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Jan 12, 2021
This is the best title I've read from Future State so far. Everything here is really enjoyable. There are some timeline concerns with the Dark Detective story that I'm willingly looking past, because the story is well written, and looks great. I think Mariko Tamaki is hit and miss, but she's usually better when she lets the art tell the story. Her misses usually have a wordiness problem.
The backup by Matthew Rosenberg is great as well. I can't say I'm the most familiar with Grifter, so I'm not sure how in character he is. Based on the responses from others, though, it doesn't seem like he's being written out of character. This reminds me a lot of the Hawkeye: Freefall miniseries from last year, which is why the characterization is in qu
estion. Maybe Grifter and Hawkeye are just similar assholes, I don't know. Either way, Matthew Rosenberg writes assholes in a really funny way, that isn't also at the expense of the character's dignity (what little they may have.). This was a decisively good time. more
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Feb 02, 2021
There have been several attempts in recent years to bring Batman and by extension Bruce Wayne down to earth by removing his wealth and resources. This makes sense considering that Batman's status has been raised to the point where he is sometimes seen as being on the level of Superman and Wonder Woman even though he's basically just a rich guy with an amazing skill set.
Future State: Dark Detective #1 is the first comic I've read that seems to get what a "Grounded" Batman looks like. What's more surprising is that the story is set a few years in the future so the contrast between what we know of the character and the setting is a bit jarring but in a good way.
The story also gives the best rundown of what's happening in Future State
: Gotham, at least from the books I've read so far. At some point in the near future, Bruce Wayne at the end of his rope and finances is shot and presumably killed by the Magistrates that have outlawed masked vigilantes and those associated with them.
Unbeknownst to the Magistrates Bruce survives the shooting and goes underground watching the news of his death and the occupation of Gotham play on the 24-hour news cycle. Bruce struggles with the new status quo and this comes to a head as he steps out of hiding to save some citizens being assaulted in the streets. Batman is dead and the Dark Detective is born.
Future State: Dark Detective #1 is a perfect Batman story. It also reminded me a lot of the recently released "The Last Ronin". We get a weathered version of the hero we know and love in a future setting and forced to come out of hiding to set things right.
The comic is also beautiful to look at. Dan Mora and Jordie Bellaire really do a great job capturing Bruce's emotional state as well as making Gotham feel alive. Gotham gets updated with a futuristic touch but maintains the cities status as one of the principal characters of the story. The Dark Detective costume is also slick. It's rare to see a take on Batman that works without the cape but I really dug the costume in the brief moments we get to see it.
The mystery of how Batman got to this point seems to be an extension of what is happening in the main series post "Joker War". It also seems to be a natural path for the character without having everything spelled out to the reader. Dark Detective also retroactively makes "The Next Batman", and "Harley Quinn" better comics because it takes the time to lay out the status quo of Gotham and motivations from the perspective of the Magistrates.
The backup story featuring Grifter was also a nice addition to the comic. I haven't read a comic featuring the character in decades and forgot that Wildstorm was apart of the DC Universe now. The story is a lot of fun and also features Luke Fox (Batwing) as he recruits Cole Cash/Grifter to help him get out of Gotham. The two characters have great chemistry and Matthew Rosenberg injects some decent humor into the script which makes the segment a joy to read. Grifters also has an excellent pace and nice action setpieces which allows the comic to feel like a double feature instead of a comic with a meaningless backup story to pad the page count.
The main story and backup of Dark Detective justify the $5.99 cover price and I feel comfortable recommending it to anyone interested in what Future State is about. I believe that DC should have led with Dark Detective instead of "The Next Batman" because it does the job of worldbuilding that has been somewhat lacking elsewhere across the Future State landscape.
Rating: 10/10 more
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Jan 20, 2021
I gotta say this was way better than I thought it would be. Its incredibly easy to get into redundancy when writing Bruce. We've seen what he does. We've seen how he acts. We've seen him in the future, and pretty much any other setting you can possibly think of. And yet rhus book still managed to engage me from start to finish. Dan Mora is a fantastic artist and if he keeps this up his Batman will be as iconic as Jim Lees.
