Batman: Death and the City

Batman

by Paul Dini, Stuart Moore, Royal McGraw

In this collection of stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #827-834, Batman lives up to his reputation as the World's Greatest Detective as he takes on such evildoers as the Ventriloquist, Scarface, Vox, Harley Quinn, the Terrible Trio and more!

Genres: Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Paul Dini is an American television producer of animated cartoons. He is best known as a producer and writer for several Warner Bros./DC Comics series, including Star Wars: Ewoks, Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman/Superman Adventures, Batman Beyond and Duck Dodgers. He also developed and scripted Krypto the Superdog and contributed scripts to Animaniacs (he created Minerva Mink), Freakazoid, Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. After leaving Warner Bros. In early 2004, Dini went on to write and story edit the popular ABC adventure series Lost.

Paul Dini was born in New York City. He attended the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, California on an art scholarship. He attended Emerson College in Boston, where he earned a BFA degree in creative writing. (He also took zoology classes at Harvard University.)

During college, he began doing freelance animation scripts for Filmation, and a number of other studios. In 1984, he was hired to work for George Lucas on several of his animation projects.

The episodes of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon that were written by Dini have become favorites amongst the show's fans over the internet, although despite this as well as contributing to interviews on the released box sets of the series, Dini has made no secret of his distaste for Filmation and the He-Man concept. He also wrote an episode of the Generation One Transformers cartoon series and contributed to various episodes of the Ewoks animated series, several of which included rare appearances from the Empire.

In 1989, he was hired at Warner Bros. Animation to work on Tiny Toon Adventures. Later, he moved onto Batman: The Animated Series, where he worked as a writer, producer and editor, later working on Batman Beyond. He continued working with WB animation, working on a number of internal projects, including Krypto the Superdog and Duck Dodgers, until 2004.

He has earned five Emmy awards for his animation work. In a related effort, Dini was also the co-author (with Chip Kidd) of Batman Animated, a 1998 non-fiction coffee table book about the animated Batman franchise.

Dini has also written several comics stories for DC Comics, including an acclaimed oversized graphic novel series illustrated by painter Alex Ross. (A hardcover collection of the Dini and Ross stories was published in late summer 2005 under the title The World's Greatest Superheroes.) Other books written by Dini for DC have featured his Batman Animated creation Harley Quinn as well as classic characters Superman, Batman, Captain Marvel and Zatanna.

Best known among Dini's original creations is Jingle Belle, the rebellious teen-age daughter of Santa Claus. Dini also created Sheriff Ida Red, the super-powered cowgirl star of a series of books set in Dini's mythical town of Mutant, Texas. Perhaps his greatest character contribution is the introduction of Harley Quinn (along with designs by Bruce Timm) on Batman: The Animated Series.

In 2001 Dini made a cameo appearance in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back during the scene in which Jay and Silent Bob wear ridiculous looking costumes for a film being directed by Chris Rock, in which Dini says to them "you guys look pretty bad ass".

In 2006, Dini became the writer for DC Comics' Detective Comics. That same year, he announced that he was writing a hardcover graphic novel starring Zatanna and Black Canary. In 2007, he was announced as the head writer of that company's weekly series, Countdown. Paul Dini is currently co-writing the script for the upcoming Gatchaman movie. Dini is also currently writing a series for Top Cow Productions, based in a character he created, Madame Mirage.

Paul Dini is an active cryptozoologist, hunter and wildlife photographer. On a 1985 trip to Tasmania, he had a possible sighting of a Thylacine. He has also encountered a number of venomous snakes, a Komodo Dragon and a charging Sumatran Rhi

Reviews

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was really good!

Its a collection of short stories and we get to see Batman going against a variety of threats like whats going on with the new Ventriloquist and the mystical nature of Scarface and it was kinda fun and there is even a story with Harley and Batman teaming up to stop her which was so cool and really shines a bright light on the villain!

Then when Wayne Corp gets under attack by some guy calling himself Vox, what does Batman do to stop it and save the people there and I like how the writer focuses on Tim here and its a hostage story with Batman to rescue and it could have been better tbh but still fun and there is a story with someone hunting a villain group called the terrible trio and it has meh and felt like a filler, which it was.

And then the big one with Zatanna and Batman teaming up and I love the way Dini carried over the story from Identity crisis and plays on that tension and finally giving sort of a conclusion to the Joker story that he has been building towards and it was so awesome! The art was great there and I love the way he writes Zee and also the twists and turns were good and it is easily the best story of the lot!

