Customer Reviews

Batman: Private Casebook (Batman (DC Comics Hardcover))

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To anyone familiar with Paul Dini and Co's steady run on Detective Comics, there isn't anything major to report. This latest collection starts out propitiously with an epilogue to the recently completed Ra's al Ghul crossover, and then continues with an encounter with the Mad Hatter, a Peter Milligan tale recounting the suit of sorrows, a two part origin on the new Ventriloquist guest starring Zatanna, and concludes with a murder mystery highlighted by an internet interlude involving Batman perusing an online chat room. Dini has developed his own core cast of characters during his tenure, many of which are again featured here, specifically the aforementioned Zatanna, Scarface, and the Riddler to name a few. As usual some individual issues are stronger than others, but fortunately there isn't a blemish in the bunch. This compilation once again makes a convincing case, despite this age of the arc that we live in, for the continued use of single issue stories. Indeed they are so well executed with sufficient depth and detail that the one two-parter reads lengthy by contrast. The one chief change was the replacement of Don Kramer on pencils by Dustin Nguyen, a transition made smoothly and skillfully. For all fans of this series, enjoy it while you can. With the recent announcement of Detective going on hiatus, one has to wonder what format will be employed upon its return, and whether or not Dini himself will even be back as the main writer. Time will tell.

An absolutely great read.

If you've been following Paul Dini's Detective run then you'll recognize this as being even better than the wonderful story telling you've come to expect. If you haven't read Batman: Detective, Batman: Death and the City, or Batman: The Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul this is as good a place to start as ever.

In the 15 or so years that I've read Detective Comics on and off, this is the best. There is a scene in this book where Batman sitting in the Batcave chat's with other sleuths in a chatroom named for Edgar Allen Poe's "the heirs of dupin". Brilliant. I read the scene twice in a row just to better absorb it's coolness.

This beautiful hardcover edition features 6 stories plus a bonus short story from DC Infinite Halloween Special, Issue #1 a great value at Amazon's $13.59 price, and obviously better if you can find it cheaper.

Thanks Paul!

Paul Dini's work on Detective Comics finally comes to life. For his first year as regular writer on Detective Comics, collected as "Batman:Detective" and "Batman:Death and the City", many of Dini's stories were illustrated by Don Kramer, who's weak pencil work really watered down the impact of Dini's straight forward storytelling. In this volume, Dustin Nguyen begins his tenure as regular artist on Detective Comics and the results are impressive. Nguyen easily places himself as the top Batman artist to emerge over the last decade, and elevates Dini's one issue stories to the level of modern classics. His renderings of Batman, Catwoman, Zatanna, the Riddler, Batmobile and Gotham are all defintive, and make me wish DC would do more to maintain this caliber of art in their Batman books.

Dini, who executive produced the outstanding Batman: The Animated Series from the 1990's, as well as wrote many of the show's best episodes, understands Batman and his world. He has a nack for telling a Batman tale that gets to the heart of any character he showcases. His run has made the Riddler an interesting character again; reforming him and recasting him as a detective rival to batman; rather than portray him as a loser as writers with less imagination have done over the last few years. His Zatanna tales have highlighted that character's depth and long history with Batman, even going back to Bruce Wayne's childhood (and creating some romantic tension along the way). There is also the reinvention of the Ventriliquest and Scareface; for which he has done an amazing Job. I was sad to see the original Ventriloquest die during the "Face the Face storyline", but creating a new Ventriliquest, who happens to be a woman, has brought more menace to a character who can come off as quite silly sometimes. The opening tale, an epilogue the dreary "Ressurection of Ra's al Ghul" storyline, has more drama, action, and tension in it's 22 pages than the entire 200 page crossover it completes.

Although these stories are hardly profound or earth shatteringly original, they do embody a simplicity that mark the best Batman tales published over the last 70 years in the pages of Detective Comics; simple whodunnit stories where Batman must employ his detective skills to solve the case. What more appropriate type of story to tell for a magazine called Detective Comics, which has alway surpassed it's sister magazine when it stays true to this formula, and always seems to wane when it tries to be just the back up Batman book, which it should never be.

I really enjoyed this one. Excellent Art from Dustin, wish I could draw even a bit this well and good story from Paul dini and Peter Milligan. I'm new to batman comics, but this one you have to read.

Batman: Private Casebook is a collection of five individual stories, mostly taken from the pages of Detective Comics and most from the pen of Paul Dini. Besides his work on Detective Comics, Dini is well known to Bat-fans as the primary creative force behind the 1990's Batman animated series and the acclaimed video game Batman: Arkham Asylum (as well as its upcoming sequel, Arkham City and its ongoing tie-in comic series).

