any event, the Hush "mystery", which again and again was strongly suggested to exist, went unsolved).
Now, we get "Heart of Hush" which looks like there IS an unsolved identity to Hush. God knows, there's no answer possible that can account for and pay off the years of build up, but at least it's here. Add to that a VERY dramatic and shocking event with Catwoman, and this is indeed a thrilling story. Dini doesn't pen a subtle or engrossing issue, save for this Catwoman event (what a motivation for Batman! - Catwoman's life hangs in the balance in a very creative way!), but this is head over heels better than ROBIN or NIGHTWING currently stands.
Dustin Nguyen, I love that he's doing a book as high profile as this, but I await a time he works on a book with the impact of WILDCATS 3.0. Dini's Detective Comics, even as a classic kind of book, is barely above average. Still, Nguen adds a skill to the proceedings, a layout and linework that bring sdynamism to a flat as hell script. It actually does make the story better!
The best Bat-book besides Morrison's right now. But yeah, that isn't exactly high enough off the ground to even be a "bar". --Dave B.
STORY - 5/10 (dead on average, great twist but otherwise generic storytelling)
Art - 8/10 (awesome layout and adds style, true panache!)
Importance - 5/10 (remains to be seen, to R.I.P. it's absolute zero, to Hush and Catwoman...hmmm...maybe quite a bit)
TOTAL SCORE - 6/10
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