Javier Fernández Cover C Variant
Detective Comics 2026 Annual
Writers: Dave Wielgosz, Tom Taylor,
Artists: Fran Mariscal, Nicola Scott
Cover Artists: Guillem March, Javier Fernández, Nicola Scott
Colorists: Annette Kwok, Fran Mariscal
Letterers: Becca Carey, Wes Abbott
Publisher: DC Comics
“Try to be kinder to yourself, Master Bruce. Your happiness needn't be confined to a dream.”
—Alfred Pennyworth
Double the Pages, Double the Trouble
As this is an annual, we’ll be splitting the review into two sections, giving each story its own look.
For the Main Man Who Has Everything: Batman is wrongfully accused of murdering a king on the alien planet Durghan. Lobo is sent to collect the bounty on that bastich’s head, only to discover that Batman has been framed! Together, they team up to clear Batman’s name. Will they be able to do it, or will Batman meet his final days?
Pyg Pen: Carol Street Studio is the resident hub for Gotham City’s starving artists, both literally and figuratively, given the harsh reality of Gotham’s infrastructure. The building encourages creative freedom among its tenants, serving as a haven for future Rembrandts and Picassos alike. That all changes when the mysterious Mr. Sty takes up residence, bringing an “avant-garde” style of art that threatens to disrupt the sanctuary of Carol Street Studio. Will the tenants be able to reclaim Carol Street, or will Mr. Sty reshape it into his own twisted vision?
Good Cop, Bad Bastich
Batman and Lobo? A good cop, bad cop team-up? Well, it can’t be that odd of a pairing. Stone Cold and Dude Love were WWF Tag Team Champions once upon a time and look how that turned out! Austin 3:16 says I just bastich’d your ass, or something like that.
Right, sorry. Back on track.
Tom Taylor does a great job balancing Batman and Lobo’s personalities throughout the story. If he isn’t a big Lobo fan, it’s certainly hard to tell. I get the distinct impression that he’s having a blast writing the Main Man, and honestly, he does him justice. In fact, if DC ever gave Taylor the opportunity to write his own Lobo series, I’d pick that book up ASAP.
The unlikely duo sets sail for the planet Durghan to find out who accused Batman of murder, but not before Lobo stops to feed the intergalactic fishes! Ah, Lobo, ever the compassionate animal lover. How could you possibly hate the guy? You know, whenever he’s not jabbing his thumb in your eye socket.
Once they arrive, the Main Man has only one thing on his mind: trying the local delicacy. The delicacy being beer, of course. Much to my dismay, this does not lead to a drinking contest between Batman and Lobo at the bar. Oh well. Batman has bigger fish to fry as he questions the patrons about the political climate of Durghan.
He discovers that while they enjoy their monarchy, they aren’t quite as fond of their president and his tyrannical government. They aren’t simply unhappy with their current political situation; they’re on the verge of a full-fledged war.
Batman and Lobo gain access to the monarchy’s living quarters and ask the president to see the king so Batman can perform his own autopsy. The president agrees, and the duo discovers suspicious markings consistent with the Black Mercy on the king’s chest. For those unfamiliar with it, the Black Mercy is a plant-like organism that attaches itself to the pleasure receptors of the nervous system, inducing its victim into a comatose state where they’re suspended in a utopian world where everything is exactly as they’d want it to be.
Satisfied with the evidence they’ve collected, the duo turns around, only to be greeted by the president. It turns out he carefully laid a trap to lure both Batman and Lobo in, sticking the Black Mercy onto them just as he did with the king.
As Batman and Lobo lie unconscious, the only question left to ask is…
Will they be able to snap out of the Black Mercy’s grasp?
Sweet Dreams Are Made of This
No stranger to the Batman universe, Nicola Scott does a hell of a job here. Lobo isn’t as jacked up and bulky as I’d prefer him to be, but other than that, she draws a damn good Lobo. Likewise, she draws a great Batman.
I especially loved the Batman she drew in the dream sequence, wearing the grey suit with yellow and blue accents, perfectly complemented by Annette Kwok’s colors. I wish we could have gotten the entire annual in this suit, honestly. Scott really nails the look, but alas, I don’t work for DC editorial.
Speaking of Annette, her coloring during the section where Batman and Lobo traverse the galaxy is excellent. The panel where Lobo stops to feed the fishes is my favorite, with a beautiful purple hue hovering over them the entire time. It looks fantastic and adds some much-needed levity so early in the issue, given its subject matter.