SO overall a good story collection and I will definitely recommend checking it out!

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't go in looking for an overarching story arc. There isn't one, and there doesn't need to be. It's simply a collection of really good Batman stories, written mostly but not entirely by Paul Dini. There's the introduction of a new Ventriloquist, a continuation of the reformed Riddler arc, a newly reformed Harley Quinn, a team-up with Zatanna, and even a story with the Terrible Trio (those guys in the animal masks). Yes, they're all one or two issue stories, but they're solid and very enjoyable to read. The art, by Don Kramer and Andy Clarke, is uniformly excellent. And the covers? Amazing. Absolutely worth the price of admission.

[Molly™☺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun collection of mainly single issue story lines, it would benefit from some more memorable narratives, but does nothing wrong with the material that it does offer. Perfect for a quick pick up and read, the shorter format is always welcomed amongst the sea of the bloated and never-ending.

[Donovan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not great, but some decent stories in here. I don't know why Paul Dini can't write a large story arc though.

[Katherine (Kat) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5 Stars

Individual issues rated below -

Detective Comics #827: 3.5/5
Detective Comics #828: 3/5
Detective Comics #829: 2.5/5
Detective Comics #830: 2.5/5
Detective Comics #831: 4/5
Detective Comics #832: 2.5/5
Detective Comics #833: 4/5
Detective Comics #834: 4.5/5

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories about the Batman, featuring a return of Scarface, the death of an old friend, a politically motivated terrorist intent on bringing down the Wayne building through C4 explosives, a Harley Quinn escapade, and Zatanna joins Batman to hunt down a rogue magician with a dark secret.

Some of the stories are ok like "Siege" which is more involving as it's longer than one issue and features Bruce Wayne unable to change into Batman so has to rely on Tim Drake as Robin to take down the bad guy, or "Trust" the Zatanna story which had a nice twist and had some cool imagery. But on the whole, the stories are kind of average for Batman. Not very interesting, not too boring, just so so.

Also the stories only underlined how worn out the characters of Harley Quinn and Scarface are - they don't do anything in these stories but play their usual roles and then the story ends. Maybe it's time to not bother with them or kill them off?

The book is definitely only for Batman fans who must read everything Batman related, otherwise I wouldn't bother.

[Blindzider · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bumped this up from 3 to 4 stars, because I was actually surprised by one of the stories here and that doesn't happen to often.

This time around 5 of the 8 stories are by Dini, and this time some of the stories are related which helps with the payoff. There's also a story featuring Zatanna that references Identity Crisis, letting you know just when in time this story takes place. It's such a small moment between the two but if you know what happened in IC, it has a big meaning.

Again, just some really solid stories, but Dini is able to pack so much in such a little space. It's nice to have a story where Batman is just Batman being BATMAN.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

A random assortment of short stories featuring our favorite nocturnal master detective:

Double Talk - the return of Ventriloquist & Scarface (yawn) and a cameo by the narcoleptic Mr. ZZZ (he's hilarious); I'm glad this somewhat lackluster opener didn't dissuade me from continuing with the book. On the plus-side - Bruce Wayne is undercover as 'Lefty' Knox.

Shark Bite - another unplanned team-up of sorts with Mr. E. Nigma, private detective (a.k..a. Riddler), this time to investigate the odd murder of Bruce Wayne's childhood friend.

Siege (two chapters) - Bruce Wayne and argumentative foreign diplomats attending a conference in Wayne Tower are trapped by Vox the terrorist. Another Die Hard retread? Not exactly, but who cares? Featuring able assistance by 'johnny-on-the-spot' Robin.

Kind of Like Family - Ventriloquist & Scarface again (snore), but a parole-seeking Harley Quinn is the actual star of the tale.

Triage - featuring the Terrible Trio, those weird guys wearing the animal masks. Kind of thin.

Trust (two chapters) - a "The Brave and the Bold"-inspired adventure (kicking off with the unexplained death of a magician's assistant) with Batman and Zatanna. Nice flashbacks to Bruce Wayne's childhood, plus other plot developments, to establish the duo's connection. Then there's the villain of the piece . . .

The two multi-part stories had a lot of action and suspense, and were my favorites of the collection.

