Detective Comics #648 (1992) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back for part two of my review of Stephanie Brown's debut in the Batman comics. This time we're taking a look at Detective Comics #648. This review is probably gonna be pretty short because not a whole lot happens in the issue. So let's get into it.

Unlike last issue, Batman and Robin don't do as much fumbling around. They figure out where the Cluemaster is gonna hit, though we don't find out what he's actually after, and they discover that Stephanie Brown is Cluemaster's daughter and not only discovers that she's the new vigilante in town, known as the Spoiler, but that she was responsible for the clues sent to the GCPD. Cluemaster sets a trap for Batman and Robin, but Bullock, Montoya, and some GCPD officers nearly got caught in it instead because Batman decided to give the cops a break for a change.

So the first thing I wanna talk about is the cover art by Matt Wagner. I love it. While Wagner has done some other stuff for DC I mainly know him as the cover artist for Kevin Smith's run on Green Arrow, which saw the return of Oliver Queen and the start of the 2000s version of Team Arrow, and the cover artist on Batman for both of the "As the Crow Flies" and "Under the Hood" story arcs from the mid-2000s. This story arc was his only work on Detective Comics though. He's also done a bunch of other covers for DC over the years. Too many to list here unfortunately. If you wanna see a full list, check it out on the DC Comics Wiki, here 

As for the story itself, one of the things I found interesting is that Batman and Gordon have another conversation about Krol becoming the mayor, and Gordon explains to Batman that Krol won't kick Gordon out of office because of Batman because he knows that Batman's career, at least in Gotham, would be over if Gordon is removed as the head of the GCPD. The interesting part is that Krol's whole arc from here until after the Knightfall saga, including Prodigal and Troika, is he starts off hating Batman and wanting him gone from Gotham City, as seen in the previous issue, and then he plans to replace Gordon if the police department doesn't shape up and stop relying on vigilantes, to becoming an ardent supporter of Batman once the Dark Knight rescues him from the Joker and Scarecrow during Knightfall, to him and Gordon being at loggerheads again because Krol approves of the new armored Batman, not realizing that Jean Paul Valley had taken the mantle, during Knightquest. So this early in his storyline, why would Krol be afraid that Batman's career end if Gordon was replaced, when that's exactly what Krol wants at this point? Maybe it's something that Chuck Dixon elaborates on in future issues of Detective Comics.

Speaking of Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle, the writer and artist on Detective Comics during this era of Batman's publication history, they basically developed Tim Drake into a fully fledged character of his own, overcoming the shadows of Dick Grayson and Jason Todd in a way that Jason Todd wasn't able to, both before Crisis On Infinite Earths and in the post-Crisis reboot, which led to his death in A Death in the Family. Between the three Robin miniseries that they did in the early '90s, their work on the early issues of the Robin ongoing monthly series, and their run on Detective Comics, Tim Drake became an awesome character. 

Speaking of awesome characters, this issue was the first meeting between Robin and Stephanie, and while they don't yet have the working relationship that they would when Stephanie returned in the early issues of the ongoing monthly Robin series, you can see the seeds of that relationship being planted here. At least on Tim's side of things. Stephanie's not impressed that Robin was able to track her down and discover that she's the Spoiler. Robin was trained by the World's Greatest Detective, AND has all of Batman's resources at his disposal, of course he was gonna figure out her secret identity. Especially because she is completely new to the vigilante life and doesn't have the experience to hide her identity better or to erase her presence from a crime scene the way Batman and Robin can if they need to.

There really isn't much else to say about this issue because, like I said, not a whole lot actually happens in this issue. It's still a really good issue though. Especially the scene on the last page where Batman, Robin, and the Spoiler are standing on a rooftop, staking out the place where Cluemaster is going to strike next, and Batman asks, "What do you call yourself?", Stephanie replies, "Well...the Spoiler." and Batman says, "I like that". Which is kinda odd coming from Batman given how much crap he and Robin give Stephanie for being the Spoiler for the next seventeen years before she takes over as Batgirl in 2009. 

Besides the oddness of this last scene, and the conversation between Batman and Gordon concerning Mayor Krol, I enjoyed this issue and I definitely recommend tracking this issue down to add to your Batman collection, if you don't already have it. As I mentioned in my review of the previous issue, this is my favourite era of Batman. Unlike the modern era where everybody is being deconstructing what it means to be a vigilante in a city such as Gotham, or having Batman dealing with alot of Justice League stuff, this era was about Batman being Batman, and the writers telling Batman stories without much contemplation or without the larger DC Universe intruding in the stories, with The Death of Superman being the exception of course. 

Alright my friends, that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back either tomorrow or Thursday for my review of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and whatever day I don't do that review on, I might have a book review for you. We'll see. That review might be held off until next week. Whatever the case ends up being, until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.