Detective Comics #1106
Author : Tom Taylor
Artist : Mikel Janin
The Courage That Kills : Issue #1106 Summary
Detective Comics #1106 offers a finale that all fans of this story will appreciate. Taylor gives us both a great short-term solution to oppress the No Fear Virus, and then provides the cure in a way that was shown to us earlier in the series.
We get to see a Gotham City with no fear, and it is both elevating and debilitating, more great thought-provoking writing from Taylor. What I loved throughout this pulse racing issue and story arc, is that as a reader I was consistently challenged with the positives and negatives of primal human emotions—courage and fear.
Courage To Accept Fear : Issue #1106 Review
WARNING SPOILERS!
Bat of the Jungle
Detective Comics #1106 gave me as the reader everything I wanted from the finale: rage, resolution, and reflection. Taylor once again nails the pacing in Detective Comics #1106 right from the off—he shows us the benefits and drawbacks of having courage, which was cleverly presented as opposed to having no fear. It really started the issue off by making me think about that aspect, as I’m pondering over that, Taylor expertly takes the pace up a gear—Batman combats the Courage Killing virus with Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin.
This was great writing from Taylor because The Lion has been one, even two steps ahead of Batman; however, in the end, the Dark Knight was able to utilise Occam’s Razor and look for the simplest solution. For a character so expert at planning, it was great for me as a reader because the whole series, I’m trying to think of how Bat’s is going to get this virus out of his system, and the answer was to give himself another toxin!
From the off, Mikel Janin does an awesome job of giving me, as a reader, the feeling that this is the culmination of an epic story. The way in which he angles and scatters the panels throughout the first 7 pages of Detective Comics #1106 gave me the sense that everything and everyone is kicking off in Gotham City at the same time. The sense of being overwhelmed helped me understand the urgency and pressure that Batman was under to save the over-courageous Gothamites.
Fields of Fear
Batman has now injected himself with Scarecrow’s fear toxin to battle The Lion’s No Fear virus, allowing him to feel fear again, question his decisions, and ultimately help him defeat The Lion in a good old-fashioned fisticuffs. As a reader, I love that Taylor always makes his narrative decisions make sense, for example, by fighting The Lion (trained by Wildcat) with fear in his veins, he’s able to be wary enough to dodge his hits. Now he’s thinking clearly again, he needs to figure out how to stop a city-wide riot—the people versus the police, run by Wendel Savage.
What was fitting from Taylor’s writing is that the first thing Bruce did now that he’s thinking straight again, is to check on his son, Damian; showing that even though with all of this craziness going on around him, it was his son’s wellbeing that was on his mind. Now there is a massive catastrophe waiting to happen, Gothamites revolting against the police establishment for treating the populous poorly, and an evil commissioner in Savage, who’s ordered his officers to stop the revolt with any means necessary. This further established the effect of the Fear Killing virus, as police officers were ready to shoot civilians on sight.
Taylor gave me, as the reader, a simple solution to cure the population of Gotham, spreading Scarecrow’s Fear Toxin with crop dusters. To me, the use of crop dusters was a clever, tongue-in-cheek reference to the Scarecrow—pastures, fields, and crops, places where you keep a Scarecrow. This works, of course, it does, Batman and Mr. Terrific thought of the plan, but it is a temporary fix, which left the ending of Detective Comics #1106 still interesting for me as a reader.
Lion King
Batman proves to be the King of The Lion after outsmarting him in the eleventh hour, but this was only a short-term fix. The most brilliant bit of writing in Detective Comics #1106 comes when Taylor recalls the gift Bruce received from a stranger, a drink from Bruce’s meeting with Leo Kingsford. It was great, because once that was mentioned, it clicked for me as a reader, I felt like I had figured out, along with Batman, that type of reader engagement was a great touch to this finale.
The drink that Leo gifted Bruce with contained the cure to the No Fear virus. Excellent storytelling from Tom Taylor because the man who saved Gotham from the No Fear virus was actually Leo Kingsford, aka The Lion himself—even though his scheme was born from his hatred of Batman, he saved the city through his love of Bruce Wayne.
The most telling moment of this wonderful story from Taylor is how he creates the mirror comparison between Bruce and Leo. Both had their parents taken away from them in different ways—we know Bruce’s story, but Leo’s father was the opposite, a criminal who was taken from him by Batman. This fuelled Leo just as it did Bruce; they both wanted to save Gotham in different ways, contrasting ways.
Bruce wanted to rid Gotham City of fear by eradicating crime and corruption. Leo wanted to eliminate courage to free the people, but to their detriment. That was the amazing perspective of this story; it made me realise that fear is a good thing, it makes you judge what you’re doing, and that restraint is a good weight to have on your decisions.
Marvellous Mikel
Mr. Janin has been phenomenal in his level of artwork throughout this Courage That Kills story arc. His panelling has been on the money, aligned to the pace of the narrative that Taylor wants to set. The colouring from Mikel Janin has been wonderful; he has chosen the right brightness to set the mood of every scene.
My favourite pages were side-by-side scenes of Bruce taking the Fear Toxin from Scarecrow, next to the fear itself, mixing Bruce’s best and worst moments from his life. Firstly, the panelling from Batman taking the toxin is brilliant at creating a frantic and chaotic pace, making me feel the torment that Batman is facing whilst the Fear Toxin battles the No Fear virus. The dynamic shapes and placements of panels made my eyes cross the entire page, bringing the commotion from the page to my eyes.
Then the contrast of memories, this page is all about the brightness composition, the way Janin colours the left-hand side to be bright, welcoming and warm shows how fond Bruce is of these memories. In contrast, the right-side is dull, greyer and has facial expressions drawn with pain, anger and sadness.
Conclusion & Rating
Detective Comics #1106 was a brilliant ending to a fantastic story arc, introducing a new villain, threat, and challenging Batman mentally. The finale gave me, as a reader, the most important thing: closure. Taylor gave us an ending that made sense, Batman using one of his most infamous foes’ toxins to cure a virus from one of his newest enemies.
I would recommend this story for any Batman fans, because the story is new, it’s fresh and it’ll help anyone hop into Detective Comics in the future. Also, the artwork from Janin, in most issues he’s drawn, inked and coloured the whole book, and that adds a fantastic noir vibe to the whole story. I give this issue an 8/10, but the whole story arc deserves a 9.5/10.