Detective Comics: Outlaw Review

Truthfully, it’s hard for me to review Ram V’s Detective Comics. Not because it’s bad, hell no. If you know me, you know how much I love this book, how much I want every page, every panel, every line injected into my veins. It’s because of how good it is, that I think it’s beyond the scope of reviewing it on a month-to-month basis, and it’s a disservice to talk about the arcs of this story, namely Detective Comics: Outlaw, in this case, without experiencing the full thing play out.

Originally, when I reviewed the first hardcover, I planned to review this saga in that format, but Detective Comics: Outlaw, the latest arc of this story, is just so good that I absolutely had to write about it. It’s five issues, of a team brought together to save the Batman, that manages to be fun but doesn’t deviate from the themes that this story has been discussing from the very start.

First of all, the covers. Wow, Evan Cagle does it again. Ever since I moved, I started collecting comics physically, so being able to see those beautiful covers on shelves every time I go to pick up my comics is truly a delight. The cover for #1079 specifically is my favorite. When I was re-reading to write this, I stared at it for a while. A cross, with the symbol of the Bat engraved on it, the sun looming in the distance. It’s beautiful, one of those covers I’m honored I actually own a copy of.

Detective Comics: Outlaw is broken down into 5 parts, along with a series of backups, one written and illustrated by Ram V, the rest written by Dan Watters, with art by Mitten, Sharp, Wijngaard, Ferreyra, and co. As the main story focuses on the heist, the backups focus on the characters involved in the heist, giving them additional context that adds to an already rich narrative. 

To quickly summarize, Detective Comics: Outlaw is about Catwoman putting together a team to save Batman, who is to be hanged in front of all of Gotham within three days. The first three parts open from the perspective of Batman and the Orghams, before shifting to Selina, her team, and them executing the plan. Parts 4 and 5 are where everything goes full force. All of this is supplemented by backups that are contextually important to what’s happening, so they never feel “disconnected” – or “padding” for lack of a better term. 

In that same vein of how the story so far has been about how Batman is perceived as a myth, a legend in the spanning tale of Gotham that doesn’t really care about the man beneath, Detective Comics: Outlaw takes that into high gear and pushes it further, asking the question of what happens when you kill a myth, when you kill an idea. But that human behind that idea can’t die, so in order to save him, Selina Kyle decides to bring together a team to save him, consisting of Gordon, Cass, Azrael, Jade, Lian, Grundy, Freeze, and a few surprises too. It’s structured very much like a heist movie, with twists in every corner, always making you root for these characters even as they leave you on the edge of your seat (quite literally, I might add. Reading one of these issues left me nervous for what was next).

Of course, it’s great seeing Ram V write some of these characters again, a return from his beloved run on Catwoman, but one of the things that stood out to me the most was the dialogue. This is a recurring thing across all of this book, where these characters speak dramatically, larger than life, like they’re performing in theater, but it’s so much better because of it. It’s a dramatic story, with big swings, and the dialogue attached to it enriches that experience so much, leaving an imprint on my mind by the time I was done with it all.

“The hand had been played. The river turned. The bets made. And the enemy had called our bluff.”

They make it seem so effortless, the way this story flows perfectly as it balances all of it, that it leaves me in awe every time. Reading every issue left me making the same expression as that one Antonio Banderas gif, an absolute treat. The same can be said about the backups by Watters and Co. too, my favorite of which was the first one, titled “The Scream” which finally brought back Renee as the Question after a lot of good, subtle setup across the main stories.

Not only is it a visually stunning story, thanks to Mitten’s art, Farrell’s colors, and Wands’ letters, but it also manages to handle that inner conflict of Renee that exists as a result of her new status quo extremely well. Azrael’s is a very good continuation from Watters and Cizmesija’s brilliant Azrael mini that transitions him into Detective Comics: Outlaw. Damian’s is a good callback to a beat from very early on in this book. All wonderful, wonderful stories that you should absolutely be reading at the end of every issue. 

The art across the board is fantastic, but my hat is off to Jason Shawn Alexander, who draws a Batman very reminiscent of Kelly Jones’ Batman, which means it’s automatically one of the best Batmans. Long ears should be the standard, and I’m glad he recognizes that. I adore the paneling in this arc. In the first issue, there’s a stunning moment of the Azmer demon trying to break through into the page, as Barbatos lies as a barrier between it and Bruce & Alfred, trying to protect them. The rest of the arc has very kinetic paneling, which is important considering the tone of the story. Panels are never particularly even, nor do they follow any specific set of “rules”, they’re always on beat with the dialogue, with the moment, leading to a very rich experience. All of this is complemented by Dave Stewart’s fantastic colors, and leads Detective Comics to be one of the most visually striking books out there today.

I’m not going to ask you to read Detective Comics anymore, because if you aren’t, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You should be reading this book. In the way this story tells us how Batman is man and myth, the creative team here continues to weave a tale around the figure that won’t be forgotten anytime soon, and will be talked about for a long time.