Dini's background as writer for the Batman animated series shows here, as at its best moments the stories in Private Casebook have the feel of a great cartoon: energetic, vivid, and imaginative.

It should be noted that your enjoyment of the stories contained in this volume will be somewhat dependent on the degree to which you're prepared to accept the injection of some more fanciful elements into the caped crusader's gloomy world. This is not to say that the stories in Private Casebook are by any means light-hearted or fluffy; but you have to be prepared to accept that many of the stories have strong elements of the paranormal or unexplained. Fans of the dark knight who also enjoy works like Mike Mignola's Hellboy will be right at home here.

The first story, "The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul - Epilogue" is pretty much exactly what you would expect from the title, serving as a coda to the storyline by Grant Morrison available elsewhere in its own collected form. It is solid, but without giving away too much some readers may feel that it wraps things up a bit too neatly with regards to one of the most important antagonists in Batman's world.

The second tale, "The Wonderland Gang!", is about Batman tracking down and battling a new cabal of Lewis Carroll-themed criminals led by the Mad Hatter. Mad Hatter has never risen above the B-list in Batman's rogues gallery, and this story is pretty unspectacular stuff.

The third story, "The Suit of Sorrows" (from guest writer Peter Milligan), is where the collection begins to pick up steam. Batman is gifted with a medieval suit of armor by one-time lover Talia al Ghul. The ancient armor seems to augment Batman's physical abilities, but is also possibly cursed with some sort of taint that threatens to make him lose control of himself and violate the personal code of honor he has held to in his never-ending crusade against Gotham's dark forces. Batman's attempt to discover the secret of the armor leads him to the far-off French Alps. This is Batman at its most Hellboy-esque.

The fourth story in the collection is divided into two parts: "Opening Night" and "Curtains." Batman - actually, for much of the story, just Bruce Wayne - must team up with his old friend and occasional romantic interest, the sorceress Zatanna, to defeat the evil puppet Scarface and his new Ventriloquist. This is the heart of the volume, its longest and most entertaining story overall, and has as a bonus some interesting exploration of the relationship between Bruce/Batman and Zatanna.

In "The Riddle Unanswered," Batman investigates the apparent emergence of a new Gotham serial killer who has a distinctive M.O. but whose victims appear to have nothing in common. But Edward Nigma - once Batman antagonist The Riddler, now "reformed" egotistical private detective - is also working the case. The resolution of the mystery is interesting, but suffers because it is presented to us in summary in the story's climax; we don't get to see enough of how Batman cracks the case. But the scene where Batman anonymously trades theories on the bizarre killings with a group of amateur sleuths in an internet chat room is fantastic, and makes the story worthwhile by itself.

The final story in Private Casebook, "Kcirt ro Taert," is only a few pages long, and doesn't actually feature Batman at all. Rather, it's a brief Zatanna story taken from DC Infinite Halloween Special. This will obviously be welcomed by Zatanna fans, but even if you're not that into the top-hatted sorceress it's a nice little throw-in to end the collection.

I have focused primarily on the quality of the writing and storylines in this review, as I feel my tastes are too uninformed and undifferentiated to comment intelligently about the artwork. That said, Dustin Nguyen does a thoroughly satisfactory job throughout. His composition is dynamic and interesting, and the semi-stylized look he uses fits the feel of the stories quite well, and the cover plates for each story are beautiful. The concluding Zatanna story has a different look all its own, almost sepia-toned, which is also very much in keeping with its nature as a Halloween tale.

Overall, Batman: Private Casebook is a highly worthwhile little volume. People looking for long, involved plotlines they can become engrossed in or who insist upon only the most gritty "realism" in their Batman tales should obviously look elsewhere. Any Bat-fan who's looking for gems beyond the more famous, big-name stories and is willing to be a little open-minded (or who, perhaps, was a big fan of the Batman animated series), however, should make sure to add this collection of tight and entertaining short stories to their collection.

It's rather disconcerting to read a book with such modest ambitions in terms of innovation and find oneself thoroughly enjoying it without bothering to care about the mind-blowing implications that are safely absent. This is not a radical deconstruction or reimagining of a major character or the superhero genre itself. Instead, this is a better than average series of Batman stories.

The fun part about the stories is seeing characters in novel ways. The Penguin is a bar owner trying to go legit. The Riddler is working with the police (or annoying them) and The Mad Hatter is up to his old tricks but even more so. Great artwork and decent stories is really what you get out of this book.

