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Detective Comics 844 Review.

2008-05-10

Writer: Paul Dini

Artist: Dustin Nguyen

Plot Synopsis, WARNING SPOILERS!

 

Continuing from last issue; Bruce Wayne has been kidnapped by the new Ventriloquist and Scarface along with mobster Johnny Sabatino and taken to their hideout. Bruce recognizes the Ventriloquist from when they used to occasionally mix in the same social circles, and Bruce asks what ever happened between her and his friend Matthew Atkins, and we're into narrated flashback history. Peyton Riley was the daughter of an Irish mobster, who wanting to forge an alliance between the Irish and Italian mobs offered her up as an arranged marriage to Sabatino. Matthew protested, and was beaten and the marriage went ahead. Johnny was more concerned with appearing a big shot than actual mob business. At one stage Johnny tried to rip off the original Ventriloquist on an arms deal, and was brought along to Scarface along with Peyton, setting up her first meeting with the puppet. Scarface takes a shine to Peyton and decides to let Johnny live as long as he gives thirty percent of his weapons cut to the Ventriloquist. Johnny gets rich, but is abusive to Peyton, due to being trapped in a loveless marriage. Years passed, and the Sabatino mob decided to remove the Riley mob from the family. Peyton's father is hit, and Johnny drags Peyton to a rat-hole apartment and shoots her in the head to make himself a free man. Peyton doesn't die, but is severely injured. Meanwhile unbeknownst to her on another floor the original Ventriloquist has been murdered (as in Batman 818). After Batman leaves Peyton enters the room, and the partially crushed dummy begins ‘talking to her' and asks her to help him, and a new partnership is born. Back in the present, Scarface leaves Bruce tied to a chair and goes to kill Johnny. Zatanna arrives and frees Bruce, and they track down Peyton on a yacht. In the ensuing fight, Peyton leaps over board ‘to her apparent death'. Back at the Batcave Bruce places the Scarface dummy in his trophy room, and the two discuss the possible romantic feelings from the last issue and the events from Identity Crisis, and decide they're not ready to be serious about each other. The end.

It's been hard for me to get overly enthusiastic about Detective lately, especially with all that's been going on in ‘the other title' and Grant Morrison's continuing proclamations about how ‘things will never be the same again.' ‘Tec practically seems to take place in a separate universe, as there's no allusions between the two (this is understandable actually, R.I.P being Morrison's baby). I'll say upfront, I don't like single issue stories; they're like tapas to me, they can be delicious sure, but also unfulfilling. I like some depth to stories I read, and most often single issues don't have it. Witness the completely pointless Mad Hatter story from 842. Secondly, I always base my opinion on the visceral first impression I get; second readings tend to amplify the flaws; be it films, books or comics. On both of those categories Paul Dini has lost my faith a bit lately.  I was therefore quite pleasantly surprised with how enjoyable I found this Scarface two-parter.

This story is all about exposition and back-story, as the primary plot really isn't anything to get excited about. Make no mistake folks, this story is an origin tale for the new Ventriloquist. I generally like origin tales, they're usually interesting and the only misstep they really can make is to too egregiously contradict fans beloved continuity; this was the mistake that the new Joker origin ‘Lovers & Madmen' made by removing the Red Hood aspect of it-not only has that been referenced in numerous tales from Batman's first encounter with the Joker, but it makes Jason Todd's use of the alias pointless- L&M has been filed by me as the new Batman movie Joker origin. Dini hasn't made any such mistakes, and instead has quite brilliantly tried to connect the dots between the two Ventriloquists. He confirms that, yes this Scarface considers itself the same no matter who's holding the dummy (though if this is true why does he now pronounce his b's correctly?) The back-story of ‘Sugar' is very interesting filled with being a pawn and a victim of spousal abuse makes her willingness to be able to assert herself and take control of her destiny plausible. I'll probably always still prefer Wesker's Ventriloquist, but this portrayal of Peyton Riley is making the transfer more palatable. Speaking of Wesker, Dini also does a very good job of showing the different ways the ‘Scarface' personality reacts to his puppeteer. With Wesker it's an abusive relationship with Scarface always treating him as an incompetent who he needs out of necessity rather than any closeness. With Peyton we see a definite affection and even love from the first time they encounter each other (I'm not going to talk about any sexual relations, because it's best left to the imagination, and is creepy). Scarface even acts jealously when he suspects she might be ‘sweet on (Bruce) Wayne', and when she plunges overboard he attempts to say he loves her. Of course it's her own delusional state saying it, but it's interesting. Dini also doesn't forget to have Scarface mispronounce his b's as g's in the flashbacks to Wesker- a nice touch to how Alan Grant originally wrote the character, and one neglected by more than one writer before. The ascension of Peyton to the Ventriloquist is also neatly retconned, by the referencing of the events surrounding Wesker's death back in Batman 818, even quoting some of Batman's dialogue from the issue verbatim. One thing in particular that I liked about this was Peyton's wondering whether the dummy really was sentient, or she'd suffered brain damage as a result of being shot in the head. This is a neat way of satisfying the debate over whether the Ventriloquist's suffer from ‘dissociative personality disorder' or the dummy being made from possessed wood (I'm of the former camp by the way, as I've seen the dummy be destroyed too many times for the other to hold water). By doing this Dini lets us decide which one we prefer, without giving us definitive answers. A smart move.

It was nice to see some references to the old Scarface gang in this issue. Scarface always works best as an unconventional mob boss, rather than as a lunatic holding a doll. It was good to see his old muscle Rhino pop up in the flashbacks here too.

The Zatanna/Bruce thing really couldn't go anywhere, not for a while anyway, as Morrison is using Jezebel Jet as the love interest in Batman, and that looks to take preference during R.I.P. I'd actually be open to Bruce caught between three different women (in small doses) with Jezebel being the normal girl (as normal as an African princess can be), Zatanna as the good girl, and Selina Kyle as the inbetweener. As far as I recall its not something we've seen before. Dini's got to get off his Zatanna kick though; I know he's married to a magician in real life, but he's not here to write a love letter to her through Batman.

I'm still on the fence about Dustin Nguyen's art; some parts of it are very nice and clear, while others are a kind of a mess. He's fine with non-action work, but his fight scenes like at the end are a bit of a mess. I don't care for how he draws Scarface overly much either- a little too wooden looking. This may just be my preference, but I prefer him to look like a nuttier version of Charlie McCarthy.

Next time R.I.P part I.

 

 

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