Future State: Dark Detective #4

Joshua Williams transitions from writing The Flash, Justice League, Endless Winter, to one of the most beloved anti-heroes in the DC Universe with ease. A clear-cut grasp of Red Hood is matched by the thoughtful and expressive lines of Giannis Milonogiannis. Fans of Batman and Red Hood will treasure this four-part series and all it has to offer. Read Full Review

There is an interesting Red Hood backup story as well here that I don't want to say too much about as it leads to future events. Read Full Review

As a self-contained story about Bruce Wayne and the roots of Gotham's corruption, "Dark Detective" is brilliant. As a prologue to Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora's "Detective Comics" run, it's even better. Read Full Review

If this is any indication of what Tamaki has planned for us in her regular run, bring it on"this has been one of the best stories of Future State. Read Full Review

Overall Future State Dark Detective was an absolute home run. Tamaki and Mora were cranking on all cylinders start to finish as if they had been working together for years. Here's hoping that they get more opportunities to write for DC and get to take on more characters that we know and love. Read Full Review

I hate that this series is over, and more questions have been raised than have been answered, but I've absolutely loved it. Read Full Review

Future State: Dark Detective #4 shows two sides of Future State Gotham, offering both an absolute end and a conspiratorial cliffhanger in its two excellent stories. Both unmissable in their own unique ways, Dark Detective #4 is the cream of the Future State crop. Read Full Review

Dan Mora delivers some exceptionally detailed art throughout the issue. There is a glorious beauty in those pages. Milonogiannis brings some awesome energy to the action in the Red Hood story. Read Full Review

Future State: Dark Detective #4 (#DCCOMICS @marikotamaki @Danmora_c) simultaneously ends decisively and leaves threads dangling in this final issue before returning to the current timeline. Read Full Review

If DARK DETECTIVE is a sign of what we can expect from Tamaki's upcoming tenure on DETECTIVE COMICS, well... it's nothing but a very good sign. Read Full Review

Dark Detective doesnt offer a strong conclusion to this arc, but for Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd fans itll still be worth seeing how they enter into the next era of Future State. Read Full Review

While the story does feel like it moves a little fast and there's a sense of wanting more, it's a solid issue of a truly great Batman story. I can't wait to see what happens next when Tamaki and Mora take over Detective Comics next month. Read Full Review

The better Future State Batman comic comes to a satisfying and gorgeous finale. This issue embraces and lives up to the very idea of “Future State” better than most comics in the initiative. Read Full Review

Mariko Tamaki and Dan Mora saved the best for last as Future State: Dark Detective #4 delivered the most compelling reading experience for Bruce Wayne's actions against the Magistrate. Joshua Williamson and Giannis Milonogiannis' Red Hood back-up story further strengthened the content we got in this issue by showing us where Jason Todd and Rose Wilson are at this point in Future State. In many ways the Red Hood story stole the thunder from the main story in Dark Detective #4. Overall, this issue just further drove home how the Batman Family stories were some of the best content delivered by the Future State direction. Read Full Review

Future State: Dark Detective #4 is frustrating. The stories within have been fantastic. It truly has felt like the world of Judge Dredd has infiltrated Batmans life. Tamaki has generated interesting moral quandaries and used themes that are fascinating. But the ending leaves a bad taste in the mouth because it doesnt feel final. Perhaps the readers could have benefitted from an extra issue, as the sudden stop is jarring. Red Hoods part of the issue is also great but may belong within its own series. The art is superb, in particular the stunning colours from Bellaire, but one cant help but be confused as to how the series concludes. Read Full Review

If you are looking for an issue with well-rounded characters, an intriguing plot and a full-circle ending, then I can't recommend this comic. If you don't mind any of that and are just looking for beautiful artwork - and perhaps the best rendition of Bruce Wayne and Gotham that I've seen since the start of Rebirth - then I absolutely recommend this comic! Read Full Review

Future State: Dark Detective #4 rushes to a bewildering conclusion that opts for a cliffhanger rather than a satisfying ending, which is a shame, considering that the art in this four-issue miniseries has been stellar. Read Full Review

GEEKYTIME!

Feb 24, 2021

8.5!

Merlyn

Feb 23, 2021

Tamaki brings this whole issue down with her writing. Mora's art is still pretty good, but her writing is as chaotic as ever. The Red Hood story was pretty good and it turns out there's more to Jason's role in FS than what seemed to be, looking forward to that one.

