Detective Comics #847 review

The Last Good Day: Heart of Hush part two (Batman RIP tie-in)

Interesting start to the issue as Hush, Thomas Elliot, hunts "Batman" in his hospital for freaks and kills him. Standing over the body, Hush remembers when he and Bruce Wayne were boys at summer camp. Bruce's mother had twisted Tommy's mother into letting him go but as the two enjoy a leisurely moment in a canoe, Tommy's mother appears calling him over to take him back home. After her and her husband's car accident, the one caused by Tommy Elliot when he cut the brake lines, she's been obsessed with Tommy's safety. After being taunted by one of the other boys at camp, Tommy beats the shit out of him with a shovel landing him in a psychiatric ward. Lucky for him, his therapist is Jonathan Crane, the Scarecrow! Tommy and Crane talk and he bullshits his way into getting an early release. Coming back to the present, Elliot removes the mask from "Batman" and we see that it's one of his staff and has the body harvested of its organs. We jump on over to seeing Nightwing, Robin and Batman knock around The Wonderland Gang during a bank robbery. Afterwards, the three are talking on top of the bank and Batman warns them that Hush is back and warns them to be careful and to "Strike at every shadow." From here we jump on over to a scene between Selina Kyle and Zatanna. Zatanna is running a game of three card monte which Selina keeps beating her at. The topic of conversation turns to Bruce Wayne, which both have romantic interests in. However, Zatanna cedes that ground when she says that she has moved on after being rejected. During this whole conversation, however, we see that Hush has a close eye on the both of them. The issue ends with a young patient in a psych ward being take to have a session with...The Scarecrow!

All told, the more I learn about Hush, the more interested I am in his character. Hush's petty jealousies, his relationship with his mother, I dig it. Hush is still a relatively new character, so taking the opportunity to really flesh him out now will make him that much more interesting in the future. And I sympathize with the urge to beat the shit out of people in a violent fashion every time I hear someone talk trash. Should that scene be an example of a negative character trait? Cause I woulda said that little fucker had it coming.

But the scene that really stands out most in this issue for me was the bit between Selina and Zatanna. Dini just LOVES these characters. Why not just give this guy a new Zatanna series. I hear they're canceling Catwoman, hand him the reigns to a new one. RELAUNCH! (Though according to Wikipedia he's supposed to be doing a Zatanna/Black Canary hardcover graphic novel...sweet!) But I just love the notion of Zatanna acting the part of a hussler. That's just too funny. And trying to pull one over on Catwoman of all people? It's a tiny little scene in the end, but honestly it made the issue for me. Kinda sucks that this might be the end of any romantic entanglements between Zatanna and Batman, though. Not that they would ever get together, but the notion that Zatanna would actively pursue him is an interesting one. Maybe Dini came to the conclusion that it would be pointless, and it would be, but played right it could be entertaining.

So how does this connect with RIP? Well, it seems Robin was the only series to connect with RIP in a direct manner. Nightwing and Detective Comics? Well, they mention the stuff with The Black Glove. Surely by now everyone knows how little the side stories connect with RIP, but I think it's a little cheap for DC to slap the label on the Bat books like they did.

So all told, it's a decent issue. Regular readers I think will enjoy it well enough, though if you're clamoring for major RIP action don't bother.