Detective Comics #649 (1992) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back with another comic book review. This week I'm taking a look at Detective Comics #649 from 1992. This is the final part of the three parter that introduced Stephanie Brown into the Batman mythos. I don't have as much to say about this issue as I did the first two parts, because there really isn't anything to it, so this will be a short review. Let's get into it.

Despite being the finale for this storyline, this issue really doesn't have very much going on. Most of it is taken up by the final confrontation between Cluemaster and Batman, Robin, and Spoiler. And even then Robin is stuck fighting the henchmen while Batman and Spoiler take on Cluemaster themselves. And honestly, I actually really like that. One of the problems I have with comics over the last few years is that the fight at the end of every arc is either universe saving or crams too much into the final issue of the arc leaving the reader feeling like the story needed an issue or two more than what it ended up with. I mean, you kinda had that with some story arcs in the '90s, but it wasn't as normalized as it is nowadays.

Batman seems extraordinarily harsh towards Steph in this issue, and in the rest of the '90s and 2000s until she became Batgirl. I mean, in a way, I really don't blame him being that Stephanie had no training or experience, and she did become the Spoiler under dubious circumstances, being that she did it to carry out a personal vendetta against her father. At the same time though he also outed her identity to Cluemaster. C'mon Batman...yeah, no, you know what, that is in character for Batman given that he'd do the same to Tim in the monthly Robin series when he outed Tim's identity as Robin to Stephanie herself in Robin #87 in 2001. 

I think I've mentioned this in my previous reviews of this arc, but I love the covers for these three issues. To me they're classic Batman covers with Batman and Robin perched on the parapets of a Gotham City building like colourful gargoyles. Well, Robin looks like a colourful gargoyle, Batman looks like a blue and gray one. You know what I mean as I have an image of the cover at the beginning of this review. Wagner's covers are some of the best Batman covers I've ever seen. 

Overall, this was a pretty good issue. And a great story arc. It's included in volume 8 of the Batman: The Dark Knight Detective trade paperback series, which collects all of Detective Comics after the Year Two storyline. The volume just came out, so it should be fairly easy to find if you're a Batman fan but haven't read this story before. 

That's it for me for today. I'll be back at some point to review Home Alone 3. So until then have a good evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.