Pygasso
A noticeably shorter installment than its predecessor, Pyg Pen centers around the residents of Carol Street Studio: Olivia, an artist who likes to get her hands dirty producing metal sculptures; Al, the printmaking wiz of the group; and William, the most experienced artist and a masterful painter.
That is as much characterization as all three of these characters get.
While they’re easy enough to tell apart, there’s nothing remotely intriguing about them or their quest to discover who Mr. Sty is. They find out that Mr. Sty is a very unusual artist. He keeps expired meat around, much to everyone’s displeasure, while wearing little to no clothing to expose his “natural beauty,” as he calls it.
The group discusses Mr. Sty’s behavior with Miss Kit, the building’s landlord, along with all the horrible transgressions he’s committed since moving in. He’s single-handedly responsible for running artists out of Carol Street, and he relishes in it. William, Olivia, and Al, on the other hand, not so much.
As it turns out, Mr. Sty is considered a valued tenant by Miss Kit. He pays more rent than the group does combined, and whenever an artist leaves, he ups his rent to Kit, keeping her satisfied and encouraging her to look the other way.
Pygment of His Imagination
The last straw comes when Olivia sneaks into Mr. Sty’s apartment. Sty slowly unzips a body bag, revealing Batman inside, completely out of it and unaware of his surroundings. Horrified, Olivia rushes back to her friends and convinces them that she saw Batman being held captive by Mr. Sty.
And, well…I understand that the spotlight must go to these new characters, but like I mentioned before, there simply isn’t enough meat on the bone here to get me to care about them saving Batman.
Where the hell is Robin? Nightwing? Batgirl? Batwoman? Quite literally, ANYONE from the Batfamily?
Couldn’t we have built toward something more climactic and satisfying than having three barely developed characters be the ones responsible for saving Batman? I’m honestly baffled by the decision, but I think I know where the problem lies.
Respectfully, I don’t understand how Dave Wielgosz expects the reader to suddenly become invested in these characters. Like I mentioned in the previous section, there simply isn’t enough room in a 10-page story to give them the backstory and characterization necessary to make their big moment feel earned. And that’s a shame, because I actually love the idea behind them.
The concept of introducing a new street in Gotham is genuinely exciting. It’s a new corner of the city that we, as readers, get to discover for the first time, and there’s plenty of potential for Wielgosz to expand on it and develop these characters further. Had this been given the standard 22-page treatment, who knows? Maybe they would have had enough room to establish their personalities, flesh out their relationships, and, most importantly, give us a reason to care when they eventually step up to save Batman.
Instead, the story asks us to care about three characters who have barely had the opportunity to introduce themselves. It’s not that I dislike them; I simply haven’t been given enough reason to care about them yet.
And that’s ultimately why their big heroic moment falls flat: the story wants us to care about the payoff before it’s done the work of making us care about the characters. The ingredients are there, but the story doesn’t give them enough time to cook.
Mr. Sty reveals himself to be Professor Pyg, to perhaps the shock of no one, and the ragtag bunch of artists find Batman hanging from a meat hook by his cape. No longer incapacitated, he’s aware of his surroundings, and the trio helps him down before carrying him out of Professor Pyg’s reach.
As Batman regains his composure, he comes face-to-face with Professor Pyg in a final showdown, looking to get revenge for what Pyg has done to him.
A Bloody Blank Canvas
The art is far more serviceable than the contents of the narrative. It’s still not great, unfortunately.
Credit to Fran Mariscal for handling both the artistic and coloring duties here. That’s never easy to juggle, and I’m willing to tip my hat to anyone for trying. Sadly, his color palette is dull and washed out. Perhaps that was intentional to fit the story’s overall aesthetic, but it comes across as flat to me.
What I did enjoy about Mariscal’s artwork was his depiction of Professor Pyg’s apartment. It’s eerie and sinister, full of knives, metal cabinets, a makeshift operating table, and minimal furniture, really driving home the point that he’s one sick individual.
To top it off, there’s a window directly in front of the operating table, with one panel framing Pyg as he looks over the street, presumably searching for his next victim to practice his “art” on. I really dig that. It’s ominous framing.
A Tale of Two Halves
If Detective Comics 2026 Annual were simply For the Main Man Who Has Everything as a double-sized issue, this would be as good of an annual as you could ask for.
It’s an effective odd-couple team-up, with enough adventure and hijinks to keep you engaged, surprising chemistry between its two leads, and a fantastic heart-to-heart conversation between Batman and Alfred.
An easy 8/10.
Unfortunately, the second story drags the overall issue down. Its characters are unmemorable, their development is paper-thin, and the narrative simply isn’t compelling enough to stand alongside its predecessor.