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Mingthemerciless - Feb 23, 2021

I started off liking Tamakis run but she stumbled and never recovered by issue 2 of this Future State fiasco. I have no hope for her run on Detective and Tynion is not delivering on the main title. DC editorial has no clue how to approach batman at this point.

SenpaifenixJäger - Feb 23, 2021

Mingthemerciless a completely correct comment, Tamakis started well but then only lengthened everything, on the other hand Red Hood needed a boost for FS Gotham, I hope they do better, the idea of infiltrated Red Hood sounds interesting, discovering who is his secret ally. And indeed Tynion is falling short in his stories, he usually puts a lot of filler and his villains do not manage to be interesting

Mingthemerciless - Feb 24, 2021

Well said fenix. Indeed Tynion relies on a lit of padding in his writing. I really believe DC editorial is lost in how to move on batman. I'd start with losing Tynion Snyder and King. Bendis needs to go too. And no Ridley is not the answer either. Someone said Zdarsky would be good on batman. I wouldnt mind that at all.

fearUhavemeisenough - Feb 24, 2021

Oh, wow! I think I will take a look at this number, I am honest I have finished with DC from its future state. But if they raised the story of Hood why not.

Merlyn - Feb 24, 2021

@fearU: I really hope we're not hyping up too much for you. The Red Hood story is pretty good overall, don't expect a lot of info on his actual situation, there's just one page where it gets clear that Jason didn't betray them all as DC made us believe. But I don't know if you know, there's a FS: Red Hood title coming up in May, I believe, so yeah, there's more to come with him in the future.

fearUhavemeisenough - Feb 27, 2021

Brother it was simply the beginning that something good is coming for FSG, I wish the art were better, but history is beating me to make the expense.

fearUhavemeisenough

Feb 27, 2021

I didn't have time for the review until today, The Batman-Bruce's story is full of clichés, I've skipped a few numbers, but clearly haven't missed much. The backup story gave me a very pleasant surprise, Jason dives into the entrails of the beast, acting as the traitor when in reality is an insider, was a great twist . This story would be 10 if it had another cartoonist. Dexter Soy would have been perfect. Batman-Bruce's art is perfect, but not the story, the opposite of Red Hood. This has led me to the conclusion that I will definitely buy Future State Gotham,

EDiakota

Mar 04, 2021

" For the moment, i still own the shadows. I crawled into the darkness to strike fear into the hearts of my enemies. Did i protect Gotham ? Or did i make it vulnerable to men who would use the darkness to control it ?" - BATMAN

Spacey Medicine

Jun 08, 2021

No backups again lol.

F.T. Wolf

Feb 24, 2021

I thouroghly enjoyed both the Batman and Red Hood (featuring my girl Ravager) stories. While I don't agree with the direction Future State has taken with Bruce Wayne (and many characters come to thin of it) I can't deny that the more down to earth approach and focus on his detective skill really work for the character. The Red Hood story is just enjoyable. Not that overcomplicated or too surprising, but well executed. In short: Good writing, good art and good characterizations throughout. However: is this really the end of the Future State Batman story? Because if it is, it's a really unsatisfying one. Recommended

mrDovydas

Mar 21, 2021

Decent book, even if the ending itself was a bit underwhelming. I wonder whether there will be a follow-up sometime in the future. The Red Hood story was decent as well, I might pick up the upcoming book.

DDJamesB

Feb 28, 2021

Its way better than next Batman. Even the red hood story was ok but it just didnt really have an ending that felt like it warranted the story overall.