[Panos · Rating 4 out of 5]

BATMAN:DEATH AND THE CITY (4/5)

A new collection of Detective Comics, compiling issues 827-834 and featuring writers Paul Dini, Stuart Moore and Royal McGraw is out and serves as sequel of sorts to BATMAN:DETECTIVE. The majority of its stories continue the several plot threads of its unofficial prequel.


In issues #827 and #831, Dini adds the infamous Ventriloquist to his cast of villains. (Un)fortunately this one hasn’t gone straight like the Riddler and the Penguin and seems willing to make up for the time he was away.

For those of you who haven’t been following the Batman continuity since the end of INFINITE CRISIS, the original ventriloquist Arnold Wesker was shot and killed by an assassin hired by Gotham’s new mob boss, the Great White Shark during the BATMAN:FACE THE FACE storyline. And although Dini initially plays a bit with the idea of a resurrected Wesker, the whole obvious truth is revealed by the end of the story. Scarface has attracted a new ventriloquist or better yet trapped a new victim.

Issue #827 offers a strong introduction to a classic villain of the 90’s and presents Dini’s modern take on the duo of Ventriloquist/Scarface. To better appreciate the puns and references in this story, you might want to re-read Detective Comics #824 (“Night of the Penguin”).

The next part of the new Ventriloquist’s tale comes with issue #831. Star of this story is Harley Quinn, Paul Dini’s greatest contribution to the Batman franchise. Since you probably haven’t been keeping up with her, Harley is imprisoned in Arkham Asylum after the events of Batman #663 (“The Clown at Midnight”). After being betrayed by her beloved “Mistah Jay”, Harley claims to be free of his influence and requests release from Arkham.

And although her request is turned down by Bruce Wayne, a member of the asylum’s board who seems to have something personal against our girl, Harley eventually gets her wish in a more direct way. Much to her disdain, she is broken out by Scarface who needs her abilities to pull off a job.

Dini “owns” the character of Harley Quinn, probably because he created her. She is the heroine of the story and extremely well-scripted. Plus, we get an extra bonus of a flashback scene from her first visit at Arkham as a patient.


Remember that suggestion a few lines above about re-reading issue #824 of Detective Comics? Time to take it under more serious consideration since ‘TEC issues #833 and #834 are a two-part story that is essentially a direct sequel.

Anyway, for those who remember, the magician Ivar Loxias appears again in Gotham for a number of performances. However, an awful lot of accidents happen with the latest being the tragic death of one of Loxias’ female assistants. Since the latter used to be one of Zatanna’s closest friend, Batman invites her to investigate together.

Dini really does it this time, offering classic mystery coupled with amazing action scenes and character development. And let’s not forget the classic black humor, offered by a certain character of the story. The second part also shows Batman finally forgiving Zatanna for her actions that led to IDENTITY CRISIS, a few years back.

To be done with Paul Dini and move on to other writers, a quick summary issue #828 must be given. A sequel to ‘TEC #822, it features good old Eddie Nigma in one more story of his days as private investigator. Much like the prequel, it presents a decent mystery, with well-written dialogues and more of Batman/Riddler scenes.

Don Kramer is the penciller of all five issues and seems to have improved in the area of facial discrimination. Beautiful pencil work as usually with attention to details. Issue #834 also marks the end of his run in Detective Comics.


Writer Stuart Moore presents a two-part story entitled “Siege”, first published in ‘TEC 829-830, which is included in this collection.

During an international anti-terror conference at Wayne Tower, a terrorist named Vox gets into the building and causes a series of explosions, threatening to bring the whole place down. While Batman must remain in his Bruce Wayne persona along with his guests, Robin (Tim Drake) tries to stop the villain all by himself. This is a fast-paced, action-packed story through which the writer successfully sends clear messages against war.


And lastly, writer Royal McGraw offers a one-shot story entitled “Triage”, published in ‘TEC #832.

Have you heard of the “Terrible Trio”? A bunch of losers back from the ‘70s (or ‘80s, can’t recall). The story offers some background information on them and their past activities. Anyway, someone is targeting them, taking out one after the other and Batman tries to stop him. Guess what; he succeeds. This is not a boring story but kind of indifferent given how lame the villain(s) is.

Andy Clarke draws both these stories. He hasn’t yet reached the level of his recent work in “Batman vs. Robin” here although both tales don’t suffer from any art problems.

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Painfully average and boring. I give all the respect for Dini's show, but for comics, he just doesn't write a very compelling Batman.

[Bader Al Shirawi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death and the city consists of 5 Batman stories.

