DC Comics Universe and Detective Comics Annual #3 Spoilers and Review follows.
Has Batman’s Secret Identity Been Exposed Ahead Of Batman: Pennyworth R.I.P.?
The book opens with a story set in the past featuring a young MI6 agent Pennyworth. We then pivot to modern day, when Pennyworth remains dead, and Batman gets into a skirmish and ends his night exhausted and…
…surprised by an intruder?
She is a former MI6 partner of Alfred Pennyworth named Marigold Sinclair.
Pennyworth has an unfinished case with MI6; tracking down their former partner Kendall Pierce who defected to the Soviets.
Well, Pierce has surfaced and Sinclair has come to seek out help on the case, but playboy Bruce Wayne won’t do.
Batman ends up in Ukraine to follow Sinclair’s breadcrumbs and she was expecting him!
The NKVDemon stands between Batman and Pierce…
…so Batman lets himself get captured so he can be in Pierce’s orbit.
NKVDemon is a classic ally for…
…the more well-known KGBeast.
Well, KGBeast is no where in this story, but Sinclair is looking for revenge.
Batman tries to stop the bloodshed on all sides…
…stopping Sinclair from killing Pierce.
The first story ends with Sinclair breaking into Wayne Manor again to go down and share memory lane with Bruce Wayne as both mourn Pennyworth.
The back-up story is the form of a letter from Pennyworth to Sinclair…
…cryptically telling her he is happy and needed by his employer.
While he doesn’t out Batman, cool to see Batman’s first threads still had the purple gloves as per his first appearance in 1939.
Next up is Batman: Pennyworth R.I.P. in stores on February 12, 2020.
The Pulse:
Not as sombre as I would have expected. A fitting nod to Pennyworth with solid story, characterized and art. That cover is amazing and haunting. 9 out of 10.
