Detective Comics #974

Writer: James Tynion IV

Artist: Philippe Briones

Colourist: Allen Passalaqua

Letterer: Sal Cipriano

Last issue's emotional climax gives us a rather shallow and hollow finale in this issue. James Tynion is so concerned with showing us exactly how the Gotham Knights are going to fall apart and some steps are taken in this issue that muddy the future of the team. However, the only arc of this series I consistently liked was its opening arc and the INTELLIGENCE arc from last summer; I don't like this team dynamic since it's given me mediocre stories, and I'm ready for a new direction. This is the underlying problem; Tynion is trying to rip my heart out in emotional torment, but I'm truly happy that things don't look well for the team. I want something new and something fresh.

This story just seems directionless. Tynion has spent a long time setting up the Victim Syndicate and Anarky in this very storyline and they're nowhere to be seen aside from Mudface. My main complaint here is that I needed to learn more about the First Victim to really understand what motivates them, and Tynion doesn't touch on it at all.

We've had four different artists on this arc, so it doesn't have any discernable artistic or visual identity. This issue might be the worst-looking one of the bunch. Philippe Briones is not a bad artist by any means and I like his work; however, some characters come across as distorted and he doesn't seem to know how to draw Kate Kane's face without making her look like a dude. Briones also got the short straw here, as nothing exciting at all happens in this issue. All the scenes with Cass looked great because there was an underlying emotional core that Briones was able to get into.

I was hoping things would be better but instead they're just mediocre. Tynion is just hitting the wrong notes for me; I'm actively rooting for this team to disband so we can get on with our lives. Briones art is mostly nice but he's stuck drawing simply boring conversations.