The first three stories were okay but forgettable.I really loved the last two, so this review will basically be talking about the two stories that I loved. I'll try not to spoil. TRY.

The fourth story is about Harley Quinn,Scarface and the Ventriloquist, well, Batman is there obviously but the story mostly focuses on Harley and Ventrilquist's relationship which I had no idea of, also what's really interesting is seeing how Batman treated Harley at the end of the issue. Although I don't understand how the doll (Scarface) can speak without anyone holding or controlling him, is there any supernatural element going on with him? Need more info on this guy.

The fifth story revolves around Batman and Zatanna going on a detective mission. However, it is the first mission they've been together after Zatanna betrayed him. (They don't mention how she betrayed him so you need to google that shit!) Batman has a hard time trusting her which resulted to a couple of consequences. This story told me so many things about Zatanna that I felt like I've known her very well from before.

I HIGHLY recommended reading Batman:Detective before reading this so you'd feel more connected to these five stories. This novel is a great follow up.

[Mikhail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many people have complained that these stories are of the one-and-done fashion, but that's partly why I love the two Dini collections as well as the rest of his run--including Heart of Hush, which was a five-issue arc and far superior to the overrated RIP debacle handled by Morrison. What I found most interesting about these two trades was, despite the one-and-done format, there were countless amounts of entertaining threads running through the whole Dini run such as The Riddler going straight, the repeated appearance of Scar Face, the interesting flirtations between Batman and Zatana, and etc. Although the book may seem as if Dini wrote these things as he went along, in my eyes, this was a fully realized and wholly enjoyable run on Detective Comics. Kudos, Mr. Dini!

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-written detective stories.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Batman: Death and the City is a collection of semi-interconnect one-issue stories mainly written by Paul Dini. Batman: Death and the City collect eight issues (Detective Comics #827–834) from the 1937 series run and collects six stories: "Double Talk", "Sharkbite", "Siege", "Kind of Like Family", "Triage" and "Trust".

Batman: Death and the City is another collection set of largely standalone stories, chronicling Bruce Wayne as Batman's clashes with the new Ventriloquist (Detective Comics #827) and the Terrible Trio (Detective Comics #832), uneasy alliances with the Riddler (Detective Comics #828) and Harley Quinn (Detective Comics #831), and rekindling romance with Zatanna (Detective Comics #833–834).

Paul Dini (Detective Comics #827–828, 831, 833–834), Stuart Moore (Detective Comics #829–830), and Royal McGraw (Detective Comics #832) penned the trade paperback. For the most part, it is written rather well. Dini is a master of done-in-one (or two) stories that are continuity-rich enough both within itself and with the DCU as a whole to appeal to regular fans, but self-contained enough that any casual reader could pick them up, which is a difficult thing to do.

Don Kramer (Detective Comics #827–828, 831, 833–834) and Andy Clarke (Detective Comics #829–830 and 832) penciled the trade paperback. For the most part, the penciling styles of each artist meshed well with each other, which make the artistic flow of the trade paperback rather smoothly.

All in all, Batman: Death and the City is another wonderful collection of stories written mainly by famed writer Paul Dini.

[Jason Tanner · Rating 4 out of 5]

An improvement over the first volume, IMO. The book definitely had BTAS vibes, and it worked better here. I think Dining was still finding his voice in "Detective," but he's got it for this one.

The writing style has loosened up, in the sense that Dini is no longer constraining himself to done in one stories. They are still shorter, just a couple issues each, but the change gives the book more room to breathe.

That being said, half the book is written by fill-in writers, but their styles were close enough that I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't read the credits.

The art on the other hand, was noticably variable. Mostly it was all fine, but Andy Clarke's faces really bug me. The line work does not appeal to me at all. Kramer, generally is still pretty good in this volume.

One thing I really loved about the Zatanna arc is that Dini finally put the Identity Crisis nonsense to bed. The further I get from that storyline, the more the whole thing pisses me off. So I'm glad they buried the hatchet and I hope I never read another new reference to that damn miniseries again.

[Vinicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apesar de não possuir nenhuma grande trama com reviravoltas, algo espetacular de explodir a cabeça e algo do tipo, o encadernado traz edições escritas pelo Paul Dini que possuem roteiro muito bom, e tramas "simples", mas que cativam o leitor e desenvolvem muito bem os personagens trabalhados.

