Dick says to Alfie at the end of this one, he says, Lately it just feels like the city if getting meaner, wilder. Something is changing. Some nights I feel like I barely recognize it anymore.It'd be a bit too dramatic of me to say that that entire sentiment could be applied to Snyder and Jock's current run on Detective - it's not that I barely recognize it anymore - but I do feel comfortable saying Gotham certainly feels meaner, wilder, changed.
Snyder is writing solid horror-mystery-thriller, and Jock is drawing his twisted balls off, although much credit should be given to David Baron's coloring. What's keeping the book from further elevation above the pack of monthly Bat titles are features I can only describe as anchors, 'cause that's how they feel to me.
The more obvious instances of mainstream conventions - the occasionally hokey dialogue, the continuity ties, the restrained page and panel layouts - they anchor Detective in comic book reality when I feel like it's poised to float off into a more free abyss of hallucinatory macabre. I don't need to hear Sorry folks, I'm afraid bidding on this item...just closed, I don't need to know The Dealer is hopped up on venom and some outdated version of Doc Langstrom's Man-Bat juice, and as much as I like Jock's art, I sense he's holding back, and I'd love to see him really bare his artistic fangs.
Don't get me wrong, I am thoroughly enjoying Detective, and as of this month it's the only Bat title on my pull list (down from every Bat title). Maybe it's unreasonable to wish for something with more edge from a flagship mainstream title dancing to the beat of DC editorship.
But I do!
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