Detective Comics #937

I took the Rebirth 80 page special to be a refutation of the absence of heart and character that has been pervasive both in DC comics of late, and certainly in the DC movie universe. I believe many Rebirth titles have carried that theme forward. If you wanted to stretch (and I do), you could argue that the story line in Detective Comics exists show that if you're not actually a particular character (in this case, Batman), you only THINK you know what makes them tick, how to be them, or worse, how to be a better version of them. In the current DC movie universe, Batman is Batmurdererman. In Detective Comics, a team looking to improve the Batman's techniques leaves a trail of bodies Batmurderman style(hey, just like Batman v Superman!), showing clearly that they actually don't get what makes him work (hey, just like Batman v Superman!). I'd like to think that argument extends to the movies as well. There's always a price for thinking you know better. At the movies, its in the form of tiny box office ("Can we just give him a machine gun in the next movie?"-any Warner executive not named Geoff Johns). Here, it comes in the form of a broken arm (something Batman would actually do) in response to witnessing a pile of corpses presented to him as an upgrade on his methodology.

Let's hope that Superman is a smiling heroic figure flying in a rich blue sky by the time he Lazaruses in 'Justice League'. For now, and more importantly, the comics seem to be putting the pieces back in their proper places.