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Detective Comics #768
Bridget Haines |
| Title: |
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Purity - Part One |
| Cover Date: |
April 2002 |
| Story: |
Greg Rucka |
| Pencils: |
Steve Lieber |
| Inks: |
Mick Gray |
| Colors and Separations: |
Jason Wright / Wildstorm |
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Synopsis: (WARNING! SPOILERS!)
Although this book isn't bearing the "Bruce
Waybe: Fugutive" banner,
it is nonetheless
part of the current story.Bruce
Wayne is
no more, and Batman is all that
is left as
he begins delving into a problem
with fatal
heroin on the streets of Gotham.
The story
opens with an odd winged being
putting drain
cleaner into the heroin of a
pusher in Chinatown.
The scene shifts, via a newspaper
holding
dope and showing that the manhunt
for Bruce
Wayne continues. An asian man
is selling
the heroin for $20,000 to another
man, claiming
it is incredibly pure and very
strong.
Scene switch to Batman cleaning
up the aftermath
of this fatal heroin. He takes
a needle from
a dead man's arm as evidence,
and carries
a desperately OD'd addict out
of the place.
Scene shift to Leslie Thompson's
clinic
as the woman cared for a battered
woman.
She tries to convince her to
get help, but
the girl tells her she is a saint,
but just
doesn't know. The girl leaves,
and Leslie
tells Batman he can come out.
He deposits
the junkie for her care, and
she stops him
to speak to him before he can
leave.
Scene shift to a man named David Said, working
for a Knighthood, analyzing some of the dope,
and speaking with his superiors, who do not
seem to trust him.
Scene shift back to the clinic.
The addict
will live. When she begins to
push a little,
he tells her he isnt there for
a lecture.
She tells him she wouldn't presume
to lecture
Bruce. He says "No. Not
anymore. I have
my reasons." He notes the
clinic is
very busy. She says its normal
and it never
ends. He offers help, she tells
him she doesnt
need any help Batman could provide.
She has
financial problems, the kind
of things Batman
can't do anything about, but
Bruce Wayne
could have because he was a rich
man in more
ways than he recognized. Batman
leaves grimly.
Shift to Renee Montoya and Crispus
at the
GCPD. Crispus puts things together
and they
figure out Alfred helped Wayne
escape, both
suspecting that maybe Bruce isn't
gone at
all out of the country, but it
was made to
seem that way. They take off
for Wayne Manor.
Shift to the Bat beating on a
pusher. He
demands to know the seller's
source. The
source is revealed as an asian
kid calling
himself nine-pound gun. From
the auxillary
Batcave Batman analyzes the dope
while listening
to a wire tap of a conversation
between nine-pound
and David Said. They are to meet
at the Jade
Palace in an hour. Batman departs
to intercept.
Said is brought to meet the Sei Bhaat Gao
of the Lucky Hand Triad. Batman eavesdrops
and follows, being followed himself buy the
winged being from the beginning of the book.
The woman leading the triad begins a conversation
about the poisoned heroine with the woman
leading the triad, when the hairy, bug eyed,
winged thing appears to Batman, calling him
the Celestial Bat, and claining that together
they will claim heaven's vengeance.
Analysis:
Cover:  (2 of 5cowls)
This cover by John McCrea and James Hodgekins
is a wee bit lacking for me, and showed nil
about the interior story. The splatter-speckled
background is interesting and might have
worked for me, if the rest of the piece was
done in the same vein. Instead there is an
almost architecture drawing feel to the background
hindered by a sloppy and comicy figure of
Batman slapped into the foreground in full
color, with his face shadowed out despite
the angle and lightsources nod indicating
that would happen. The two cowls are for
the sketchy style of the background illustration
which was very gothic.
Story: (4 of 5 cowls)
I like this dark and gritty Batman tale,
coupled with some meaningful pieces of the
current Bruce Wayne: Fugitive storyline to
keep it in line with continuity. This is
what other Batbooks SHOULD be doing if they
are not participating directly in the crossover.
This book didn't carry the banner, but within
it the consequences of the crossover events
are touched upon, pulling the story into
proper context. I have to give all the Bat-writers
props for renewed and welcome use of Leslie
Thomkins. The doc is one of my favorite characters,
and her wisdom is important in this tale,
when she strives to impart to Batman, how
much damage the loss of Bruce Wayne has caused
to those around him. I had to dock this a
cowl for the hyper jumpy scene shifting.
Just look at how many paragraphs I had to
break the synopsis into for a feel of how
broken up the story is here. I don't mind
a few scene changes in a book, but this overdid
it a little. I'm curious about the winged
ugly, and about David Said. I don't know
if he's part of the Order of Dumas like Azrael,
or if this knighthood is something new. I
hope that if it is something Azrael related
it is explained to us in the book, as I don't
pick up Azrael (and that book is ending).
Artwork: (4 of 5 cowls)
I think I likeSteve Lieber's work here. His
last issue didn't thrill me overly much,
but this has a lot more of the Bat in it,
and he draws the Bat very VERY well. Look
at page 4 if you don't nelieve me. He still
isn't completely consistent though. Some
of his faces are wonderful, like the unmasked
Bat on page 17, or the nice angled cowl image
in the second panel of 21. But mostly his
faces come off occassionaly flat and/or mishapen,
as if they were rushed or secondary to drawing
the bodies. He has good layout and can do
backgrounds well. Sometimes his male figures
look a touch feminine though. I think that
over time he's only going to improve though,
and I am keeping an eye on his work.
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