Batman – Detective Comics, Volume 7: Anarky

Detective Comics (2011)

by Francis Manapul (Writer/Illustrator), Brian Buccellato (Writer), Benjamin Percy (Writer)

A plane has crash-landed at Gotham International Airport, but the passengers and crew inside appear to have been dead for years, their corpses seemingly decayed. Whatever caused their demise is now loose in the terminal; if Batman can't figure out who's behind this biological attack, the body count will climb even higher.

And after the airport is saved, a killer calling himself Anarky wipes the identity of every resident in Gotham clean, giving them a chance to remake themselves into whatever image they see fit. Though this new masked menace appears to be launching a revolution against the city authorities, he hides a more personal motive. The Dark Knight and Detective Harvey Bullock have the pieces-Anarky, Mad Hatter, a human trafficker and six dead children-but there's little time to connect them all before their city is consumed by total chaos!

Collects: Detective Comics #35-40, Detective Comics: Endgame #1 and Detective Comics: Futures End #1.

Genres: Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Mystery

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 12, 2016

About the author

Francis Manapul is a comic book artist living in Toronto, Canada currently working for DC comics. His list of credits include the forthcoming Adventure Comics, and Superman Batman. In the past he's worked on titles like Legion of Super-Heroes, Iron and the Maiden, Necromancer, Sept Guerrieres, Tomb Raider, Darkness, G.I Joe and of course Witchblade.

Photo by Luigi Novi.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B) 75% | More than Satisfactory
Notes: Strong for a minute, and so are its images, but sadly diminishes to nothingness finishes: served wilted like spinach is.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

The holly jolly holidays have arrived in Gotham which of course means nowt to Batman or his rogues gallery! Mad Hatter’s off his meds and raving about Alice once more surrounded by children’s skulls, and Anarky’s returned to blow up Wayne Tower. Merry Christmas, Dark Knight!

Nope. Another bad Batman book! Sigh…

Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato’s main Anarky story is boring and pointless. Anarky wants something, there’s a dreary mystery involving Mad Hatter, and you know Batman’s gonna stop them both, which is always a given, but he doesn’t do it in an interesting way. And speaking of predictable, you know instantly who Anarky is beneath the mask - like a guest star on an episode of Columbo, the villain’s the important new character who’s just appearing in this story.

A two-part story called Terminal written by Benjamin Percy and drawn by John Paul Leon is also included where a plane full of dead people infected by a lethal virus crashes into Gotham Airport. It’s another blah story where Batman goes through the motions to save the day. Leon’s heavy ink style was nice though.

The volume closes out with an awful Endgame tie-in featuring We Are Robin and an even worse Future’s End issue where Calendar Man’s holding Gotham hostage somehow and Batman effectively kills Riddler by proxy!

I like Manapul’s art - he draws a mean Batman - and Buccellato’s colours are great too but their writing on this one was really sub-par. Detective Comics, Volume 7: Anarky is definitely worth skipping, even for Batman fans.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume contains 4 separate stories. The first by Benjamin Percy and John Paul Leon. The story was pretty good and different for a Batman story. However, I didn't care for Dick Grayson's characterization as they show him torturing a captive by pulling out their teeth with a pair of pliers. I'm really surprised that made it past the editors. Maybe they didn't notice because John Paul Leon's dark, muddy artwork makes it difficult to make out any details in a panel.

The main story featured a new Anarchy by the regular creative team of Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. I'm enjoying their run. However I'm not a fan of how Manapul's art is developing. He's such a great artist and I hate how he's roughing up his art with all these splatter marks in this story. Their run reminds me of a 70's cop TV show for some reason.

The one issue Endgame tie-in should have been collected in Batman: Endgame or Joker: Endgame instead. It's a throwaway story about the original Anarchy trying to get across town to save his mom.

The last issue is the Future's End tie-in. I hate these issues. It was a dumb idea that's hopefully never going to happen. With the DCYou initiative they've pretty much thrown out all editing and continuity anyway.

Received a review copy from DC and NetGalley.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

#nocontext


Let me know when you see it.
🐴

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this from Edelweiss and DC Comics in exchange for an honest review.

This book compiled several story arcs, and was hit-and-miss. Batman is supposed to be the World's Greatest Detective, but he didn't do much detecting at all in this book.