DiRT

May 13, 2021

This is the best the issue of Dark Detective, but that’s been a very low hurdle to clear. The strongest factor that helps this issue to soar above the others is that Mariko Tamaki doesn’t have much story to tell or inane inner monologues to annoy us with. Instead, we get final showdown between Batman and Peacekeeper-01 with a bunch of punching, kicking, and explosions. Sure, we still get a lot of dumb thought balloons like: “What I know.” “There is no end.” “Only endings.” “Clean cuts.” “Rarely.” “Mostly frayed edges.” “Collateral damage…” “The cost…” “…of my mistakes.” Blargh. At least Dan Mora and Jordie Bellaire really outdo themselves on this one. The battle scenes are beautiful, and the explosions are gorgeous. Watching this horrible version of Gotham City go up in smoke is sight to behold and every page looks fantastic. Again, I just wish these pages weren’t in a comic that was so terrible to read. The back-up story featuring Read Hood and Ravager wasn’t quite as great as I had hoped it would be, but it was still a lot of fun and certainly better than the main story again. My main problem with the story is that it didn’t actually wrap up. It ended this particular tale, but it didn’t feel like there was any closure to the saga of Red Hood and Ravager in the Future State of Gotham City. Unlike the Grifter story in the odd numbered issues, Joshua Williamson’s story seems to be the precursor to more stories set in dystopian Gotham City. I don’t want that. Giannis Milonogiannis returns for the art duties with Jordie Bellaire providing colors, and the manga influences are very strong again. Red Hood on his cycle invokes so much Akira imagery, I’m almost surprised that Ravager doesn’t call him Kaneda. Once again, many of the backgrounds look sketchy and unfinished and might not attract everyone, but they do add to the overall kinetic energy and flow of the action. Future State: Dark Detective as a series has been better than The Next Batman in the fact that the back-up stories are all good, even though the features are just as bad. Perhaps AT&T is to blame for these terrible comics. Maybe it was the move from New York City to Burbank or the pandemic and the scramble away from Diamond Comics or maybe the comic book industry as a whole is getting the same screwed over treatment that the TV and movie industry have gone through in previous years. But whatever the case may be, the days of reading good stories from front-to-back appear to be over, and no one in these corporate offices seem to care. http://ThePopC.Net http://dirtmound.com more

SenpaifenixJäger

Feb 23, 2021

This whole event starts without a solid story, with a chronological disorder, a lot of bad new characters with the exception of Yara and terrible unfinished endings. Which brings us to the story of Bruce THE REAL BATMAN. The idea was really good, a Bruce without fortune, struggling to survive, a Batman in the dark doing the impossible to end a fascist government and Dark Detective started very well, it even looked much more interesting than what it had been doing in its usual series. But then the writing becomes sluggish and like the other books it doesn't get anywhere "Much ado about nothing." In return we have the counterpart, the backup story despite a lousy art the twist was not bad, Red Hood is playing a dangerous game with a myste rious character are trying to unravel what is behind the magistrate, obviously they had to give him impetus to the FS Gotham. Still it has been a story devoid of emotion and the pretty bad art doesn't help. FS was a complete disappointment for me. more

Psycamorean

Feb 23, 2021

I liked the Bruce Wayne story. Much more than the Red Hood story!

Afre

Feb 23, 2021

I really liked the art of this series. At least the first part. But that's about it. Stuff does happen, Bruce's inner monologue is shown to us, but I really just don't know if anything happens. If this is the end, it's a very bad ending. A big bad boom is not a good way to end the mini-series, if we don't have enough time with these characters. I really didn't care about anything and I was confused if we should know who Peacekeeper One is. It was a disappointment, I really wanted it to be better because I loved the artstyle. As for the Red Hood story, eh. Just eh.

myconius

Jun 17, 2021

Definitely not what i was hoping for. Dan Mora's art deserves a much better story than this. definitely skip this.

Nihilist

Feb 23, 2021

You know what annoys me? The fact that Tamaki wasted the entirety of issue #1 of this series, leaving us with only 3 to tell a story that clearly needed more time to unravel and offer us a satisfying conclusion. Funnily enough every Dark Detective comic dragged at times and featured overwhelming amount of stagnant filler. Even this one, which makes its ending even worse than it actually is, because if it wasn't for the nauseating amount of exposition and filler, maybe it could have dealt with actual consequences of Bruce's actions throughout the series. Where did it all lead? To one big bang, and that's it? Imagine A New Hope ending with Death Star blowing up. That's it. One gigantic explosion and nothing more. No conclusions to main chara cter arcs, no (temporary) happy end, no feeling of relief, because the galaxy is (temporarily) safe once more. That's how I feel about this short run. Complete and utter waste of time which had potential, but ultimately was wasted due to writer choosing exposition over much needed content. As for Red Hood's additional story, I can't say I cared about its first half, and I certainly couldn't care less about this half either. While it's not the worst comic I've ever read, it just feels... cheap, like w low budget indie title made to promote a TV sitcom or something. Both art and script wise. more

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SenpaifenixJäger - Feb 23, 2021

really this whole FS event is a lot of filler without conclusions, apparently they are doing a test to see if they continue or not. at least it seems so.

Nihilist - Feb 23, 2021

Pretty much. It has a gem hidden here in there, like WW, Swamp Thing or Catwoman, but most of it is just directionless and pointless. Quite unfortunate.

