1 min read

How Does Batman's Mum Call Him In For Tea? She's Dead, You Insensitive Oaf

Holy Caped Crusaders!
A detail from the new Detective Comics Annual.
Batman learned how to stab himself in the back from some monks.

Keeping it brief this time around with a quickfire news bulletin - but today marks a major event of sorts.

HOW SO? WHAT'S OUT TODAY?

Detective Comics Annual #1 (2025), that's what!

The cover for Detective Comics Annual #1 by Mikel Janin, showing a nervous hood hiding around a corner with a silenced pistol, as Batman swings down from above and around the corner.
The detective in question.

Yep, it's me writing Batman! I didn't have much runway on this one, so I went wild with my first instinct - an old-school adventure in the Milligan/Aparo tradition. Batman goes on an international chase in three acts, solving a bizarre locked-room mystery and dealing with an esoteric villain or two along the way... and all because the victim wrote - in his own blood - "Batman! Do not solve my murder!"

If you can resist that, let me tell you about the smorgasbord of great comic art we have waiting! Three acts means three incredible artists - Stefano Raffaele, John McCrea and Fico Ossio - as well as the gorgeous color work of Lee Loughridge, Triona Farrell and Ulises Arreola! Plus a backup tale by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Mike Norton! Not bad for six bucks, bat-fans!

AND ON THAT NOTE...

Brief and to the point this week, I know - hopefully there'll be time for more Marvel Panel By Panel next time. Love, strength and justice to all who need it, and I'll play us out with "A Violent Yet Flammable World" by Au Revoir Simone.

It's a whisper, it's a funny thing.