(B) 75% | More than SatisfactoryNotes: The plot's a leaden snooze, it's the art that gives it juice, although Batman's not well-suited to such garish berry hues.

Batman breaks up a child smuggling ring in the Gotham docks leading to Bruce Wayne deciding to renovate the Gotham waterfront in an effort to gentrify it and eliminate the criminals who’ve marked out the area for their own. Which of course doesn’t go down well with the gangsters - especially the ones who’re making a mint selling a potent new drug called Icarus. I didn’t love this volume of Detective Comics but I was surprised that Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato’s first arc wasn’t that bad....

I received this from Edelweiss and DC Comics in exchange for an honest review. 3.5 stars. The story was very routine, nothing really outstanding or new. Even the back and forth banter between Bruce Wayne/Batman and Harvey Bullock seemed forced. The entire storyline seemed forced. The artwork is really what carried this volume, and is the reason it didn't get 2.5 stars. Looking forward to see what else Francis Manapul does with the Detective.

Icarus is a new drug that is hitting the streets of Gotham. Batman is trying to figure out where it is coming from. Meanwhile Bruce Wayne wants to help a do-gooder build a bunch of free rehab clinics along the harbor. The do-gooder has a drug addled daughter who is a X-games star and a rude, annoying teenager. The Do-Gooder gets murdered on Wayne's property and Detective Bullock suspects Bruce Wayne. Batman finds out who is supplying Icarus, as well as the do-gooder's connection to a time when s...

The story probably deserves a 3. But the art, holy shit Manapul!

DCU freashly out of New 52, just after Damian died in Batman Inc before Batman: Superheavy. It was nice. Nice detective work, good bussiness man Bruce Wayne and Bullock and criminal underworld use. The art was fine. The metahuman who the criminal underworld gang used to produce the Icarus drug, what happened to him, idk... i mean Batman came in his mecha armor and punched him, and that was it.. Did he die ? or taken under custody or something... ? Other than this, it was fine. Even if the metahu...

I wanted to give this 3 stars but the writing just kept getting worse. I didn't mind the art and I think the colorist did awesome work but the story itself just wasn't great.

3.5 starsIcarus is basically where we learn that Drugs are bad, M'kay...Honestly, I'm just not a big fan of the Batman fights Drug Dealers stories, so right away this one lost big points with me. And it's not because I think a crack pipe make you look more distinguished, or that giving $5 blowjobs behind a dumpster is classy. It's just... Well, I was a child during the 80's, and I was literally saturated with cheesy anti-drug propaganda. I'm full! Seriously. No thank you, Nana. I don't want anot...

A friend of Bruce Wayne dies after being injected with the drug Icarus and that means that his alter ego Batman goes on a revenge spree to catch the sons of bitches that is behind it before more people die.The art is the best part in this book; I just wish the story had been as good. But I admit that I personally just don't find stories involved drugs and gangs that interesting and I found this book suffered because there wasn't any really interesting villain for Batman to face. I mean I sit her...

Francis Manapul’s Batman is predictable, impersonal, and downright boring. There’s no heart in the hero whose pain should drive him—he just pummels baddies. Alfred is merely his conscience and tech sidekick. And the plot involves bikers, drugs, and a brutalitizing, womanizing Harvey Bullock who’s in a pointless pissing match with Batman. The illustrations? Just okay, if overdone. This deserves a hard pass.

It just came to my attention that Francis Manapul is a Filipino. I'm quite happy about that now, considering I had no idea the entire time I have reviewed his Icarus story arc earlier this afternoon. It was only after I looked at his Goodreads profile that I discovered it. I'm both pleased and embarrassed about this information. Pleased because this is the first time I ever encountered a Filipino writing and illustrating for an internationally recognized industry like DC comics. Embarrassed beca...

A Batman arc with some different art and, I think, an change in writers as well. The art and coloration is decent, although pastel shadings, even the somber ones, were an odd but acceptable choice for a Batman book.Story needs some work, as the motivations are often implied (and when revealed, without drama). I think they are milking the loss-of-a-child-makes-Bruce-more-relatable shtick a bit too far?Book also contains a story from Batman Annual #3. The editors but it out chronological order and...

The creative team behind the Flash gets a chance to take over the #2 Batman book of them all...and surprisingly? It's a vast improvement from Vol. 5, John Layman's turgid last effort.I'm not worried about the drug dealer plot, because every so often you need realism, not crazy assassins and megalomaniacs, just a good old fashioned Biker Gang.The events I guess take place during Jim Gordon's stay in Blackgate, so we get a solid dose of Harvey Bullock, who I love here, other than being a crAyzee C...

Batman goes back to being a detective, which is great considering that the book series is called "Detective Comics". That being said, it was incredibly dark, and the amount of blood that Harvey Bullock lost bordered on the physically impossible.

Lovely art but the storytelling felt discombobulated, at one point I stopped to double-check I hadn't skipped or missed a volume. Overall, I'm not disappointed to have read it, but think it's the weakest of the Detective Comics series.PS Drugs are bad, especially drugs named after ancient Greeks.

This was an interesting series. Has its moments and the art is good at times. Good Batman series Or at least, some I read so far. Good volume.

The art is amazing! AMAZING! AND there's a literal squid in this, plus Harvey Bullock's soft, cat-owning sides comes out a little. It is nice getting the Bullock-Batman dynamic a bit as we are so used to the Gordon-Batman one. I also like the overarching Batman-as-dad theme throughout. There's still a lot of grief from Damian, which is brought up throughout, but there are also just parts about parenting and kids and family. Batman's reaction to those things is more emotional because of what rece...

A solid beginning for Francis Manapul's Batman run. I have to say I'm going to miss him on Flash. His beautiful pencil and inks with Brian Buccellato's amazing colors blended together to make museum quality art. I liked what Francis was trying to do with this book. It just needed a little better pacing and a bit more connective tissue to make the story flow more smoothly. With some more time under his belt, I'm sure this will be another great run. Detective remains one of DC's shining stars of t...

Detective Comics: Icarus picks up where the previous volume left off and collecting the next five issues (Detective Comics #30–34) of the 2011 on-going series with Detective Comic Annual #3 and mainly collects two stories: "Icarus" and "Icarus: Chaos Theory"."Icarus" is a four-issue storyline (Detective Comics #30–33) with a conclusion (Detective Comics #34) and a tie-in story in Detective Comics Annual #3 and has Bruce Wayne as Batman taking on the Squid (Lawrence Loman), who is a drug lord, wh...

Not a fan of the art in the flashback sequences.