Batman Shoots An Ear At A Shark In Detective Comics #997
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
Batman and his old mentor, the escape artist Thaddeus Brown, have been captured and sealed away in Thaddeus’ bunker. The room is quickly filling with water, and both Batman and Thaddeus have bound tightly. Thaddeus is old and infirm, so Batman will likely have to be the one to save them. To make matters worse, sharks have been set loose in the water to hasten the deaths of Bruce and Thaddeus.
Detective Comics #997 consists almost entirely of this trap set for Bruce and Thaddeus. Much of it is the interior monologue of Bruce while he tries to free the both of them and avoid becoming shark food.
The premise is patently ridiculous, and I kind of love it. Obviously, killing Bruce and Thaddeus in their sleep is a better idea. Obviously, if you must go with the death trap option, just drowning them is enough without the sharks and (no joke) piranhas. This makes it even better when Batman is able to escape using the mixture of piranhas and sharks as a tool.
Also, the pointy ears double as hands-free rocket-powered projectiles. I love that too.
I didn’t know that Mister Miracle had an escape artist teacher on Earth, but, apparently, Thaddeus Brown taught Scot Free too.
The ending doesn’t reveal anything new about Batman’s unseen predator, though we are shown Bruce’s best guess at the end.
Doug Mahnke’s artwork is strong once again, and he renders this tale excellently as usual. His style jives well with the dry humor and the touch of ridiculousness in this comic. It’s a good-looking book, and the color work of David Baron brings a strong balance.
Detective Comics #997 doesn’t advance the overall story very far, but it’s a another fun issue that involves Batman fighting sharks and piranhas while telling an old man to hold in his urine. I enjoyed it, and the artwork is damn good. This one gets a recommendation. Feel free to check it out.
Detective Comics #997 comes to us from writer Peter J. Tomasi, artist Doug Mahnke, inkers Christian Alamy and Mark Irwin, color artist David Baron, letterer Rob Leigh, cover artist Mahnke with Jaime Mendoza and Baron, and variant cover artist Brian Stelfreeze.
