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Is Detective Comics #1089 Good?
Well, here we go. The long night of dismal storytelling is finally over. In typical Ram V fashion, the ending gives you plenty of thoughts and concepts but, with a few exceptions, doesn’t properly resolve anything. Finally, the real question remains, “What was it all for?”
When last we left the Dark Knight in Detective Comics #1088, Duela Dent activated a series of bombs around Gotham City for no particular reason. The Ten-Eyed Man defeated Shavhod. And Mr. Freeze defeated Neang. With the Orgham plans crumbling, Batman confronted the Orgham Queen Dariah, now in a demonic Azmer form, at the exact moment she connected Scarecrow’s mind to the Thelemus Engine. What does that mean? Nobody knows.
In Detective Comics #1089, the end is the beginning is the end… almost. Batman fights against the Orgham Queen in her demonic form. To prevent the Queen’s paramilitary forces from interfering, Arzan Orgham and Talia Al Ghul arrive and unleash the music box that incapacitates the Azmer infection.
Well, here we go. All the pretentious meandering comes down to a basic fight with unclear stakes. Ultimately, the scene makes sense as long as you don’t think about how it comes together. How did Arzen get to Gotham City so quickly? How did Arzen and Talia know where to find the Queen at the right moment? Spoiler warning: most of the questions this issue creates will never be answered.
Elsewhere, Jim Gordon hurries Payne Cardine, aka Maestro, along to finish a digital composition containing Black Noise. Jim then races to the Production Studio where we last saw Duela so Oracle can patch the digital composition into the broadcast, freeing all Gotham citizens within transmission range from the Azmer infection and returning their memory of Batman (?).
In fairness, using sound to deactivate the Azmer is a novel approach to a citywide crisis, and the execution of the transmission is well done. We still don’t know and never will know what Azmer is, where it came from, or how the Orghams intended to use it to control Gotham.
Arzen forces the Queen to pick up a sword and fight him in retribution for the years of lies she told him about his father’s death. Catwoman breaks into the vault door where Scarecrow and the Thelemus Engine are stored, giving Batman the opening he needs to shut down the device before the Thelemus Engine fully injects Gotham with Scarecrow’s fear.
Getting Batman into the vault makes sense until you realize it doesn’t make sense. Catwoman gets into the vault by crawling through a very large air duct. If the vault was that easy to infiltrate, a) it wasn’t a very secure vault, and b) Batman could have snuck in himself and saved everyone the trouble of the fight. Ram V attempts to elevate Catwoman by showing how clever she is, but he only succeeds in making everyone else look dumb.
Talia Al Ghul examines the Thelemus Engine controls and concludes it can’t be shut down. The only option to prevent Scarecrow’s fear from blasting out in a pulse that infects “Gotham’s bones,” whatever that means, is to kill Scarecrow. Batman takes a different approach. He forces Scarecrow to look him in the eye, creating an irrational fear of Batman. When the Thelemus Engine activates, a great pulse of fear spreads throughout the city to inject the fear of Batman into “Gotham’s bones.”
“Huh? What? What does that mean?” you might ask. I’m with you, my friend. It sounds fancy, but it’s really a poor articulation of an idea that doesn’t quite come together. Batman is told that he can only stop the pulse if he kills Scarecrow. Why don’t they simply unplug Scarecrow from the machine? Unplugging Scarecrow may cause damage, but there’s no reason to believe unplugging would kill him. Ram V tries to paint Batman into an impossible corner that forces him to come up with a clever way of not breaking his unbreakable rule, but it’s a half-baked scenario.
Further, how did Batman know that he could overwhelm Scarecrow with an unnatural fear for ONLY Batman? Why would that be a better alternative? Wouldn’t that Batman fear pulse send people into hysterics every time someone saw Batman or the Bat Signal? The more you think about it, the dumber it sounds.
What follows is a montage that lightly suggests what happened to all the villains who helped the Caped Crusader in his latest crusade. Mr. Freeze may or may not be moving on from his obsession with his wife. Two Face may or may not be moving to another city (Bludhaven?). Ten-Eyed Man may or may not be losing his obsession with eyes. Azrael may or may not be convinced Batman is now worthy to protect Gotham City.
The issue concludes with an intimate chat between Batman and Catwoman on a nearby rooftop.
What’s great about Detective Comics #1089? To be generous, the resolution of using the Production Studio as a mass delivery mechanism to undo the Azmer corruption is a smart move that’s executed well.
What’s not great about Detective Comics #1089? Looking at the Orgham arc as a whole, Ram V’s attempt at operatic storytelling is an abject failure. There are too many individual points to cover (we have a review for almost every issue on this site), but here are some of the highlights.
What were the Orghams planning to do with Gotham City if their plan succeeded? Nobody knows, and nobody ever will.
What is Azmer, and where did the Orghams get it in such large quantities? Nobody knows, and nobody ever will.
What was Orgham Place, and what was the point of building it if the Orghams intended to blow it up almost immediately after completion? Nobody knows, and nobody ever will.
What is a Thelemus Engine, and how does it work? Nobody knows, and nobody ever will.
What happened to all the bombs Duela Dent planted around the city? Nobody knows, and nobody ever will.
Finally, what is the fate of the Orgham Queen after Arzen defeats her? Nobody knows, and nobody ever will.
When you put those fundamental questions together with the dozens more that have piled up over the course of this run, you arrive at the same conclusion for every Ram V DC comic. Ram V has lofty ideas and concepts, but he doesn’t know how to articulate them within the framework of even the most basic story.
If you can’t tell a basic story with a clear beginning, middle, and end that articulates at least one idea in its entirety, you don’t belong in comics. May Ram V find a place where he can learn to hone his skills and competence to the level of his ideas, and may it be far away from DC until he does.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Final Thoughts
Detective Comics #1089 ends the long, meandering Orgham arc and Ram V’s tenure on the title exactly as you would expect – with lofty ideas and concepts that rely on superficial tricks and flowery language to mask an inability to execute those ideas. Most of the big questions created by the Orghams are not resolved, and the arc ends almost exactly where it started. Ultimately, Ram V had nothing to say, and Batman’s legacy is poorer for it.
4/10
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