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Detective Comics #770
Bridget Haines |
| Title: |
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Purity - Part Three |
| Cover Date: |
June 2002 |
| Story: |
Greg Rucka |
| Pencils: |
Steve Lieber |
| Inks: |
Mark McKenna |
| Colors and Separations: |
Jason Wright / Wildstorm FX |
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Synopsis: (WARNING! SPOILERS!)
Part 8 of the Bruce Wayne: Fugitive story
arc wraps up the three part Purity
tale as
well. It opens with the Dai Lo
in a heated
discussion with his son, the
drug dealing
member of the Lucky Hand Triad
called "Nine
Pound". The creature demands
to know
where the poison is coming from.
Batman and David Said are in a virtual standoff
at the scene we left them in last issue.
Batman disarms him and David draws a secondary
holdout pistol, putting them back in the
same standoff. Batman throws him across the
room into a wall. The Bat demands to know
what Checkmate is doing in Gotham. David
says they are looking into the bad heroin.
Batman leaves to go after Nine Pound and
the Dai Lo.
Batman investigates the nest of Ekin-Tzu
and finds Nine Pound there. Scene
switches
to Montoya and Akins playing
darts and discussing
the case. Even Akins begins to
get a glimmer
that maybe Bruce is innocent,
or that if
he isn't maybe Alfred didn't
help him escape.
David Said talks through a device
to Checkmate,
they tell him to work with Batman
as their
objectives are the same at this
time. They
tell him to tell the Bat the
truth if he
has to about what they are doing.
The Bat dangles NIne Pound out
of the tower
window, demanding to know where
Ekin-Tzu
went. Nine Pound tells him he
went to find
someone named Halsey. As Nine
Pound spills
what he knows, the Dai Lo returns
and launches
into an attack on Batman. After
much fighting,
NP gets knocked out of the tower,
and Batman
saves him. The fight stops with
Batmandeclaring
he is not Tzu's enemy and offering
help.
Ekin Tzu is taken into custody
to get the
care he needs. Said talks to
Batman and reveals
that Checkmate is investigating
where Lex
Luthor is getting his covert
ops funding
as it isnt coming from any normal
channels.
Halsey, the drug contact, meets
up with someone
calling himself Branford Landis.
The contact
man is slipped a poisoned.
Analysis:
Cover:  (2 of 5cowls)
This cover by Andrew Robinson was a little
weak. It wasn't bad mind you, but though
the concept behind it was good, it just comes
off as cluttered and lacking of focus. I
think the attempt to blend images would have
worked better if he chose one central figure,
then made the other images blend off of that.
Instead they are sort of crammed together
at the center, with little happening on the
periphery and none of them areally smoothly
blend into one another.
Story: (3 of 5 cowls)
Hrm...interesting. David Said is revealed
as an agent of Checkmate, a government run
agency with ties to Lex Luthor. The puzzle
piece on the cover, combined with the others,
looks like Lex Luthor. I have my theory of
who killed Vesper Fairchild, and this issue
has added credence to it a bit. I'll go out
on a limb and say that I believe Lex Luthor
paid David Cain $20,000,000 to frame Bruce
Wayne in revenge for his actions during NML
and the rebuilding of Gotham. I think Cain
figured out Bruce and the Bat are the same.
He has the brains, the funds, the tech, and
the security savvy to get in and out of the
cave and do the setup. And he has the knowledge
to deliver the nerve strike that left a fracture
on Vesper's jaw, as found by Batgirl. The
only think I don't know is how Cain found
out Bruce is the Bat, but I do recall a semi-recent
bat-book issue with Cain that might have
alluded to it. Also he's likely to learn
it through Cassandra if he's been watching
her. I enjoyed this issue, though it didn't
have a huge impact on me, because it was
fluid, and the scene changes weren't as chaotic
as they have been in other Fugitive stories.
It all seems to work together. I also liked
the glimpse back at the GCPD detectives regarding
searching for Bruce.
Artwork: (4 of 5 cowls)
The more I see of Steve Lieber, the more
I like him. He still has a way to go I think,
some of his shots seem a touch anatomically
off or weaker than other frames, but overall
I adore his portrayal of the Bat. He's also
been very consistent with his renderings
of the other characters in the story, which
has been a rarity among other recent artists
in the Bat Books. He needs to work a bit
on composition of some of his images, and
the colorist needs some help, but overall
I'm enjoying his stint on 'Tec.
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