Batman: The Detective #3 - DC Comics

BATMAN: THE DETECTIVE No. 3, August 2021

Providing a thoroughly insightful pen picture of a teenage Bruce Wayne’s apprenticeship under Henri Ducard in France, Tom Taylor’s script for Issue Three of “Batman: The Detective” caused the comic to rather impressively shift an estimated 49,000 copies in June 2021. Sure, the twenty-two page periodical doesn’t actually provide much in the way of progressing this mini-series’ central plot concerning the murderous machinations of the homicidal Equilibrium, but when the storytelling behind an aspiring Dark Knight’s fractious relationship with the “knowledgeable detective” is arguably this well-written, it’s doubtful many within this book’s audience were complaining.

Indeed, witnessing a naïve young millionaire slowly learn his man-hunting skills from one of the world’s greatest investigators debatably makes a welcome change of pace from this title’s ferociously-fast narration - especially when the cut-throat Didier is still taken down by the well-meaning amateur courtesy of a thunderous blow to the jaw with the killer’s own hand-gun. This exciting sequence really shows the potential the middle-aged Frenchman can see in his super-rich protégé, and contains some nice, notable nods to the fully-established Caped Crusader, such as Wayne wearing a forerunner of his famous utility belt; “You always keep handcuffs on your belt, Kid?”

Likewise, the Australian author does a good job of highlighting just where Batman developed his need to “primarily [be] a night time thing” and not “a morning person.” This necessity clearly will lead on to the crime-fighter’s eventual creation of his cowled alter-ego, yet is rather intriguingly depicted as not being a lifestyle which automatically leads to the vigilante requiring to ‘go it alone.’ In fact, Taylor makes it crystal clear, through the lad’s bungled attempt to track “an accountant for two crime families”, that in Ducard’s eyes a successful gumshoe needs “to have friends who have your back” as “you can’t do it all on your own”. 

Quite possibly this publication’s most memorable moment though, is Andy Kubert’s superbly-pencilled clash between the two ‘old friends’ in London, “ten years ago.” A misunderstanding at the very start quickly escalates into the pair badly hurting one another before the Dark Knight gains the upper hand, and despite requiring a little assistance from Henri in order to stop the metropolis from being “engulfed in nuclear fire”, still ultimately arrests his former-mentor for all the cold-blooded assassinations he has carried out in the past.

Writer: Tom Taylor, Pencils: Andy Kubert, and Inks: Sandra Hope