Nas histórias, teremos a redenção da Arlequina tentando uma vida nova, o Charada tentando continuar a vida como detetive profissional, a nova Ventríloquo com o Scarface causando em Gotham e uma história envolvendo a Zatanna e o Coringa.

O bacana de ler as histórias do Paul Dini, além do roteiro, é que ele trabalha muito bem o homem morcego, amarrando as tramas com a cronologia e com o que estava acontecendo na época em que saiu a edição. Além disso, Dini conhece muito bem a cronologia do Batman, e por isso, consegue trabalhar e desenvolver personagens que as vezes ficam de lado ou estão sem evolução no universo do Batman. O roteirista soma muito dando profundidade a personagens do universo do Morcego.

[Nate]

While Grant Morrison was subjecting Batman to Tibetan death mediation and teaming him up with Bat-Mite, Paul Dini was writing straightforward crime stories in Detective Comics. I read the first collection, Detective, a while back, and this follows in the same vein with standalone stories. My favorites are the ones with Harley Quinn and Zatanna, both of which feature some surprising character growth. Two stories are written by fill-in writers - Stuart Moore and Royal McGraw - and while they might not be up to Dini's standard, they're still good.

It's nice to read a modern superhero comic of standalone stories, which are becoming something of a lost art.

[Michael Padilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a decent collection of stories. They are all pretty much stand alone tales with the slightest of references to each other besides two of them being directly connected.

“Shark Bite”, “Siege” 1&2 and “Triage” were pretty terrible. But thankfully, “Double Talk” which centers around Scarface, “Kind of Like Family” involving Harley Quinn and especially both parts of “Trust” with Zatanna were enjoyable and made the book tolerable.

The art was serviceable but not nothing spectacular. Overall it was an ok read but nothing memorable either.

[Daniel Kovacs Rezsuk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really good but in a way that felt unusual, at least in the context of semi-recent Batman volumes. It's a collection of several loosely tied one-off and two-parter stories and while they were not particularly earth-shattering on their own, together I still got the impression that Paul Dini and company pretty much nailed it and achieved the best they could in this format. Like a series of excellent B: TAS episodes, but more adult and pulpy and less cartoony in style and tone.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Paul Dini shows how he's got such a great handle on Batman. Here, along with some other creators, delve in Gotham's denizens. Dini teams with Don Kramer and introduces readers to a new Ventriloquist, redeems Harley, and deals with more evil. I really enjoyed it. Stuart Moore and Royal McGraw also contributed some solid reads. Kramer art is very good and he is underappreciated. Overall, this book and run eclipses Grant Morrison's more talked about snoozefest.

[Chris Browning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Proof, if proof were needed, that modest and methodical Batman writing is a million times better than showy and nasty Batman. Heavy on the detective work and nicely understated, but that allows for decent character writing. I’m not wildly keen on Kramer and Faucher’s art but Clarke is great and none of it is, thankfully, hard work so all in all a success I think

[Jin · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Paul Dini writing Batman, what could go wrong? This is a collection of interesting Batman stories circling back to the main premise about Scarface. An entertaining read with the elements that complete a Dark Knight Detective story.

[Andy Dainty · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 1st 3 issues were good detective storylines; unfortunately I just wasn't feeling it with the 2nd 3 storylines; I have read much better Batman - Zatanna team ups before, this seemed too contrived.

[Alek Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good works by Paul Dini and a couple guest writers. 2 issue stories with minor characters from the previous book.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part for me was Harley's relationship with Arnold being spelled out. All of the stories were good, though naturally they varied in quality as any collection might.

[mayleh · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️3.5

[Ehsan Dhrrubo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is getting better and better

[Samuel Hickman · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

Real good stories.

[Seth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this like a week ago. It was a really great and entertaining story.

[Sam K · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death and the City wasnt amazing, but it’s what I wish superhero comics would do more of: Having classic, one-off superhero adventures where it’s just defeating the bad guy or solving a mystery.

While the game-changing, paradigm shifting, existential crisis, big event driven, long-term, and meta stories are cool, I would like to see more superhero comics embracing the quintessential superhero stories that they’re known for.

While not by Dini, there are issues in this mostly Dini collection that I think would’ve fit in the omni as the initial Detective run was an anthology and the stories by the other writers fit the style and tone of what Dini is doing.

Particularly, there’s a fun two-parter by Stuart Moore about Batman and Robin catching a terrorist bombing peace talks being hosted by Bruce.

It gives weight to the the bigger stories and can be fun to read.