Some parts are dumb. The "I had a tragedy so I became a serial killer" plot twist in one story is utterly inane. But for the most part, this is a fine comic book with great stories.

I'm glad I got this book. It contained good individual stories in the Batman mythos while continuing certain underlying stories and progressing towards Batman RIP. I recommend this book to Batman fans.

Paul Dini, the man behind the classic and brilliant Batman: The Animated Series, has had a decent enough run on Detective Comics, of which the Private Casebook here collects. Compiled of pretty much what amounts to be one-shot type issues, the Private Casebook finds tales of Batman's duelings with the Mad Hatter, Catwoman, and a new Ventriloquist among others. Zatanna is also here for the ride briefly, and there's solid artwork from Dustin Nguyen as well. While there's nothing bad about the Private Casebook one bit, there isn't anything about it that really makes it anything work recommending either. Dini's stories are entertaining, but they also end up being pretty bland as well, and don't do anything we haven't seen done plenty of times before in Batman comics. Still, Private Casebook provides a decent, more streamlined alternative to say, Grant Morrison's run on the main Batman title; which if that isn't your thing, you should feel more at home here with what the Private Casebook has to offer.

With this collection, Dini continues his above average run on Detective. Not every issue he puts out is a classic, but his highs far outweigh the lows. He starts us off with an Epilogue to the underwhelming Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul crossover. It makes for a fitting resolution, but feels a little tacked on. Then we have The Wonderland Gang, which is the weakest story in the book. I've never been a big Hatter fan, and he doesn't do much to change my mind here. Other than some great artwork from Dustin Nguyen, this story feels like filler.

Guest writer Peter Milligan helms "The Suit of Sorrows" story. I originally skipped over this one when it was printed in comic book form, figuring it was a miss, but it was OK.

The 2nd half of the book is where it starts to get really good. I LOVE the new Scarface and Ventriloquist team Dini has created. I miss Arnold Wesker, but I'm happy Dini brought Scarface back and paid respects to the old team. This is the 2nd two parter he's written since his run on Detective began and we are finally given Sugar's origin. Just like the last 2 parter, Zatana gets in on the action and is utilized quite well (the fact that Dini is married to a magician makes Zatana his geek fantasy).

The last one focuses on Riddler, another regular in Dini's roster. This isn't my favorite Riddler issue he's written, but it's not a bad one either. Finally they end it with a mini story focusing on Zatanna, Scarecrow and Halloween which is hardly worth mentioning except that the artwork is cool. I must say that Nguyen's artwork really grew on me and now I dig it a lot. I wasn't as down on Don Kramer when he was the regular artist as a lot of others were, I thought he did a fine job, but Nguyen has a bit more style to his work which puts him up there as one of the most definitive Bat artists (I love his take on Scarface).

I would rate this a 3 1/2 overall if I could. The 2nd half is pretty awesome, but the weak start brings it down for me. But not to worry, if you like Dini, Heart of Hush delivers big time.

Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul: Epilogue **

The Wonderland Gang *

The Suit of Sorrows ***

Opening Night *****

Curtains *****

The Riddle Unanswered ****

Most fans have been very pleased by Paul Dini's run on Detective. I am, however, one of the few who haven't enjoyed his run all that much.

Dini is, of course, a great writer. Batman: The Animated Series was probably the best interpretation of Batman ever, and Dini's previous ventures into comics have been quite successful. That being said, I found his run on Detective to suffer from two major flaws;

The first is a part of the writing itself. Every issue of Dini's run has been, without question, a pretty good one-shot take on Batman's world and his villains. With pretty much everything you'd expect from a Batman story. Everything you'd expect...and really nothing else. That's the problem for me. Every single story Dini penned seemed very "safe", and thusly, very bland.

Don't get me wrong, they ARE good stories. But they bring nothing new to the character, and there's not many moments within those stories that I found particular intriguing or exciting. Dini gives exactly what needs to be given for a solid Batman story...and nothing else. In my opinion, at least.

Of course, I did like some things in his run. Every issue with Zatanna featured some really great interactions with Batman, and really seemed to add a lot to each character. I truthfully wish it was explored in more detail.

The second is the art. While Don Kramer and Dustin Nguyen are both acceptable artists, I feel neither did justice to Dini's writing style. They never quite seemed to match is tone, and they seemed to make seemingly bland stories, even more uninteresting.

I certainly hope in the future Dini can team up with some slightly better artists, and do some slightly more innovative things on the book. Then, Detective really would live up to the praise it's been getting.