There’s a lot of Batman stuff out there now, and I find it hard to keep up.  What’s your favorite? Absolute Batman continues to do gangbusters, and has been such gift to comic shop retailers. Dan Jurgens’ and Mike Perkins’ Bat-Man: First Night has a second volume that looks to be another oversized treasure. Gabriel Hardman’s  Black Label series, Batman/Green Arrow/The Question: Arcadia is one that I totally missed the boat on. He’s a such a strong artist (and an impressive creative) that I need to hunt these issues down. The “regular” Batman series, by Matt Fraction, continues to break all the rules at breakneck speed. And the recent issues illustrated by Ryan Sook were a treat too.

And Detective Comics has been pretty good too.

When I was growing up, Detective Comics was a happening series. Back in the ‘70s, the title had a run with my favorite Bat-artists, (especially Irv Novick) with real whodunit mysteries  Even the back-up series was fun – it featured Jason Bard (Batgirl’s boyfriend).

And for whatever reason, I always enjoyed when Batman teamed up with The Black Canary and Green Arrow. Brave & The Bold #91, with that gorgeous Nick Cardy art, was responsible for making every comic reader of my generation fall in love with Dinah Lance. And B&B #85 was an important turning point for Green Arrow, setting up stories for the next 50 years!

So this current run of Detective – with Batman teaming up with Black Canary and Green Arrow presses all the right nostalgia buttons for me. But it’s more than that. There are a few very clever bits including:

• Batman’s newest crime fighting vehicle – the Hatchbat. Yes, now Batman has a hatchback. He’ll use it when he needs something that draws less attention than a Batmobile. In this series, Barbara Gordon has nicknamed it “The Hatchbat”. Ollie and Dinah think that name is so funny and won’t let it go! (Nor should they.)
• Ollie has a turn as the crusading liberal ex-millionaire, as he has a few opportunities to let us all know what he really thinks of Generative AI companies founded by tech bros. There’s one point where Ollie fills Batman in on it all. “They’re another generative AI company. Scraping personal data. Stealing art and stories and knowledge Polluting and poisoning. Using masses of energy and water. Taking what the world actually needs to produce what nobody wants.”

Kudos to writer Tom Taylor! I think he was channeling his inner Mike Gold!

• It turns out that Wildcat has gifted his boxing gym to Dinah and there’s a few Rocky moments, with a twist of modern superheroes in it all. What a nice way to honor and other Bill Finger character (co-created with Irwin Hasen) in Detective Comics.

Having written this all, I’m still a bit embarrassed to say I‘m a couple of issues behind. But I have faith that this five-or-six issue storyline with be a lot of fun. Maybe it’s worth a look-see for you too.