Onomatopoeia - Feb 24, 2021

Red Hood felt so painfully rushed to me. Had they fleshed out the dynamic between him and Ravager I may have cared more. Instead, it's hard to really pull anything off as a side story to an already rushed comic.

Nihilist - Feb 24, 2021

Not mentioning DC seems not to have a clue what to do with her, no matter where she shows up. The only thing they do with her is give or take away one of her eyes, sigh. Even Priest kinda lost the plot in his Deathstroke run, turning her into a schizophrenic ancient witch or some shit.

Onomatopoeia - Feb 24, 2021

I honestly enjoyed her years ago in Terror Titans. A leadership role within a group of c list villians somehow gave her a chance to shine.

Bats44121

Feb 23, 2021

Dark Detective "Finale" (eye roll) Issue #2 (I mean #4) ends with a bang, but no real conclusion (of course), after stretching out 2 issues worth of story into 4 issues at $6 each. Was it worth $24? DC and writer Mariko Tamaki thinks so. And we have gotten interesting art from Dan Mora and great coloring from Jordie Bellaire. The lettering is intended to be "futuristic," and Aditya Bidikar continues the same annoying lettering from previous issues. It wasn't as bad or as expensive as "The New Batman." So there is that. But of course, there was never any intent to have a "story" with any real conclusion. We have a Bruce Wayne who is struggling with uncertainty, guilt, self-blame, doubt. The same Batman who defeated countless world th reats, organized teams to defeat threats to entire Earth, struggles to find the resolve to defeat the punk of The Magistrate regime. Bruce Wayne continues his efforts to undermine The Magistrate and stop its surveillance system of nanobot drones everywhere. Supporting character Hannah ends up aiding Bruce and has been secretly recording The Magistrate's own work. She believes she has information about The Magistrate that will help to prevent "the end of all democracy in Gotham." Peacekeeper-01 wants to fight "scum" like Bruce Wayne to the end. And the carnival barkers tell us "Bruce Wayne's adventues continue anew next month in Detective Comics #1034." When the key is the art and coloring, you are losing your reader, but we need to be honest, there really is no serious intent to engage the reader. Just push them forward, get along little doggie, towards buying the next issue in the latest "event." Part of the broad story line (beyond just Future State DD) is that the struggle is much of the people WANT The Magistrate, they want security at whatever cost that regime will bring. DC describes the Magistrate regime as being all-knowing and powerful, being able to clone (Batman/Superman 2) parts and versions of Superman, as a rationale to keep Superman or any other powers to stop "The Magistrate." The sci-fi storyline is intended to suspend disbelief, because the only real goal is to drive stories to the next "event." We have writers with lean plots to serve as carnival barkers to gin up suspense and enthusiasm for the next "event." Because that is really all that DC wants to sell, "events." In the 20th century, the events were in between periods of storylines. Now the events are really everything, and storylines are just placeholders or road signs to events. This allows DC to hire inexperienced writers to learn on the job writing major comics, because they will keep fanboys coming back with a hint that another "clue" in the next "big event" will be there. This is especially valuable for AT&T to keep internal costs down of knowledgable DC Comics talent. This is a trick television has been doing for years. So you end up going from mysteries like Columbo (with beginning/middle/end) to semi-soap opera, constant cliff-hangers like The Blacklist. Exchange interest with plot and mystery, and replace with brutality, value abandonment, and constant "shock" value. So those of us really expecting stories will be constantly disappointed. more

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Onomatopoeia - Feb 24, 2021

"When the key is the art and coloring, you are losing your reader." Fantastic statement.

Onomatopoeia

Feb 24, 2021

While reading this, my wife was playing Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You" in the other room. I think it was a bit serendipitous considering I will always love Batman, no matter how stupid the storyline ends up being. I understand that as times change so to do the mindsets of the audience. A billionaire taking matters into their own hands and enacting their own brand of justice just doesn't resonate the same way anymore. That said, watching the same billionaire genius devolve into little more than a street hobo fighting a corrupted version of their former self is equally painful. I hated the Magistrate, I didn't like the Peacekeeper, you can't be an alien conspiracy theorist considering all the countless aliens in DC, and while I will always love Batman... I remain utterly disappointed. Red Hood... as always, you have the potential to be amazing and somehow still end up falling short. Rose and Jason work, I'm all for it, but please make the dynamic more interesting than "stoic bad boy" and "Ms. Badass, 'I'm not like the other girls'." more