BATMAN BY MIKE W. BARR & ALAN DAVIS: DETECTIVE COMICS # 572, 573, 574

"THE DOOMSDAY BOOK"
Writer: Mike W. Barr | Pencilers: Alan Davis, Terry Beatty, Carmine Infantino
Inkers: Paul Neary, Dick Giordano, Al Vey | Colorists: Adrienne Roy, Carl Gafford
Letterers: John Workman, Todd Klein, Romeo Francisco | Editor: Denny O'Neil

"THE MAD HATTER FLIPS HIS LIDS" | "...MY BEGINNING...AND MY PROBABLE END"
Writer: Mike W. Barr | Penciler: Alan Davis | Inker: Paul Neary
Colorist: Adrienne Roy | Letterer: Richard Starkings
Editor: Denny O'Neil

Art by Mike Kaluta

DETECTIVE COMICS #572 is a "jam" issue, celebrating the title's fiftieth anniversary, and starring three of the book's regular featured characters of decades past: Batman (of course), the Elongated Man, and Slam Bradley, who I had never heard of before. Upon looking him up, I've learned that he starred in DETECTIVE #1, and has appeared sporadically in the DC Universe since.

Beyond the above group, the story also stars Sherlock Holmes, who, it seems, is a real person in the DC world. Watson's chronicles of Holmes' cases are treated here as works of non-fiction, and everyone views Holmes as a well-known historical figure. It's a conceit I enjoyed, and it fits just fine into a shared universe like this one. However, Barr goes overboard with the idea here, revealing in the story's finale that Holmes is still alive and fairly spry at well over a hundred years of age, due essentially to nothing more than clean living.

The bookend chapters are illustrated by Davis and Neary, but the middle sections of the story are by Terry Beatty with Dick Giordano, and Carmine Infantino with Al Vey. And with all due respect to these talented artists, when your work is sandwiched between sections drawn by Alan Davis, it's hard for it to look good in comparison. It's almost like setting the other artists up for failure.

Sadly, the writing here is somewhat lackluster as well. Barr tries to create a one hundred year-old mystery with its ultimate resolution in the present day -- involving the descendent of Professor Moriarty attempting to kill the Queen of England -- but it's not a particularly compelling tale. The story falls into the same trap as so many other latter-day (non Conan Doyle) Holmes tales, in making Moriarty Holmes's arch-foe. Moriarty was in one Holmes story and mentioned in two more -- out of more than forty, total! He wasn't that big a deal. However, I will note that Barr has a good handle on Holmes's "voice", as illustrated in the hundred-year flashback story.

Additionally, there's one other bit in this issue that troubled me more than anything else. Especially considering how much I've enjoyed Barr's Batman, I couldn't believe he inserted it into the issue: Near the beginning of the story, as Batman and Robin duke it out with a group of Moriarty's thugs, Batman protects himself from an Uzi blast by using one of the goons as a human shield. How did this make it past Denny O'Neil? How did DC's top brass sign off on it? How could Davis have even agreed to draw it?? If I remember nothing else about Barr's Batman -- and again, I like his iteration of the character -- I will definitely remember his callous disregard for human life, something that goes against the moral code of every version of the character since the Golden Age ended.

Issue #573 returns Barr and Davis to a more standard Batman tale, featuring the return of the Mad Hatter -- though in doing a little research, I've learned that this is not the traditional Jervis Tetch Hatter, but an imposter who apparently ran around the Batman books for a few years. However he is also identified as "Tetch" here. So I'm not quite sure how his impersonation was revealed, since he looks nothing like the original Hatter.

Anyway, the story involves the Hatter committing a series of -- as you might guess -- hat related crimes, culminating with Batman drawing him into a trap by throwing Bruce Wayne's "hat into the ring" in a special city council recall election. The story is predictable and not terribly engrossing, making it the second issue a row that failed to hold my interest. There is, however, one really fun bit, in which Batman fights the Hatter's gang on top of an enormous replica of a pool table. It's clearly an homage to the Dick Sprang stories of the fifties, which frequently featured Batman fighting bad guys on similarly gigantic set pieces, and I thought it was a wonderful homage.

The story ends on a cliffhanger, with Robin seriously injured during the Mad Hatter's attempted escape from Wayne Manor. This leads into a story billed as "the new origin of Batman", in which Batman brings Robin to Dr. Leslie Tompkins for emergency medical treatment. In a nice touch, after describing Crime Alley, where Tompkins's clinic is located, through his narration, Mike Barr adds the final line, "There is no hope in Crime Alley," which was also the title of a classic Denny O'Neil story from the seventies.

This issue, cover dated the same month as the final chapter of Frank Miller's seminal "Batman: Year One" over in the monthly BATMAN series, uses flashbacks to flesh out aspects of Bruce Wayne's childhood and young adulthood, while Batman waits for Leslie to finish operating on Robin. By the story's end, Robin is stabilized and Batman has prepared to release him from his sidekickly duties -- but Robin will hear none of it, choosing to remain in the role even after nearly losing his life.

It's pretty clear in these final two issues that Barr is suddenly -- either by his own choice or under editorial instruction -- basing his Batman upon the grim, humorless character presented in "Year One". His good cheer is suddenly gone, essentially explained away as a façade, and he is becoming more like the character readers have come to know over the past few decades. I'm sure it wasn't an instantaneous transformation, but the seeds have obviously been planted.

As noted previously, I will not cover the final Barr/Davis issue, part one of "Batman: Year Two", nor will I review FULL CIRCLE, the one-shot reuniting the pair a few years later. Perhaps I'll get to them someday, but for the time being I'm going to leave things with the final regular issue of the Barr/Davis run.

That said, there is one last story in LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT: ALAN DAVIS. It's a six-pager from BATMAN: BLACK & WHITE, titled "Last Call at McSurley's". Written by Barr, illustrated by Davis and Mark Farmer, lettered by Pat Prentice and edited by Mark Chiarello, it actually turned out to be one of my very favorite tales in the volume. It is a reunion story for Barr and Davis, published in 2002 -- almost fifteen years after their original run ended.

"Last Call at McSurley's" pencil art
from Alan Davis's website

The story features brief vignettes of Batman solving a series of minor crimes by way of picking up tips at McSurley's, the seedy bar introduced by Barr and Davis in their second issue all those years before. When Batman learns that the bar is about to be foreclosed upon, he sneaks ten thousand dollars into the hat McSurley's customers are passing around for a collection, thus saving the bar. Batman even cracks a smile at the story's end.

And that's it. With the exception of "Year Two", FULL CIRCLE, and his issues of BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS, this is every Batman story illustrated by Alan Davis. As I said previously, it's really a shame Davis never drew any more Batman over the years. His grasp of the character is just about perfect. But then again, I feel like I say that about every character Davis draws!