Cover Art: Jock, 2000s Variant cover

“Batman’s Longest Case”

Writer: Scott Snyder

Artist: Greg Capullo

“Manufacture For Use”

Writer: Kevin Smith

Artist:  Jim Lee

“The Legend of Knute Brody”

Writer:  Paul Dini

Artist:  Dustin Nguyen

“The Batman’s Design”

Writer:  Warren Ellis

Artist:  Beck Cloonan

“Return to Crime Alley”

Writer: Denny O’Neil

Artist: Steve Epting

“Heretic”

Writer:  Christopher Priest

Artist:  Neal Adams

“I Know”

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist:  Alex Maleev

“The Last Crime in Gotham”

Writer:  Geoff Johns

Artist:  Kelley Jones

“The Precedent”

Writer:  James Tynion IV

Artist:  Alvaro Martinez-Bueno

“Batman’s Greatest Case”

Writer: Tom King

Artist:  Tony S. Daniel & Joelle Jones

“Medieval”

Writer:  Peter J. Tomasi

Artist:  Doug Mahnke

Okay, I have  a lot of things to say about this.

First of all… yes, I know I rarely review a DC book.  I did the one Superman book, as the only other one, but this is Detective Comics#1000. That is quite an accomplishment.

I was not going to purchase this comic.  I heard the fact that DC was releasing like 5 million variant covers (okay, that might be a bit of hyperbole, but they were having a ton of variant covers for this issue) and I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was intrigued.  However, I did not have my comic shop pull the issue for me.  I resisted.

I was going to my shop on Thursday, a day after the book came out.  I had seen a posting on Facebook of the ten variant covers that the shop had, but I thought that they may be sold out before I came.  That would have been fine with me.  As I was on the way to Comic World, I told myself that if they still had a copy of Detective Comics #1000, I would consider buying it.

They had like 5.

I chose the cover that I liked the best of the remaining issues, and I figured, if nothing else, this would make a good review.  And I have always liked Batman, despite not reading any of his books currently.  I have always enjoyed the DC characters, but prefer the stories told at Marvel.

Then I found out that the book was actually a bunch of short stories instead of one main one.  I have never liked that as an anniversary issue.  It always feels like it is packed together.  And Detectives Comics #1000 felt just like that.  I thought that a lot of these stories felt rushed and relied too much on the twist because of it.  I would even go as far as to say that I disliked a bunch of these Batman stories.

For example, I really disliked “Return to Crime Alley.”  What was the purpose of that?  This one felt so very judgmental.  “Medievel” felt like an excuse to show some full page art.  The art was great, mind you, but there was not much to the story.  It did seem to set up for future Detective Comics issues, so maybe there is that, but I do not intend on buying any more post 1000.  “The Legend of Knute Brody” seemed out of character for everyone involved and did not fit with the tone of most of this book.  “The Last Crime in Gotham” was my least favorite one here.

However, there were some strengths as well.  Brian Michael Bendis’ “I Know” with an aged Penguin was a cool story even though I am typically not a fan of future stories.  “The Precedent” filled in an important scene in the history between Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.  “Batman’s Longest Case” was odd, but had some cool guest stars.  “Batman’s Greatest Case” was a little confusing, but it brought all of the Batman family together, which was nice for the occasion.

And easily the best story was Kevin Smith’s story, “Manufacture for Use.”  This was short and quick, but it also had heart and worked as a short story.  Where as many of these stories felt rushed, this was just the right amount of pages and featured an important piece of Bat-history.  Kevin Smith certainly understands the character of Batman and he provided the best emotional punch to the book.  He also had Jim Lee providing some beautiful art.

If you are a Batman fan, you’ll probably get more out of this than I did.  The Kevin Smith story is worth it alone.  Though I do not know if this book is worth all the money that someone would have to spend to collect all of the variant covers, I am glad that I bought the book.