New Detective Comics (Spoilers Probably)

[Michael Hawk]

Anybody pick the newest issue up?

[skinnyboy23]

Yes. Quite excellent.

[BillReed]

I will tomorrow...

[Unknown]

Yay! Another Alec Holland/Swamp Thing reference!

And I thought it was Floronic Man...

[God-Man]

Dini's first 2 issues were better. I did enjoy the way Dini wrote Poison Ivy, and the Ivy/Robin scenes were funny. However, it felt too short, almost like a back up story. Also, the art didn't fit the story, I think. Benitez' pencils felt out of place.

[JL_Amato]

I liked Benitez's Robin and Poison Ivy. His Batman wasn't as good. But overall it was a good issue.

[Kal*el]

Good issue, but a let down after the last two.

[mrorangesoda]

I agree that this wasn't the best issue of the run so far. It did feel short, mostly because of all the pages of Ivy being attacked. There were several character moments that made the issue more than worth it.

[chap22]

I agree that this wasn't the best issue of the run so far. It did feel short, mostly because of all the pages of Ivy being attacked. There were several character moments that made the issue more than worth it.
i agree with this assessment. i also say that so far, a bad Dini issue is still better/more fun than most of the other stuff i read.:D

[Cyphon]

i agree with this assessment. i also say that so far, a bad Dini issue is still better/more fun than most of the other stuff i read.:D

Dittoed. Not great, but in the grand scheme of things, still a fun and entertaining read. If this is the worst Dini can do, I'm cool with it. :)

[Kenro]

i agree with this assessment. i also say that so far, a bad Dini issue is still better/more fun than most of the other stuff i read.:D

Yep, that's quite the compliment. Wish Nightwing had someone like that at the helm.

[chap22]

Yep, that's quite the compliment. Wish Nightwing had someone like that at the helm.
*sigh* yeah, me too...:(

[aeast317]

yeah it wasnt the best but it was still pretty good. robin/ivy was pretty funny

[nietoperz]

Was this a Dini issue? I thought the fill-in guy was this month?

[carl kolchak]

Dini's first 2 issues were better. I did enjoy the way Dini wrote Poison Ivy, and the Ivy/Robin scenes were funny. However, it felt too short, almost like a back up story. Also, the art didn't fit the story, I think. Benitez' pencils felt out of place.


I agree. It seemed slight compared to the last two stories. Benitez's cheesecake art seemed pretty dated (He was with Top Cow for awhile, wasn't he?). But, not a bad issue. As expected, Dini does an interesting spin on Ivy and the twist with her powers was pretty cool. I still rather read this than the Batbooks we've been given for the last couple of years.

[kingofcities]

I enjoyed this. Joe Benitez' pencils have never looked this good before. A lot of really nice fine detail with all of the characters. Another fun Dini story. My favorite part of the book that had nothing to do with the story at all? The Riddler commercial playing in the background. AWESOME. Hope there's more story to tell with that plotline. :)

[Stéphane G]

Great issue.
Great story and i love the art.:) :cool:

[d0dg3r]

Good issue except for the page with the New Villain Identification Announcement:

"Call us HARVEST."

I know those are a feature of the genre, but if it's not done right it takes me right out of the story.

Harvest works fine as a threat to Ivy here (and one she'd built herself) but not a clusterplant I necessarily want to see again, either.

The cheesecake stuff was fine. If you look at Poison Ivy's roots (sorry) being a dangerous tease was pretty much the whole point of the character before they evolved her into an eco-terrorist.

Fun issue but not great.

[chap22]

Was this a Dini issue? I thought the fill-in guy was this month?
nah, Dini was on this month and gets to do his Penguin stoy in 824 next month. 825 is the fill-in.

[chap22]

Good issue except for the page with the New Villain Identification Announcement:

"Call us HARVEST."

I know those are a feature of the genre, but if it's not done right it takes me right out of the story.

Harvest works fine as a threat to Ivy here (and one she'd built herself) but not a clusterplant I necessarily want to see again, either.


yeah, my problem with Harvest wasn't so much the announcement, but the fact that the whole intro scene there in the Batcave immediately made me think of the Phalanx Covenant from the X-Men. Harvest was the exact same thing, just with plant pulp instead of techno-organic circuitry. wasn't one of the big bads in PC even named Harvest too, maybe in the Gen X/Next portion of the story?

[whitemarkd]

I liked Benitez's Robin and Poison Ivy. His Batman wasn't as good. But overall it was a good issue.
I thought his Batman was great, Poison Ivy was FANTASTIC, but his Robin was too cartoonish - he's not ten years old, for Pete's sake.

And I'll be the odd man out here, and say that this is my favorite of the three Dini Detective stories so far...

[MikeShaynePI]

These one offs kinda feel too compressed. This "Harvest" was in it for what, 2 pages?

But how about that Evil Dead-like action goin on at the beginning? Woooo.

[diana_fan]

This was my favorite issue so far.

As to Benitez' pencils, I think that it was critical that he used a lighter, sexy, clever sort of approach. I said elsewhere that this story, when you just look at what happened, and what was said, was pretty damned dark and grim. It was actually a long, dark look at just how sadistic and cruel Ivy is.

"Natalie put on a better show on her way down. Pleading, swearing, crying, the whole deal.

