DETECTIVE COMICS #13
by John Layman, Jason Fabok and Andy Clarke
Tony Daniel's Detective Comics was #3 on my 5 Least Favorite Series of the New 52. If I could compile my Top 10 again, I would find space to slide John Layman's Detective Comics into the list.
The first thing you'll notice in Detective Comics #13 is that the tone of the book is considerably lighter than that of Tony Daniel's run. And that's a good thing. Layman is already trying to make his run stand out with some awesome humor. Layman writes Batman as an over-confident hero, who takes pride in making criminals fear him. In fact, Batman actually tries to make crimefighting fun. Layman also throws in an interesting new facet into Bruce's mind, by saying that Bruce Wayne donates huge tons of money to different organizations in Gotham to make up for the brutality he inflicts on criminals. Best of all, Layman is putting extra emphasis on the DETECTIVE in DC Comics. He crafts an enjoyable mystery, a new and surprisingly human take on the Penguin (but preserving him as a threatening villain). He even makes a sly parody of all of the different assassins that are showing up throughout the DCU.
Jason Fabok's artwork is a near perfect imitation of David Finch, yet he somehow manages to make it his own. Fabok's artwork may seem strange at first, considering the light tone of the script. However, it manages to make sense, as Layman is crafting a sort of parody of the overly dark Batman stories being told today. Fabok's style makes the humor more unexpected, and the jokes that much funnier. He also draws Penguin so that he DOESN'T look like a deformed mutant, but as someone that could exist in reality.
The backup doesn't live up to the main story, but serves as a nice little diversion from it. The backup shows that criminals in Gotham are getting smarter after repeated encounters with Batman. Andy Clarke moves from the "Batman" series backups to Detective Comics, and does a nice job with the story. Clarke makes this look more detailed than his past work. He embraces the humor of the book in a much less subtle way than Fabok did in the main story, by using brighter colors, and more exaggerated character figures.
Detective Comics #13 is an amazing start to John Layman's run, and is good enough to wash out the bad taste of Tony Daniel's.
STORY: 5/5
ART: 4/5
BACKUP: 4/5
VERDICT: 4.5/5
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