Someone’s targeting young offenders straight outta juvie - their corpses found drained of blood! Batman’s gotta solve the case, etc.
Fresh from his success reinvigorating Nightwing, Tom Taylor’s taken over the iconic Detective Comics title for a run that starts underwhelmingly with Mercy of the Father.
This latest spate of Gotham murder is tied into Batman’s origins and how the actions of his dad, Thomas Wayne, led to his and Martha’s deaths at the hands of Joe Chill because ironic mercy - wah waaaah. Meanwhile, there be a sexy new tech startup in town that’s literally pumping new blood into rich, older folk to rejuvenate them - but what’s really going on behind the scenes, eh, rabble rabble…
Taylor writes Batman and Superman well - he nails both of their characters’ voices - it’s just the stories he puts them in are, like this one, just not interesting. The bad guy is simply bland, to the point where I don’t even recall their name, and their design looks like a dozen other throwaway villain characters that have appeared in Batman comics over the years. The villain’s motivation was really dumb - duuuurrr Doe Chill was baaaad derefore everbuddy who crimes is baaaad - nor was their threat to Batman all that convincing.
Damian undercover at the juvenile detention centre was a fun issue although later when the Bat family assembles to bring the evil doers to justice, there’s so much corniness in the conclusion with characters standing around posing and saying the equivalent of “You’re going to jail mister” while the bad guys quiver. It’s cringey crap like this that’s put me off of even attempting Taylor’s Titans series because I know it’ll be nothing but this the whole time.
Mikel Janin is an amazing artist who’s done fantastic work on the main Batman title during Tom King’s run and the comic looks great, as you’d expect. But disappointingly Tom Taylor doesn’t provide an inspired or engaging Batman mystery for his opening arc on Detective Comics. Batman: Detective Comics, Volume 1: Mercy of the Father is a dull, overlong and instantly forgettable addition to Batman’s canon.
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