In the first arc, "Terminal", Batman and the Gotham International Airport security chief deal with a deadly biological attack. This one had a lot of potential, the artwork was perfectly dark, and it ultimately just fizzled out. In tracking leads, Batman called Grayson (in Germany), who just happened to be interrogating someone with information about the perpetrator Batman is tracking. I can suspend belief when reading comic books, but this was too much, and the story just sort of ended without much happening. Nothing at all about the biological agent, but at least the bad guy was caught.

The second arc, "Anarky", also had some potential and should have been a lot longer. Mad Hatter makes an appearance, and is actually vital to the storyline, but again, there was very little detecting by Batman. Everything just sort of falls into place, and he figures everything out without any explanation of how he ended up capturing the bad guy.

The final two stories felt like extras that had nothing to do with the theme of "anarchy" in Gotham City. "Endgame" was already included in the first Batwoman TPB, but at least it was about one of the minor characters from the "Anarky" arc. I couldn't figure out the tie with "Futures End: Anniversary", but it felt like an up-sell, with DC marketers pushing the Futures End imprint. No thanks.

[Shannon]

Batman is more a mortal hero in some of these tales. We get some Mad Hatter focuses which is nice but this novel throws in too many stories which dilutes the flow.

OVERALL GRADE: B minus to B.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 and a half stars *
Overall a good read. The first story was the best and honestly most scary, terrorism and such. The anarky storyline was okay and the final two issues were from two different crossovers, so it felt a little thrown together.
I enjoyed this more than the previous volume, Some good stories in here. Solid Batman book.

I received an advanced copy of this from NetGalley.com and the publisher

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad; main storyline seems to rely too much on things kept from the reader, but then again, I have liked similar stories when I have been on the knowledgeable side of things.

Good Future's End (finally!) team-up of Batman and Riddler.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Read as single issues]

I will admit a complete bias for Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato's artwork. They could draw a completely dialogueless comic and I'd still love it. Their run on Detective Comics comes to an end with this storyline, introducing a second Anarky as well as bringing in the Mad Hatter on the periphery too.

The story itself is only four issues, and feels wrapped up a little too quickly. Anarky never really gets fleshed out as a person, more as a movement, and the Harvey Bullock story isn't quite as compelling as it could be. There's also an annual included here which introduces the Calendar Man into the New 52, and whilst it's a different take on the character, it's not particularly new or exciting - see Tom King and Mikel Janin's take in Batman: Rebirth for a better one.

Still, lovely artwork throughout - Manapul's painted panels and innovative layouts are always a surefire hit with me.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

So this volume started out with a story involving a terrorist plot based around a virus that ages people prematurely. Not bad, but a lot was left unexplained.

There's a decent Future's End story featuring the Riddler which is a follow up to the Gotham Black Out storyline. This one was pretty good.

The main story was the introduction of New 52 Anarky. Very different from the original Anarky and not who'd you'd expect. This story also features the more vicious Mad Hatter. Overall not bad, the art was okay but wasn't my personal favorite.

The Endgame story included was cool. Nice to see an uplifting story among all the darkness.

Overall a solid Batman arc but not one near the top of the chain.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've read Detective Comics, so I was excited to get back into them.

And it's fascinating that the current villain is Anarky!

But wait - is that Dick Grayson torturing someone? I know he's a spy now, but WTF? I guess I'll get more when I read Grayson.

The first story in the book was a standalone. And an interesting one. It went kind of fast - I was expecting it go longer. And Dick was, well, the biggest takeaway from this Batman story was this isn't your father's Dick Grayson.

While the art was fitting for the first story, I liked the art in the second even better. I thought the two-page spreads were especially well done. This was an interesting story. With Anarky and a little bit of background to the Mad Hatter.

This was followed up by Detective Comics: Endgame #1, which works okay as a one-shot, but it was annoying to find out that this played out in a larger story in other comics. Why would you put one piece of a story in a collections like this? Is this supposed to be like one of those action figure sets where each individual figure has a piece of an additional figure and you have to buy several of them to get the entire additional figure?

And then they did the same thing with Detective Comics: Futures End #1. I thought this was good as a standalone story, too. But I was frustrated to find out that there is a whole epic multi-part story of which this is only one small part.

As a whole, I liked reading it. But sticking 2 partial stories in here was a bit of a let-down.

Thanks to NetGalley and DC Comics for a copy in return for an honest review.

