In Detective Comics #9 Bruce Wayne takes a detour toArkham Asylum in a last ditch effort to save the crazed Dr. Arkham from the threat of the Talons. Dr. Arkham feeling more safe locked up within the confines of a mental ward ignores the advice of his trusted head of security, Mr. Cash, to get the Gotham City police involved in his protection.
Batman, however, disagrees with Dr. Arkham’s assessment.
Batman reaches the asylum just as the Talons trip the breakers blanketing the facility in blackness—at this they come calling for the good doctor. Surprising even the cloaked Talon, Dr. Arhkam adequately fends him off the help of quick reflexes and an electrically charged brass knuckle.
At this juncture, Batman suddenly bursts into the room to finish taking down the undead assassin. As Batman battles the Talon the doctor flees to the Black Mask’s cell further within the asylum, and in an effort to save himself he manipulates the Black Mask by furthering his dementia and releasing the rest of the inmates to combat the invadingTalons. With Batman caught in the middle, he eventually realizes that the Black Mask’s powers are affecting the mental patients in such a manner that they are not even aware of his presence. He uses this opportunity to track down Dr. Arkham and abscond from the premises with the doctor in tow, via the Batmobile.
Overall, the plot of the issue wasn’t bad, but I honestly feel as if DC is beating a dead horse with another cliché Arkham Asylum plotline. This time around I found it uninteresting and almost like a pandering to gamers due to its similarity toRocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum. And, as an avid comic book reader and a gamer I found it slightly offensive. The Night of the Owls issues have been of such a high quality by truly advancing the characters or event in some way or another. Detective Comics feels awkward and merely a filler till the next Batman issue released. One point of interest though--I did appreciate that even in the ‘awkwardness’ of the tie-in it still was in continuity with the rest of the event.
One of the core premises for Scott Snyder’s Night of the Owlsis that the entire event is meticulously planned to span only one evening. Unlike Marvel’s Avengers vs. X-Men the Night of the Owls has almost a heightened level of continuity that usually isn’t found within the comic book industry. For example, Detective Comics #9 begins precisely at 8:26pm and finishes at 9:49pm, which falls squarely between the confines of Batman #9 (which is also neatly labeled). And, if you cross-reference any of the other Night of the Owls’ tie-ins they are all time stamped accordingly and all fit together neatly like a well-cut puzzle. For this I give DC praise, however, holistically reviewing Detective Comics #9 I find that the issue merely serves as a weak bridge and really doesn’t further the plot or develop any of the characters represented within the issue. The artwork is solid, and the writing is linear and understandable, but on the whole Detective Comics #9stagnates.
Detective Comics #9 gets three-stars-out-of-five for being flashy, but not really extrapolating on the Night of the Owlsstory arc.
WATCH Review - Night of the Owls: Detective Comics #9 (2012) FULL MOVIE ONLINE STREAMING
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