Detective Comics #1012 Review

Story & Words: Peter J. Tomasi

Penciller: Dough Mahnke

Inker: Jaime Mendoza

Colorist: David Baron

Letterer: Rob Leigh

Published by: DC

After some teases in the past issues, we are now fully into the Year of the Villain Mr. Freeze’s storyline in Detective Comics. And, as usual, Mr. Freeze’s storyline revolves around his wife Nora and his attempts to revive her from her cryogenesis. 

If taken as is, this issue of Detective is exactly what you would want from this particular title: Batman being a detective and trying to solve a mystery. That mystery this time around is trying to decipher who is perpetrating a series of kidnappings of women with almost identical features - though, as the readers, we know these are being carried out by Mr. Freeze’s henchman as he is looking for test subjects to reproduce his wife’s condition to then use a serum that was provided to him by Lex Luthor (through the Year of the Villain overarching DC-wide storyline). 

One aspect that I really enjoyed this issue is that Mr. Freeze is not an idiot and knows not to take whatever Luthor gives him at face-value. He is, at the end of the day, a scientist. And as a scientist, he won’t use an unknown serum on the thing that he prizes the most. Thus, the kidnappings. 

There are a few extra little pieces in this issue that Tomasi added that were really fun,like Batman and Alfred’s interaction after Bruce’s workout, the interaction between Batman and Captain Bullock (that’s right, he’s a captain now!). Both interactions allowed a little levity in the book that is always appreciated when dealing with Batman. 

Doug Mahnke on art is always a treat. His style has always been one that I enjoy and is complimented by Mendoza’s inks and Baron’s coloring. He uses some cross-hatching and heavier lines, but not too much that it becomes distracting. His choices in paneling were great in this issue as no one page appears to be the same. It added to the reading experience. 

The beginning of this arc is a little cliche as it comes to Mr. Freeze (it’s almost always about his wife), but having read the upcoming solicits, I’m excited to see where this goes.