At the end of ‘Detective Comics’ #2, Batman discovered the Dollmaker hovering over Jim Gordon with stiches all over his face. This issue begins as the Bat jumps into action by taking on Dollmaker and his twisted minions. With all their quirks and horrific creepy vibe, these guys are a perfect fit for Batman’s rogues gallery. While Batman does his thing with the villains, another hero attempts an attack of his own against the Dollmaker.

It appears as if the sick mastermind is creating replicas of people for rich (and possibly even more deranged) Gothamites and that Batman is next on his list to be duplicated. Batman shows us that, even post-relaunch, he is still the world’s greatest detective by deducing the identity of the Dollmaker in a matter of what seems to be mere minutes with a little labwork. As the issue ends, Batman heads back into the Dollmaker’s lair to take him down and we discover why the Joker had his face removed back in that epic first issue cliffhanger.

After the impressive issue that was ‘Detective Comics’ #1, ‘Detective Comics’ has been good. Notice that I didn’t say great. That first issue was such a cerebral sucker punch, that these past two issues have yet to live up to the intensity hinted by the premiere issue.

The Dollmaker and his cohorts are cool enough villains, the twisted scheme is perfect for a Batman story, and Tony Daniels, who is pulling double duty on both writing and pencils for this series, is providing us with some great visuals. But the “edge” that was hinted at early on has yet to return. I expect it’s because Daniel decided to lead into the relaunch series with the Joker and then pulled the rug out from under readers by switching the ultimate bat-villain with the Dollmaker storyline. Of course, the cliffhanger this issue might mean that the Joker has more to do with this than Daniel has led us to believe. If that’s so, I may just have to up this story’s rating. But, for now, my verdict, is the same as it was last issue…

Verdict: Borrow

DETECTIVE COMICS #3

Written by TONY DANIEL
Art and cover by TONY DANIEL and RYAN WINN