But wanna know the real kicker? I liked the Grifter story way more. I have very little prior knowledge of Grifter. In fact as of writing this I belive I own exactly two comics he appears in, and this is one of them. But now? I'm going to have to change that. I'm a fan. And the backup story kills it on every l
evel. The banter is great, the action is great and the story never let's up. Were seeing this Magistrate takeover from a lot of angles with this Future State line, but this one is one of the more interesting of them. Keep it coming! more
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Oct 16, 2021
Put off reading this for a long time, dumb mistake. Neon futuristic Gotham ala Batman Beyond, with Dan Mora’s exquisite pencils and a broke and forsaken Bruce Wayne/Batman makes for a killer plot.
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Jan 12, 2021
Dark Detective was a really good one. Dan Mora's art was wonderful and I was interested almost immediately. Other Future State comics haven't been that interesting to me, but this one is.
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Jan 12, 2021
That was really fucking good, goddamn!
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Jan 14, 2021
" Being a masked hero is one thing... Being dead is another."
- BRUCE WAYNE
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Jan 29, 2021
I really enjoyed other stories and am looking forward to the next issue
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Mar 30, 2021
I didn't expect going in to like this series more than The Next Batman, but I did. The backups were stronger, not counting Brandon Thomas' in The Next Batman. Just overall it is a better package.
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May 10, 2021
Liked the main story a lot. The Grifter backup was fun too.
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Jan 12, 2021
Now this is what I'm talking about. The Batman story in this is awesome, probably the best Batman I've read since Batman Universe (not that big of an achievement since the two main titles since have been boring, but still). Dan Mora continues his streak of amazing art here, I really love his art and the vibrant colors from Jordie Bellaire. It's definitely a different feel from the normal Batman book, which usually is filled with muted colors. What I really liked is the setting for Bruce Wayne. It feels very different, and it finally brings Batman back down to his low point. He gets shot and hurt multiple times, so there's tension when you're reading the book. The mystery of the Magistrate is also very cool, I want to see how it plays
out. A lot of people will probably notice how this is much more well received than the New Batman Future State book. In my opinion, the Batman story in that book feels very by the numbers, like nothing's changed. This feels like a big change of pace in setting, story, character, art style, and I can't wait to read the next issue. The Grifter story is also pretty cool, I just think this entire book takes advantage of the Magistrate vs Capes environment much better than the other Batman book did, which still just seemed like Batman is some god that the government can't contain or control. more
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Jan 25, 2021
This premise put me on the Future State train and I was given everything I expected. Batman loses everything. This is what I expected to happen at end of Joker War, but better late than never.
Coming from California , forced nomadic living is in my veins. Seeing a rich kid like Batman homeless in a big city brings a smile to my face. And still having the drive to fight crime, despite that , makes my smile even wider !
I live the life of a ghost , but to have your obituary on skyscrapers, is a whole 'nother level.
Plus, I cant help but be called back to tbe first Batman comic I ever bought as an avid Detective reader - Morrison wrote it, Zurr-En-Arrh , the first appearance of that raggedy ass suit . Glimpses of such a spirit have my s
pirit locked in to see what will happen in issue two and with Grifter , my favorite Wildstorm character not named Vodoo, cutting up all over the side story. My only issue was that Batwing was written like a punk - save that type of attitude for Duke.
Hopefully Fox finds his cajones in the next issue, and if he doesn't, his emasculation won't stop me from enjoying my gateway series into Future State next month !
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Audiomack.com/cvrthebard more
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Jan 12, 2021
9 for the first story, 7 for the second, I look forward to Bruce's story, so far it's interesting and Mora is really great.
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Jan 14, 2021
It was better than next batman. The main story was solid with good art and kind of added more depth to the new gotham. The second story i really enjoyed knowing nothing about grifter.
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Jan 25, 2021
Not bad at all, definitely one of the standouts of the Future State so far. Both stories were really good, and made me actually want to pull Detective Comics post-Future State to read more stuff by this creative team.
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Jan 12, 2021
Finally Batman has something decent to read, I did not bet on this series, however it was good. NOT ORIGINAL since this has the X Men copy stamp all over the place, hunted heroes, running away is something that Marvel has seen, however it was agile, Bruce has literally lost everything, family, fortune, he is forced to lay his hands of what little he has to go on.
On the other hand he presents the story of Grifter, he was good agile, I like the personality of this antihero, good job Mat.
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Jan 18, 2021
The Batman story is bolstered by fantastic Dan Mora art and superb mood setting by Mariko Tamaki's narration, even if the plot itself is rote. Grifters is a decent--though forgettable--rogue outlaw tale.
