DC Comics and Detective Comics #1051 Spoilers and Review follows.
Arkham Tower’s…
…Psycho-Pirate, But…
…What About Batman?!
The promise of the issue can be gleaned from its solicitation.
DETECTIVE COMICS #1051
Written by MARIKO TAMAKI
Art by MAX RAYNOR
Backup written by MATTHEW ROSENBERG
Backup art by FERNANDO BLANCO
Cover by IRVIN RODRIGUEZ
Variant by LEE BERMEJO
1:25 variant by JORGE FORNÉS
$4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (Card stock)
ON SALE 2/1/22Psycho-Pirate! Qu’est-ce que ç’est? The mind manipulations of one of the DCU’s most calamitous villains are revealed at the heart of Arkham Tower…but who’s really calling the shots? As Batwoman’s undercover operation takes a disastrous turn, Huntress finds her own mission inside the Tower growing more perilous by the moment! All is revealed in this explosive first chapter in act two of the “Shadows of the Bat” weekly event!
Then, in “House of Gotham” part five, the Boy emerges from his Scarecrow caper with a new perspective on the world…but what’s scarier: Dr. Crane’s fear toxins, or Batman’s control of Gotham’s militarized youth?
Through the book’s first four pages (1, 2, 3, 4) we find out how Arkham Tower’s Dr. Tobias Wear and the Psycho-Pirate hooked to perpetuate a fraud on Gotham City Council so they could abscond with the money destined for Arkham Tower.
Fast forward and we learn the scam includes drugs, but it’s not healthy to cross the Penguin so Dr. Wear needs to make it right quickly necessitating getting the city’s cash more quickly.
He’s unable to get the cash more quickly and needs to convince Mayor Nakano that his efforts at Arkham Tower are working so…
….Psycho-Pirate makes everyone in the Tower feel happy literally; that’s his power to make people to feel whatever emotion he wants them to.
However, on Day 19, an exhausted, drugged-up and caffeinated Psycho-Pirate…
…collapses releasing his happy old on the Tower’s patients.
That leaves undercover Nightwing and Huntress lucid, but exposed; Nightwing is confronted by Ana Vulsion while Huntress must protect Dr. Meridian. Dr. Meridian genuinely wants to help the patients and is not in on Dr. Wear’s con with the Psycho-Pirate.
The main story ends with Dr. Wear snapping Psycho-Pirate out of it, giving him back his Madusa Mask, which instead of using it to cast an emotion, he makes everyone in the Tower fall asleep including our undercover heroes.
The back-up House of Gotham story also continues.
The Pulse:
Part of me is disappointed that the mental health breakthroughs at Arkham Tower are fraudulent as I had high hopes of weaving mental wellness in the tale in an effective and influential way. However, there is time in this arc to do that further and the previous issues have been though provoking in that regard. Also, no clear answer on how the Psycho-Pirate went from cosmic herald of Darkseid in the Infinite Frontier limited to series to his regular self in this arc. Also, interesting that arc focuses on the Batman Family and not the patriarch and he’s not really missed by me. Decent act and suspense in the issue. The art on the main story was ok, but tough to compete with Ivan Reis in previous issues. The back-up was so-so and ill-fitting. 7.5 out of 10 on the strength of the main story.
