Detective Comics #873
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Jock
DC Comics
Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 26, 2011

One of the best storylines going on in comics today, The Black Mirror, wraps up in this week’s Detective Comics #873. I’ve been a fan of almost every single Detective Comics story for quite some time now, although there definitely have been shifts in style/quality of storytelling, but what Scott Snyder and Jock, with Francesco Francavilla (albeit not on this issue), have been doing with their recent run on Detective is easily the best storyline since Greg Rucka’s Batwoman story arc, and it’s one of the best ongoing series right now.

This issue continues directly after Detective #872 when Dick Grayson was undercover at a less than scrupulous auction called Mirror House, in which artifacts from some of the most nefarious villains of Gotham City are sold at outlandish prices to “bored rich people.” It shows a growing darkness within Gotham City though the fact that the people who were there to purchase these items were not criminals that were just collecting tools of the trade, but that it was the socialites of Gotham City. Mothers, fathers, daughters, and sons are the ones who are interested in collecting these items, and I am sure that we will see more of this in future stories.

This issue also features one of the most terrifying sequences in recent mainstream comics in which Dick Grayson hallucinates from a toxin released at Mirror House, and is faced with horrifying results that lead to him being attacked by a scorned love one. And there is no artist out there better suited to doing this story than Jock. Jock’s wild art style, accompanied by Dave Baron‘s colors work together to solidify the creepiness exuding from Snyder’s scripts. If you haven’t been reading Detective due to the recent lull, either search out #871-873, or buy it in trade as soon as it comes out because these three issues have been about as perfect as comics can be.

Snyder and Jock have crafted a thrilling ride through Gotham City as Dick Grayson truly learns what it is to come into his own as Batman, The Detective. Since Dick Grayson has become Batman, in the wake of Final Crisis and Battle for the Cowl, he has very rarely been written in a way that has depended on Detective skills, which is a huge part of Batman as a character. He’s still is not on the level of Bruce Wayne yet, but Snyder is showing us a journey of Dick Grayson gaining the last piece of the puzzle and truly becoming The Batman, and I for one could not be more excited.