"Most of the men were too scared or too stupid to put up a fight. Almost as if they couldn't understand what was happening to them.

"Though Michael actually seemed to enjoy the dominance element. Well, until the enzymes hit his nervous system. THEN he screamed."

She calls feeding people to a plant, where they are digested over the course of (presumably) hours, her "guilty little pleasure." And all some of these people did was to "return [her] smile". Yikes.

So, while it was a fun issue, a big part of that was the art. Replace Benitez' art here with something along the lines of McKean's work in "Arkham Asylum", and this could have been one of the most grim issues of a Batman comic in a while.

And that last sequence, with Ivy living in terror at every little sound, knowing that it is coming for her, knowing that she can't stop it, crawling under her blanket was pretty bad-ass too. She looked legitimately scared.

This Ivy is ruthless, a sociopath (at least as it relates to human beings), a torturer, intelligent, vulnerable, cruel. She's a serious villain. Oh, and she's got a bodacious bod, too.

Every character came off well. This was an excellent issue all around.

[Defunct]

It was KEY to make Poison Ivy look sexy and harmless for the first two-thirds of the issue. Dini is lulling you in to seeing her as this harmless and brilliant scientist who just had a run of bad luck.

When you find out she's a sadistic monster, the intent is to take those assumptions you made (based on how Batman and Tim were seeing her) and turn them on their head.

[diana_fan]

It was KEY to make Poison Ivy look sexy and harmless for the first two-thirds of the issue. Dini is lulling you in to seeing her as this harmless and brilliant scientist who just had a run of bad luck.

When you find out she's a sadistic monster, the intent is to take those assumptions you made (based on how Batman and Tim were seeing her) and turn them on their head.

Couldn't agree more.

Also, it fits with the way she's portrayed here, as well. She's dangerous as all get out, but uses her sex appeal to disarm men, to gain an easy advantage, playing on the most sensitive and exploitable weaknesses of men (and, apparently, some women).

[whitemarkd]

It was KEY to make Poison Ivy look sexy and harmless for the first two-thirds of the issue. Dini is lulling you in to seeing her as this harmless and brilliant scientist who just had a run of bad luck.

When you find out she's a sadistic monster, the intent is to take those assumptions you made (based on how Batman and Tim were seeing her) and turn them on their head.
Very well said!

[Kal*el]

It was KEY to make Poison Ivy look sexy and harmless for the first two-thirds of the issue. Dini is lulling you in to seeing her as this harmless and brilliant scientist who just had a run of bad luck.

When you find out she's a sadistic monster, the intent is to take those assumptions you made (based on how Batman and Tim were seeing her) and turn them on their head.

See I actually didn't like that. Given what Batman and Robin have seen her do in the past, I dont' see why the video would have changed their view of her that much.

[Defunct]

And the fact that they've been away for a year, and she's been out of action for even longer has absolutely no bearing on what they'd think of her. Yes.

[d0dg3r]

And the fact that they've been away for a year, and she's been out of action for even longer has absolutely no bearing on what they'd think of her. Yes.

She was in "Face the Face" which was the first OYL story arc, so they have seen her recently and she was not showing this side of herself at that point. That was Ivy in her deadly, "misguided" mode but even Gordon sympathized with her aims.

Three months later? Not so sympathetic.

[Defunct]

She was plenty sympathetic for the first two thirds of the issue. THAT'S THE POINT.

[d0dg3r]

She was plenty sympathetic for the first two thirds of the issue. THAT'S THE POINT.

Sorry, I thought your POINT in your previous post was Batman and Robin hadn't seen her in over a year. If I'm all off base, it's my Ritalin wearing off :)

[Defunct]

Yeah, you're off base.

[MikeShaynePI]

Even if Batman had just found out she had killed a bunch of people I couldn't help but laugh when he jumps out and yells like a madman at Robin. Jesus christ, Bats. Cut back on the coffee. She was stuck in the glass tube.

[IceGambit]

Dini's first 2 issues were better. I did enjoy the way Dini wrote Poison Ivy, and the Ivy/Robin scenes were funny. However, it felt too short, almost like a back up story.

I completely agree. Also, this one was much less a mystery than the others.

But I quite liked Benitez's pencils - Ivy was gorgeous and I like what he did with Batman's cape. But they don't service Batman as well as they would some other comics. For example, I would LOVE to see him on an X-men book.

I thought it a little incongruous that Batman seemed to be referencing OYL with his "last year" line but Tim Drake appears to be no older than 13 or 14. Isn't he supposed to be 17 or so? I know Dini said his run was made up of non-continuity one-shot stories, but two time periods seem to be mixing here. Am I reading too much into Batman's line there, or did Joe just drop the Robin ball?

[diana_fan]

I thought it a little incongruous that Batman seemed to be referencing OYL with his "last year" line but Tim Drake appears to be no older than 13 or 14. Isn't he supposed to be 17 or so? I know Dini said his run was made up of non-continuity one-shot stories, but two time periods seem to be mixing here. Am I reading too much into Batman's line there?

No, I just think that you are misreading Benitez' stylized rendering of the characters, particularly Robin. This is *in continuity*, and Tim is about 17. Benitez just was drawing the characters with some flair and style, and not overly concerned with whether Tim *looked* his age; he was more concerned with portraying Tim as significantly younger (with all that entails).

It's just a style thing.