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Jan 25, 2021
This is a BATMAN title isn't it? I bought this to read a Batman story and maybe a bonus side story. What I got was the reverse. Yeah, the story and art were good, but without counting pages, it seemed that the Grifter story was twice as many pages. After I read the whole book and let it sink in, I felt cheated, especially at 5.99. This felt more like a preview than a real issue.
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Mar 05, 2021
I’ve never heard of this writer so I went into this story without any preconceived notions or bias toward her. As far as the main story goes, I like this one more than the main story in The Next Batman. The backup stories are a miss for me. I did not find them interesting.
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Jan 14, 2021
So Bruce Wayne is stupid now? Going to his grave was dumb, but the diner scene was laughable. A woman talking about the death of Bruce Wayne to Bruce... ok fine. Follow that up with Bruce stopping a cliche' mugging only to run away and put on his mask. It just came across as silly.
I honestly don't get why the Magistrate is bad at this point. They're essentially a better version of what Batman was. Why is it ok for an individual to enact "justice," but a private firm doing it crosses some line? This comic paints Batman as a failure, which is pretty symbolic for Future State as a whole.
The only reason this isn't a sub-six rating is b.c the Grifter story was pretty fun. Decent action and a cliff hanger I actually was interested in.
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May 13, 2021
DC Comic’s new publishing initiative of adding back-up stories and raising the cover price comes to Detective Comics for the Future State debacle in the form of Future State: Dark Detective. This time, the mediocre writing talents of Mariko Tamaki get the proper Bruce Wayne/Batman story while the superior writing talents of Mathew Rosenberg get the mediocre character of Grifter to work with. Both stories run the full twenty-two pages of a modern comic book for the cover price of $5.99, but one delivers an action-packed narrative while the other drifts along, drowning in a meandering monologue.
Dark Detective follows the story of Bruce Wayne after the events that led the public to believe that the Batman had been killed. Shot in a fight
with The Magistrate, Batman makes his way to a back-alley doctor who stitches him up just enough to keep him from dying. Bruce emerges to find that Gotham City has now been told that the Batman died at the hands of The Magistrate and Bruce Wayne died sometime later. Of course, Bruce happens to find that crime is still a problem in Gotham, even with facial recognition drones and a militarized private police force, so he pieces together the remains of his Batsuit and what appears to be scraps of armor from The Magistrate’s Peacekeepers and sets out to retrain and retake Gotham City.
At the very basic level, Tamaki gets Bruce Wayne and his commitment to Gotham City correct. Tom King never quite seemed to understand Bruce’s undying fealty to a city that openly seemed to despise him, so the writer gets points for structuring that part of the story correctly (though to be fair, that could’ve easily been the story outline given by editorial). The problem is that she borrows heavily from the Tom King book of “make the character drone on endlessly in a pointless monologue that accomplishes nothing other than to make a 50-year-old man sound like an emo-teen.†There’s a moment where Bruce is confronted by a Blade Runner inspired version of Gotham City, with its high towers covered in bright lights and holographic imagery, and he has to run away with his head hung low in a full sprint towards a dark alley to escape the noise and the lights and the commotion, as if the New York City/Chicago inspired Gotham City of old was never lit up or noisy. This scene plays out on a full splash page of art to give it some sort of falsely enhanced gravitas, but in reality, just wastes a page on what should’ve been a panel on the bottom of the preceding page, at best.
The art is from Dan Mora with colors by Jordie Bellaire, and it is beautiful to look at. Mora is able to make each character stand out and provides a wide range of expressions, making the story work at times when it shouldn’t. It elevates the story beyond the script in many places, which is good because there’s not a whole lot of meat on the bones of this story. However, there are a few puzzling issues plaguing the story and I wish there was a better explanation given as to what was happening. For instance, there’s a flashback sequence of Bruce getting shot by Peacekeeper-01, the head of The Magistrate’s police force, which is what lead to the stories of his death. He’s in his Batsuit pants, t-shirt, and leather jacket. When we see the next flashback of him getting operated on, he’s in jeans with kneepads and wearing his cowl to protect his identity. Did he change clothes to get a lifesaving operation from a back-alley doctor? If so, why change out of half a Batsuit to half a Batsuit? Is this an artist error or did the script specifically call for this? Someone get Cinema Sins on the line because I need to know how many points this kind of mistake is worth.
