Originally published on Patreon
In the official promotion for this issue Batman: Dear Detective is described as 'One part prestige art book, one part compelling noir tale', and honestly, I think this might be one of the worst pieces of miss-promotion that DC has ever done. Despite being told that Lee Bermejo's art is being collected into a cohesive story told through his covers, this conceit doesn't hold up for long.
This isn't a comic, it's a collection of Bermejo's cover art stuck together in a book, which is fine if that's what they were saying it is. But they've claimed that there's a story here too. So scattered throughout the book are random pages where someone has written a strange, rambling letter to Batman. Between this parts the covers attempt to tell a story without words; and whilst it does work to begin with if you're not looking too close the seams really start to show later on.
For example, on one page Batman is climbing up to a rooftop at night, the next he's on the roof in the middle of a rainstorm, the next he's jumping off the roof is a bright sunrise. And I guess it could all be part of the same sequence, but it feels a bit too disconnected. Later on we get images where Batman is fighting alongside various members of the family, and against different villains, and if these were just snapshots of his life that would be fine, but it's apparently one single narrative?
None of it holds up, and it drags enjoyment down because it's trying to be something it's not. It could have just been an art book showcasing some of the best Batman art around, but it's trying to justify its existence with this 'story', and it ended up making the whole experience feeling like a boring waste of time.
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