Some thoughts about Detective Comics #1034

Can Batman deal with his new life?

The consequences of the Joker War are still being felt across Gotham City just when it's going through one of its most complicated political events and Bruce is just in the middle of everything.

I feel like I missed one chapter here.

Mariko Tamaki's work on Future State ended on a pretty abrupt cliffhanger and I was expecting her Detective Comics run to follow that but alas, that doesn't seem to be the case unless I'm skipping some valuable content. This is understandable in a way I guess since this story takes place in the present right after Joker War and deals with the ramifications of Bruce losing most of his money and trying to live like a normal person.

This comes with a few annoying issues that I find here like the current ongoing idea that "rich people are inherently bad" and thus Bruce needed to lose his fortune. Tamaki deals with a rather predictable direction that Bruce lived a privileged life and just now is learning how to do his own stuff like building-up a new Batcave... which ignores all the hard training Bruce did during his whole life that most certainly involved the use of heavy tools at a consistent rate which makes this whole situation really out of character but hey, privilege! (Mind you, Tamaki is not as bad as Tom Taylor at handling the idea at least).

The writing is decent, especially when it deals with the political climate in Gotham and how it sets-up the current mystery. Nice amount of content.

Dan Mora's art is still pretty solid, I'm glad he continues to get more important gigs since his detailed style is perfect for the Batbooks.

Joshua Williamson's promising set-up for the upcoming Robin series ends here and it contains all the classic Williamson strengths like the character-oriented writing that tells us a lot about Damian and the references to continuity like how his mother lost everything in recent years. Plus there's the return of a beloved character and I trust Williamson in handling him well. Gleb Melnikov's semi-cartoony and expressive style fits the tone pretty well.

Solid read overall but I'm mostly in for Williamson's following work.