Joker War Spills Over into Detective 1025

The Joker has struck his biggest blow against the Dark Knight -- he has taken all the billions of Bruce Wayne and has assumed control of Wayne Enterprises, including all the attendant Batman technology. Bruce Wayne has been exposed as an embezzler, redirecting Wayne Foundation funds into financially supporting Batman's war on crime -- which is, in fact, true, since Bruce Wayne set up several shell companies to hide the fact he had been doing exactly this for years.

Now Gotham City is under seige, with Batman and the police being the last line of defense against the Joker and his minions, armed to the teeth with Batman-weaponry. The new Wayne Foundation lawyers are also pressing things on the legal end -- against the police and the press, silencing all opposition as best they can.

With DETECTIVE COMICS 1025, we shift the action to the point of view of Batwoman, Kate Kane, who comes to the aid of Commissioner Bullock and a battalian of GCPD, pinned down under no less than mortar fire from a group of Joker goons operating outside of a Wayne building in which a Joker-toxined Lucius Fox is forced to operate a 3-D weapons printer. Saving the police -- and Lucius -- is going to rely on Batman pulling out one of his secret contingency plans, and even that isn't going to be enough.

Batwoman's military experience comes to the fore in this chapter, as she orders around the GCPD, and even stands up to Batman himself (getting him to actually, finally, say "Please" at one point in the story).

Where this issue of DETECTIVE COMICS falls in the overall "Joker War" story is not clear, as the Batman we just left over in the main title is still fighting off the effects of a new Joker toxin and a major ass-kicking from Punchline. This Batman is very clear-headed and determined, and not hearing the disembodied voice of his deceased butler, Alfred. So there could have been a little more coordination between 'TEC writer Peter J. Tomasi and BATMAN writer James Tynion IV. Then again, the 'TEC story does have the disclamatory title, "Tales from the Joker War," so it's not necessarily meant to be alternating chapters of the main narrative. So as a standalone story, "Attack on Wayne Enterprises" is a block of excitement from first page to last, with some stunningly good artwork from Kenneth Rocafort. It's not a necessary chapter of Joker War, but it's a satisfying one.