Detective Comics - #842 Review

Detective Comics - #842



Synopsis: Batman (in the suit of armour Talia gave him which she calls the Suit of Sorrows) chases a villain called "Gotham Jack" who mutilates girls. :\ He knocks him out but starts to strangle him and manages to stop himself. :o Jack escapes. e_e

Back in the Batcave, Batman has Robin analyze the suit and a piece of a plant found inside.

While patrolling, Batman suddenly gets a suicidal impulse to just let go and fall which he resists. Robin discovers that the suit originated around the time of the crusades and that the suit was supposedly involves with the order of St. Dumas. Batman says that the valley where the suit came from was the site of an infamous massacre by the Moors and they were eventually defeated by Geoffrey De Cantonna who supposedly had a pure heart.

Batman goes to the valley where he confronts a Monk who says that the suit is not connected to the order of St Dumas but with a splinter group called the order of the pure. :o

Batman goes to seek them out but bad guys following him trigger an avalanche which buries him :o However he manages to get out of the snow, possibly with help from the suit.

The monk talks to the bad guys saying that the "terrible secret" is safe once more but that the suit should be destroyed and not recovered. The bad guys feel the monk will betray them and tries to kill him but Batman intervenes! He defeats them and gets the monk to tell him the "terrible secret". The monk tells him that the moors did not slaughter the valley but rather Geoffrey De Cantona did b/c the suit tapped a dark part of him that he wasn't pure or strong enuf to fight.

Jack is spotted once more and Batman leaves again to fight him, still *sigh* wearing the suit. He decided not to destroy it. He fights Jack, pushes him off then saves him. He decides that he has triumphed over the suit and puts it away in a trophy case. >.>

Review: Buh? Did somebody rly think that we needed a story about the suit Batman wore in the Resurrection or Ra's Al Ghul arc? Srsly? I mean... it reminds me of those old 60s stories which had titles like "What's the secret of Batman's pink shirt?" or something XD

Neways so basically somebody had been watching a lot of the 90s Spiderman cartoon and decided that it would be a great idea to have Batman have a suit that made him more aggressive and want to kill ppl. >.> I mean that's basically what this is. I mean it's SO cliched with the "hero out of control" thing complete with him letting a villain go b/c he almost killed him *sighs* Spiderman did that in the cartoon too with Rhino! xD

Oh and the "pushing the villain off then saving him" thing! Spiderman did that with Shocker! XD I'm sure this trope has been done to DEATH in SO many stories too XD

Batman certainly travels the world quickly. How'd he get to the Alps so fast? And in a glider? I guess he parked his plane xD You'd think given the prevalence of this type of plot, Batman, being the world's greatest detective, would have figured out that the suit was ebil alrdy.

Why does he KEEP WEARING IT? In fact why does he wear it at ALL after the Ra's arc? Nobody said it was spesho back then and he never felt it was. He didn't feel faster or stronger (again it sounds just like a certain black symbiote XD ) or more violent or nething. So it's like this came out of left field. And why is he STILL wearing it? Once he got back to Gotham wouldn't he switch back into his regular uniform?

Worse than that, once he figures out it's bad (I MEAN IT'S ONLY CALLED THE SUIT OF SORROWS RIGHT?), why does he keep wearing it? It's like... Spiderman again! Where Curt Connors tells him to take off the suit and he's like "no I need it right now!"

*sighs* xD

Sry I have those episodes on my computer XDDD

The redeeming factor tho, is he DOES wear it to prove he can beat it (tho that's some risky thing to do, what if he doesn't? What if fighting the suit means that Jack gets away and hurts more ppl?) and to show that maybe Geoffrey had a moment where he could have resisted and prevented what happened. :o I always like stories that kinda wonder if things are destined or if they're just caused by ppl who took the easy way out.

Oh :o

Is the story about the Moors REAL or just made up? The order of St. Dumas was made up for Azbat right? I dunno nething about this history so I'm not sure. xD I'm guessing that they wouldn't interfere in real history tho :o

I wasn't shocked by the Geoffrey being bad twist at all. XD It's so cliche, down to the "crusaders weren't actually good!" thing. xD

Neways, this felt like the DEFINITION of a filler issue to me. It's cliched, it's random, it answers manufactured questions nobody asked, and it ultimately affects NOTHING (we'll see if any future artists draw the Suit of Sorrows next to the other Batsuits). XD

Angelwings Rating: 2 out of 5 Symbiotes of Sorrows
Recommendation: Not rly worth it as it's just a meaningless filler issue :\