DETECTIVE COMICS #766

The "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?" crossover begins with style

By Tony Whitt     January 18, 2002

Reporter Vesper Fairchild has been murdered in Wayne Manor, seemingly by her ex-boyfriend Bruce Wayne. Wayne and his bodyguard Sasha Bordeaux are saying nothing, though Sasha claims that he didn't do it-she just can't say how she knows this. Detectives Allen and Montoya believe that the pair are guilty-but then they don't know Bruce and Sasha like we do.

I'll admit, I still have my misgivings about the whole "Bruce Wayne: Murderer?" crossover being a good idea. How many crossovers does that make this year alone? Oh, right, we're into 2002 now, so officially this is the first crossover for a new year. That still doesn't make it any easier to forget how recently we had to endure OUR WORLDS AT WAR and JOKER: THE LAST LAUGH, though. But if the rest of this storyline is as good as BATMAN: THE 10 CENT ADVENTURE and this issue, then it just may be worth your while to pick up the other eight or nine books that complete the story. Maybe.

I can't vouch for the way other creative teams will handle the material, of course, but Rucka, McDaniel, and Delperdang make this very much an issue of DETECTIVE COMICS, with heavy emphasis placed on the "detective" bit. This is Allen and Montoya's story-we get very little of Bruce and Sasha here, as well we shouldn't. Apart from the brief appearance at the very end of the story of a returning character, there's no indication in the entire plot that Bruce Wayne, or indeed Sasha, is innocent-these detectives and the media that watch their every move know nothing about Bruce and Sasha's double lives, or why they simply can't be involved in Vesper Fairchild's murder. Or can't they? The first installment of this crossover leaves just enough doubt-Bruce and Sasha are separated in THE 10 CENT ADVENTURE just long enough for something to have happened, aren't they? Rucka takes that small kernel of doubt and runs with it, so that by the end of this issue even we wonder whether he's guilty or not. McDaniel and Delperdang do good work on the art, though I find myself irrationally missing the "trademark" look of this title, with its usual slightly left-of-realism art style and single-tone color scheme.

I also find myself reassessing my initial misgivings about DETECTIVE COMICS backup feature, Josie Mac. A little while ago I expressed the belief that even a fantastic writer like Judd Winick could occasionally produce a substandard script, but I'm more than willing to eat my words. This storyline is just as strong as the main feature now, sometimes even more so, and it's all down to Winick's deft use of dialogue and exposition to keep the reader glued to the page. And while I originally disliked Cliff Chiang's no-nonsense artistic style, I now can't imagine this feature being drawn by anyone else, especially after last month's surprise appearance by the Batman. This latest installment raises the stakes that much further, and the combination of these two features makes for one of the strongest issues of an already stalwart series. Now, if only the BATGIRL entry in the crossover can keep the energy level going...

DETECTIVE COMICS

Grade: A-

Issue: No. 766

Author(s): Greg Rucka, Scott McDaniel, Jesse Delperdang, Judd Winick, Cliff Chiang

Publisher: DC

Price: $2.50