Batman Private Casebook
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars ChatMan!
An absolutely great read.
If you’ve been following Paul Dini’s Detective run then you’ll recognize this as being even better than the wonderful story telling you’ve come to expect. If you haven’t read Batman: Detective, Batman: Death and the City, or Batman: The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul this is as good a place to start as ever.
In the 15 or so years that I’ve read Detective Comics on and off, this is the best. There is a scene in this book where Batman sitting in the Batcave chat’s with other sleuths in a chatroom named for Edgar Allen Poe’s “the heirs of dupin”. Brilliant. I read the scene twice in a row just to better absorb it’s coolness.
This beautiful hardcover edition features 6 stories plus a bonus short story from DC Infinite Halloween Special, Issue #1 a great value at Amazon’s $13.59 price, and obviously better if you can find it cheaper.
Thanks Paul!
5 Stars Steady as she goes
To anyone already familiar with Paul Dini and Co’s steady run on Detective Comics, there isn’t anything major to report. This latest collection starts out propitiously with a surprising epilogue to the recently completed Ra’s al Ghul crossover, and then continues on with an encounter with the Mad Hatter, a Peter Milligan tale recounting the suit of sorrows, a two part origin on the new Ventriloquist guest starring Zatanna, and concludes with a murder mystery highlighted by an internet interlude involving Batman perusing an online chat room. Dini appears to have developed his own core cast of characters during his tenure, many of which are again featured here, specifically the aforementioned Zatanna, Scarface, and the Riddler to name a few. As usual, some individual issues are stronger than others, but fortunately there isn’t a blemish in the entire bunch. This compilation once again makes a convincing case, despite this age of the arc that we live in, for the continued use of single issue stories. In fact, they are so well executed with sufficient depth and detail that the one two-parter reads lengthy by contrast. The one chief change was the replacement of Don Kramer on pencils by Dustin Nguyen, a transition made smoothly and skillfully. For all fans of this series, enjoy it while you can. With the recent announcement of Detective going on temporary hiatus, one has to wonder what format will be employed upon its return, and whether or not Dini himself will even be back as the main writer. Time will tell.
Filed under: Comic Book Reviews