Detective Comics #853

Detective Comics #853
Written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Andy Kubert
Published by DC Comics

This was a very weird comic to read and review because there are a lot of good things about it and some bad things. The bad things don’t really ruin the comic though, but they could have made it so much better. And there were a lot of good things that made me pretty much like it so I’ll go over all the things I like first.

I liked that art a lot. I like how there were so many different characters that showed up in the comic. There were a lot of cool bad guys and a lot of different good guys and I like how the artist drew them all. He did a good job with the way that he drew the characters and the things like buildings and everything around the characters. I really like the way he draws Batman, too. There is a lot of detail in all of the pictures and I could look at them for a long time trying to spot everything that he drew. He drew him a couple different ways in the comic but the regular way he drew him for most of the book was my favorite.

I also like the story that Batman has a funeral and everyone shows up to talk about him. It was weird that the good guys and bad guys would show up at the same place to talk about Batman and no one was fighting but I think they were just being respectful because it was a funeral and it wouldn’t be good to fight there. I like how each person that got up to talk about Batman told a different story about how he died. I think it was cool how in one version he died saving a kid from drowning and in another part he dies saving a bad guy and in another part Superman says that he went into a trap set by all of his enemies so that they would go after Batman instead of fighting innocent people.

The biggest thing I didn’t like was that there was no fighting. If it’s supposed to be the last Batman story I think it would have been a lot better if he was teaming up with all of his friends and fighting all of the bad guys or some bad guys. Batman is pretty much like a ghost in this and he’s just listening to all of the stories. Even when all of the people are talking about different ways that he could have died they’re saying it but not showing it. I think it would have been cooler if they showed it, too. It’s also a little confusing because this is supposed to be the last Batman story but Batman already died in one of his other comics and now there are a bunch of other people trying to be the new Batman in the Battle of the Cowl comic so this doesn’t really fit. My dad said that it’s more like an imaginary story of what Batman’s last comic might look like but I thought they could have said that in the book.

Probably the best part of the story was how it says that Batman was never really happy except when he was a little boy reading his Goodnight Gorilla book with his mom and dad. They got killed when he was little and he hasn’t really ever been happy again because of that. His mom is talking to him when he is a ghost and she tells him that she’s always going to be there for him and now that everything is over he can take a break for a few years. Batman isn’t sure what’s going on and then his mom tells him to remember his favorite book and the rest of the comic is Batman saying goodnight to everything in his life like the batcave, the bad guys, all his friends and stuff just like the Goodnight Gorilla book. Then the bat signal turns into a baby and it turns out that Batman has become a little baby again with his mom in the hospital. It was a sad kind of ending. I liked it because Batman was able to be with his mom and dad again since he is a baby and he’s going to grow up and get to be with them and be happy but eventually if everything happens like it did they will probably get killed again and he’ll have to become Batman and be unhappy. It was a very different type of Batman book. It’s not what I thought the last Batman comic would be like but I did think it was a good story.

My Rating: 8.5 out of 10