Review: Detective Comics Vol. 2- Arkham Knight

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline is exciting and has some moments that feel like classic Batman.

Cons: The book’s main villain is underwhelming and drags the story down.

Overall: This is a book that is disappointing because it fails to live up to its potential. The main storyline is fun and there are moments here where Batman, Robin, and Alfred all have a chance to shine. However, the main villain is ultimately lackluster and prevents the storyline from standing out. In the end, this volume is just average but may still appeal to fans simply interested in experiencing a straightforward Batman adventure.

Story

Detective Comics Vol. 2: Arkham Knight, by Peter J. Tomasi, is another pretty average volume in the Detective Comics series. It manages to tell an engaging story and provides a classic-feeling Batman and Robin team-up. However, the Arkham Knight is tremendously underwhelming as a villain. This creates a book that is just alright, rather than anything special or unique.

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The main storyline in Arkham Knight is moderately fun. It puts Batman and Robin together in a quest to stop the mysterious Arkham Knight from taking over Gotham by striking down Batman. The dynamic between Batman and Robin is too often absent from modern Batman books so seeing it here is enjoyable.

Unfortunately, the actual villain in Arkham Knight, the titular Arkham Knight, is incredibly underwhelming. The villain ends up being the daughter of Jeremiah Arkham, who hates Batman because her father never explained that Batman didn’t kill her mother, despite having every reason to make this fact apparent. Her plan ends up being a revenge quest that involves blinding Gotham City with an artificial sun. The specifics of her backstory and her ultimate plan are so illogical that it makes it hard to take this villain seriously. There are moments when her unique morality is interesting but these moments are too few.

The volume then closes with an annual chapter focusing on Batman’s fight against an old enemy. This is a pretty straightforward adventure with some great banter between Batman and Alfred. It is pretty short but ends up being one of the better pieces of the entire book.

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Art

The artwork in Arkham Knight falls somewhere in the middle of the road. Brad Walker’s work is bold and really lends itself to the action and drama contained within this book. However, there are some places where it feels like character depictions could use some more detail or where a page feels too cluttered and confusing. These problems prevent the visuals from standing out in a way that could help the volume as a whole. Ultimately, the artwork here, much like the story, is just alright.

Continuity

Detective Comics Vol. 2: Arkham Knight continues the story from Detective Comics Vol. 1: Mythology (Review).

The story here continues in Detective Comics Vol. 3: Greetings from Gotham.

This volume also references and continues the stories from other comic books, detailed below:

• The final chapter in this collection, Detective Comics Annual #2, references the presence on the Black Casebook in Batman R.I.P.
• The story of Batman’s original encounter with the Reaper is told across Batman: Year Two.