The back-up story has a completely different problem. Grifter is not a Bat-family character and has no business being in this comic (but I guess Jim Lee has a mortgage too, so we’re getting Wildstorm characters shoe-horned into the DC Universe these days). I really don’t care for Grifter – it’s not that I hate the character, but much like Marvel’s Winter Soldier, I just don’t have much of a reason to care about the guy. The only thing that makes Winter Soldier enjoyable is his buddy-cop team-ups with The Falcon, and Matthew Rosenberg must’ve been reading my diary again because this Grifter story is a buddy-cop styled team-up with (former) Batwing, Luke Fox.
Grifter is in an illegal high stakes card game when approached by two plainclothes police officers who out his real identity to everyone in the underground casino when he refuses to leave to talk to them. In the ensuing battle, the fight spills onto the street where The Magistrate is waiting to arrest Cole and take him away for being a masked vigilante. This is where he meets Luke Fox who is also locked-up in the paddy-wagon, even though he hasn’t been Batwing for a long time. Luke offers Cole a lot of money to help get him out of Gotham City, and the hijinks begin. The story is just a downright fun action spectacle in the vein of an explosion laden popcorn flick. This is mini-series I’d add to my regular list of pulls at the local comic shop, even though it has Grifter in it.
Carmine Di Giandomenico and Antonio Fabela provide that artwork, and it’s some of the best looking in any comic book on the shelves from any company publishing comics today. Di Giandomenico puts so much detail into every panel that you often find yourself looking at all the people and objects packed into each page. He’s an artist from the same school as Ethan Van Sciver, so every poker chip, every windowpane, and every car headlight is drawn in and detailed. Fabela not only adds the proper colors to make things pop and come alive in the action, but the texture and depth is added when it needs to be. I’ve marveled over Di Giandomenico’s work before, and this story is another great work from him.
So once again, the mix of stories from DC in these expanded issues are a mixed bag of quality. The art is top notch in both stories, and I can see how many people might not care about how shallow the feature story is because the art is so good, but I just can’t let something that bad go without commenting on it because it is costing you money to read it. The $5.99 price tag is essentially getting you two comics for the price of two comics (drawing the line at $2.99), but I’d honestly rather pay the modern standard of $3.99 for the stand alone tale by Matthew Rosenberg, because he knows how to put a good story together.
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Jan 12, 2021
I guess I expected more from one of the biggest comics in the entirety of Future State. It's Bruce Wayne, guys, of course it must be a big book, right? Right?
Well, it's not. Not really. It contains some action, but when you think about it clearly, with no excitement, anger or any emotion for that matter, you're going to realize it's... empty. It has no beginning, it has no middle, it has no end. It's like a figment, or even better, a bubble, existing on its own and not really impacting anything.
We know that Bruce Wayne is a wanted man from the get go, and we see him dealing with this situation til the end. And that's pretty much it - there's no background information we get, no reasons, no explanations, no causality. Just Bruce being
broken, poor and on the run, like we've never seen that before, and a bunch of faceless fascist militiants popping out of nowhere to shoot at him whenever the plot demands them to.
In comparison, Grifter's additional story is pretty fun to read and does right what Dark Detective gets wrong. For starters, Cole interacts with the world - we can see that Gotham is bigger than him. There's always more challenges waiting for him around every corner, there are people living there. And while overall it may not be anything close to an outstanding comic, it is, as I said, a fun, entertaining read. It captures your attention and doesn't let go until the last page and its cliffhanger. For once a supplementary comic outshines the main one, I think. Last Week's The Next Batman suffered from the exactly opposite syndrome - the main comic was darn good, but the addons, freebies you could say, were pretty weak to say the least. more
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Jan 12, 2021
very decompressed.
no actual information is given.
there's no stakes to invest in.
nice art though.
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Jan 14, 2021
SO it's Batman without money...Because having money is considered a bad thing these days? There is really nothing to this story. A bad Elseworlds story to appeal to Edgelords. How would Batman be without money in a future where he hasn't aged? Not really deep story concepts here. Future State continues to be a salvage operation for DC who had the good sense to abandon the reboot. Save your money.
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/dark-detective_1.jpg "Future State: Dark Detective #1")
