Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Detective Comics #839
DC Comics
Dini, Benjamin & Crawford
We conclude the Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul much like you'd have predicted. Ra's is alive, as he was when this crossover started if you recall. Damian lives through it. Talia and Damian escape together and Ra's disappears. The whole revelation this arc produced over the course of the 7-10 issues is that the White Ghost is Ra's son. Ho-hum.
In a crossover that has seen some bad (the Robin title entries) and some very good (both Nightwing titles) this issue comes in at above average. Generally, this whole series has had a lot of gaps and yields some really strange results for the reader.
This issue is pretty cut and dry for a wrap-up. Batman fights Ra's. First, to save Damian and then to prevent the beefed up Ra's from escaping. Robin, Nightwing and Alfred show up to help out. Damian sees the light about what it means to part of Team Bat just in time for Talia to drag him off away from Batman. I guess you could say that Damian took a step towards becoming a Robin by ditching the brat act and listening to Batman, but it couldn’t grow much beyond that because Talia took him away. We also get some good interaction between Batman, Robin, Nightwing and Alfred.
The action is good. The artwork, much like a lot of this series, left me lost. Ra's post-White Ghost infusion, looks like he is bald in one panel and has flowing hair in another. Maybe I don’t get the whole "take over the other guy's body" process, but the White Ghost has a full head of white long hair in the other titles. Now, Ra's takes his body and he loses the hair? But only some of the time? Batman looks cool in the armor, but why is wearing it in the first place? I liked when Batman kicked off Ra's hand, but is this just zombie influenced art? Plus, check out the depiction of Nightwing in the back of the issue. He looks like the Joker with no makeup.
Some of the questions I never got satisfactory answers to includes the entire White Ghost segments. He was dead when he fell into the Lazarus Pit in the Batman Annual. That's how Ra's was alive for this whole arc. Then he shows up mid way through this crossover alive and well. Then Ra's takes his body in this issue, a second time? What's up with this?!?!?
Another thing I don’t get is with Robin. Ra's threatens to take either Robin or Damian's bodies. Okay, fine. This issue, again, Ra's states that the host must be a blood relative. Batman even repeats this notion. That means either Robin is related, the reader (me) is an idiot or the editor fell asleep at the wheel it seems to me.
Again, I want to be clear: this issue is good. The arc left me lost as a whole. While the art in this issue isn’t my cup of tea, it was really the only negative for me. Beyond that, this issue has action and good Batman character displays.
I'm glad this crossover is over. It really didn’t meet with what I had hoped for. Maybe you'll like it more if you only read this issue.
3 out of 5 geek goggles.
Check out the next issue...
 Detective Comics #840 DC Comics NOV070188D Written by Paul Dini Art by Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs Cover by Nguyen Fan favorite artist Dustin Nguyen (SUPERMAN/BATMAN) joins Paul Dini on DETECTIVE COMICS as new regular penciler! Still haunted by the specter of Ra's Al Ghul, Batman returns to Gotham to face a new threat in the form of The Globe, a map-obsessed mastermind who charts his crimes with deadly accuracy. On sale January 2" |
