Detective Comics #976 Review

Writer: James Tynion IV

Artist: Javier Fernandez

Colourist: John Kalisz

Letterer: Sal Cipriano

The recent news that James Tynion is leaving this title with #981 has given this story a bit of a final countdown feeling to it. Things are now slightly a bit more tense, and since I can guarantee that the book's next writer will absolutely not tackle the Gotham Knights and instead focus on Batman, the tragedy that Tynion was trying to achieve with his run is finally looking real to me. Simply put, there's a sense of finality.

I thought this issue was alright, despite the horrid art. Javier Fernandez is a mess of an artist, and I never liked his work. He worked on NIGHTWING with Tim Seeley at the beginning of Rebirth. His style is just not for me and I was excited that he was working with John Kalisz since I love his colouring. Unfortunately Kalisz seemingly couldn't contribute much, as Fernandez's base style simply isn't up to snuff. It's not that he's a bad sequential storyteller, but it's his characterisation and character acting that I don't appreciate.

Tynion has been dealing with this future Tim story since A LONELY PLACE OF LIVING, and frankly I'm extremely sick of it. Tim's characters progression is just so contrived and simple that it's excruciating to read. On top of this, there's some unnecessary villainisation of Batwoman, Batwing, and Azrael. Tynion has only spent a single scene focusing on the latter two coming to blows with Batman, and that was two issues ago. Here they're ready and willing participants of the Colony, the very same group that tried to kill them all those arcs ago. It doesn't make much sense, and since the story is moving at a rapid pace, I'm not sure we'll get any resolution or further explanation.

Speaking of unnecessary; a certain group of villains appear, a group that I wish some writers would just leave alone. It looks like their story concluded in METAL and yet here they are for the sake of showing up.

This is an alright issue. The story is interesting enough since Tynion is leaving the book soon, but the art isn't very good. Fernandez isn't a good fit for the book at all and I wish Tynion's closing arc just looked better.