The brand new era of Detective Comics finally arrives with Tom Taylor’s next story arc. When Batman discovers forty-one dead souls on an abandoned ship, the detective must uncover their mysterious cause of death. However, just because the boat’s-a-rockin’ doesn’t mean Batman should come-a-knockin. In fact, we’ll discuss how brave our hero really is below!
Something To Fear
Mikel Janin and Tom Taylor begin “The Courage That Kills” with a flashback to Batman’s early years in Gotham. At that time, Batman was a violent vigilante preoccupied with spreading the fear of his urban legend across the corrupt city. However, Taylor explores the fearful mythology from perspective of a criminal and his young son. To the boy, Batman is an aggressive, clawed and fanged individual abducting his father into the night. Writers have explored this perspective for years in classic stories like Batman: The Night Cries, and even subverting it in Tom Taylor written stories like Detective #1093 or Nightwing #111. The consensus of which tends to be that Batman hasn’t made it that easy for children to see him as the hero. In any case, the segment strongly telegraphs its importance to the larger storyline.
In the present day, the story begins with Batman’s incremental report of an incident at sea. Apparently, a yacht of affluent socialites run into an abandoned vessel causing them to call for help. Luckily, Batman arrives in his undersea bat-plane to aid in the rescue. While Taylor provides extensive detail about freezing waters, his Batman seizes the opportunity to brag about how none of it matters to his superior training. Still, if Batman’s “power” is to essentially embody the most capable man in the DC Universe, then I’ll allow it. For now, at least.
Ignoring Common Sense
Operating under the concept that Batman is an expert in any and every field, the boat mystery unintentionally puts that logic to the test. Initially, Batman observes the ghoulish crime scene with supposed super-genius Oracle as a second pair of eyes. Much like Ghost Ship (2002) or Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan, the entire ship shares a single cause of death. In this case, seemingly some kind of contagion. Among the dead, there are even children and worrying signs that the deaths occur different times altogether. Ignoring common sense, Taylor’s Batman takes little precaution while touching and smelling the crime scene unfiltered.
By the time Batman reaches the inner chambers, he realizes the infection targets fear centers in the brain. Naturally, he equips a Bat-mask and requests first responders to beware and quarantine the ship. Then, the intelligent hero also steals an entire cadaver from the scene to experiment with as well. Of course, I’m being sarcastic, because his foolish disregard of precaution in a potential pathogenic situation shows he isn’t quite the smartest man in the room. Incidentally, this leads to later panels of Taylor utilizing someone who is. If readers are to believe the cameras and creepy messages, then Batman must be smarter about how he handles this.
Recommended If…
- Tom Taylor’s Detective Comics never steers you wrong.
- You’re looking for a good Batman detective story.
- You love some Mikel Janin.
Overall
I’ll get right to the point. This was a great start to the next arc, but slight gaps in logic hold it back. The way Mikel Janin draws Batman is sometimes divisive, but I found this story to be visually endearing. Although, the psychedelic way he colors the flashback in inverted color feels like a strange aesthetic choice. Otherwise, Batman’s glaring stupidity in handling a dangerous scenario right after bragging about other skills before warning others is a misstep in characterization. Apart from that, this story already shares DNA with Batman: Contagion or “Terminal” from Detective Comics Vol. 2 #35-36. Overall, I can’t wait to see where a story like this goes.
Score: 7/10
DC Comics have provided advance copies of books for review.
English (US) · 