by Randy Lander

BATMAN: DARK DETECTIVE #1 "Some Enchanted Evening" DC Comics Writer: Steve Englehart Pencils/Cover: Marshall Rogers Inks: Terry Austin Colors: Chris Chuckry Letters: John Workman Editor: Joey Cavalieri Price: $2.99 US/$4.00 CAN We've seen a lot of revivals in the past couple years, and there are plenty more to come in 2005. Grimjack and Jon Sable have returned courtesy of IDW, Frank Miller is going to be tackling Batman again, Chris Claremont is back on X-Men, John Byrne is returning to Superman, and the legendary team of Steve Englehart and Marshall Rogers return to the pages of Batman with the Dark Detective miniseries. It's cool from an industry standpoint, nice to see that these creators who built the foundation aren't being shunted aside quite as ruthlessly as the original creators were as they got older, but in a lot of cases, there's a "can't go home again" quality that makes the new stuff look kind of dated, and it pales beside the originals, which have the benefit of being of their time as well as having made their impression when most readers were younger and more easily impressed. Dark Detective has a bit of that, and the whole story does feel a bit like a throwback, making modern day references (like the notion that the police are after Batman again) seem clunky, but it's also a breath of fresh air in some regards. Englehart's Batman is notably more human and vulnerable than the modern-day Bat, more open emotionally to the old feelings that Silver St. Cloud stirs up and actually flawed enough to make a mistake in chasing the Joker. It causes a bit of cognitive dissonance when you realize this is supposed to be the same guy featured in OMAC Project or Judd Winick's Batman, but it's an interesting alternate take on the modern version of the character. Having never read the Englehart/Rogers run, I know of their impact on the mythology of Batman only by word of mouth and by seeing the animated series episode "The Laughing Fish." But I've heard enough about Silver St. Cloud, one of the few love interests who could match wits effectively with Batman, that I was interested in seeing her return, and Englehart and Rogers do a great job with this aspect of the story. There's some clever imagery with the costume ball masks that echoes the relationship Bruce and Silver had and the secrets that Bruce held, Rogers and Austin really capture the quiet anguish Bruce experiences when seeing Silver again and the role that she plays in this story is a good way to bring Bruce Wayne into this particular plot, even if the Joker's involvement would have brought Batman in anyway. The central plot is also a good one, playing off the political corruption of Gotham (and another of the elements of the Englehart/Rogers run, Boss Thorne) as well as creating a Joker scheme comparable in insanity to the classic "Laughing Fish" story. Certainly the Joker's crazy behavior in this issue is one of the highlights, although again it's a bit of a contrast with the more deadly and dangerous Joker we see in the current comics. Englehart writes Joker with more implied threat, and I find it a lot more effective than the bodycount that the character has racked up in the more modern comics, killing or crippling Batman's supporting cast like he's got a list. It is Batman's characterization here that is the hardest pill to swallow, however. Englehart's Batman is much more of a deep thinker, not in terms of strategy, but in terms of human emotion and that kind of thing. He's more optimistic, brighter and generally more talkative than the Batman that has become the popular version of the character. On the one hand, I like seeing Batman lighten up, but it's not really consistent with the version we're seeing in the modern comics, and Englehart has also lightened up maybe a little too much, as he offers up some really hokey dialogue in his exchanges with the Joker and comes across as a bit of an amateur so that Joker can get away. Seeing Batman think "If he can do it..." comes across as a lack of confidence as well as a failure to understand his enemy, two things that you generally don't see from the modern Batman. Just as Englehart's writing is a little bit old school, so does the Rogers/Austin art style speak to a style of art we don't see as often these days. Rather than a slavish addiction to photo-realism or wild and out there exaggeration, Rogers brings a style that is realistic but flexible, and the resulting art is pretty strong. The hairstyles and clothing seem a tad dated, and in fact the whole thing probably would have been better served as a flashback story, but Rogers's rendition of the Joker/Batman fight and chase, complete with great sound effects work by John Workman, is more exciting than a lot of the sterile action sequences in modern comics. Basically, the whole effort is a little creaky in some places, but it also goes to show that some of the fundamentals of comic-book storytelling have been lost or watered down in the quest for realism that is so often the raison d'etre of modern comics. 7/10 Email Randy Lander comments about this review.