[Will Robinson Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alright this how my list goes for Batman creative teams: Scott Synder & Greg Capullo are clearly number one, then Peter Tomasi & Patrick Gleeson at second and I am now adding Francis Manapul & Brian Buccellato. The last volume by the latter team was pretty good. What always captures me with this team is how great the quality is concerning the artwork. This volume has beautifully drawn panels. The action is staged flawlessly. I love the mood I get when I read the stories by this team. Gotham is as important a character as the cast you find in this volume. The first half of this collection begins with a terrorist biological outbreak at Gotham airport. Batman with the help of airport security must quickly find the terrorist and cure himself from the killer infection spreading throughout the airport. This story definitely kept me on the edge of my seat. The next issues is a sweeping mystery of a killer mayhem inducing criminal known as Anarky. Batman and Bullock must stop Anarky from sending Gotham city into chaos and riots. This mystery had a lot of tewist and turns and artwork was simply amazing. The back end issues Are more like crossovers one from the Endgame story arc and the other a short Future's End tale. The tales were both quite enjoyable. So in closing this was a thoroughly enjoyable Batman collection. Definitely worth a read.

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like that there was some mystery to this book, because that has been sorely lacking in Batman books lately. That being said, there was an excess amount of violence and blood that seriously detracted from the story.

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detective Comics: Anarky picks up where the previous volume left off and collecting the next five issues (Detective Comics #35–40) of the 2011 on-going series with Detective Comic: Endgame and Detective Comics: Futures End and covers four stories: "Terminal", "Anarky", "The Beginning...", and "Anniversary".

"Terminal" is a two-issue storyline (Detective Comics #35–36) has Bruce Wayne being convinced by Alfred Pennyworth to take a short break from Batman encounters an airplane arriving at Gotham City with all the passengers dead. Batman has to solve the mystery and stop Magnus Magnuson, an eco-terrorist, while trying to find a cure.

"Anarky" is a three-issue storyline (Detective Comics #37–39) with a conclusion (Detective Comics #40) has Bruce Wayne as Batman teaming up with Harvey Bullock to take down Anarky (Sam Young), as he is apparently attack the Mad Hatter while causing anarchy throughout Gotham City. "The Beginning" is a one-shot (Detective Comics: Endgame) which has the streets of Gotham City overrun by Jokerized victims and it is up to Batman and a band of teenagers to survive the onslaught.

"Anniversary" is a tie-in issue for the Futures End event (Detective Comics: Futures End) which has Bruce Wayne as Batman teaming up with Edward Nigma as the Riddler five years into the probable future to take on Julian Day as Calendar Man and his gang from taking over Gotham City.

Brian Buccellato (Detective Comics #37–40, Detective Comics: Endgame, and Detective Comics: Futures End), Francis Manapul (Detective Comics #37–40), and Benjamin Percy (Detective Comics #35–36) penned the trade paperback. For the most part, it was written rather well. While the stories are written rather well – the villains and storyline are not memorable.

Francis Manapul (Detective Comics #37–40), John Paul Leon (Detective Comics #35–36), Roge Antonio and Ronan Cliquet (Detective Comics: Endgame), Scott Hephurn, Cliff Richards, and Fabrizio Fiorentino (Detective Comics: Futures End) are the pencilers of the trade paperback. With seven different pencilers with unique styles, the artistic flow rather unevenly.

All in all, Detective Comics: Anarky is a somewhat good continuation to what would hopefully be an equally wonderful series.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Batman: Detective Comics Vol. 7: Anarky

A man calling himself Anarky has deleted the criminal records and credit history of everyone in Gotham City. Informing everyone that they now have a clean slate, it appears as if he is counting on some people to unleash their dark side. Batman soon learns that there may be a connection between the Mad Hatter and the psychotic new adversary.

The artwork is strong and brutal, lending itself perfectly to the plot. The writing team have successfully created a new villain who is well rounded and believable.

[Jesse A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uniformly strong art and mostly good stories. Percy's story was good but could've been better if he'd had more time. The main story was good, if a bit telegraphed.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

The seventh volume of the relaunched Detective Comics title is an interesting assortment of Batman tales, highlighted by the New 52 update of Anarky. The book opens with a two-part story dealing with a plane crashing into Gotham Terminal. With everyone on board in a state of rapid decomposition, a global terrorist revels himself as the mastermind of an organic virus that will soon spread across the city. As Batman battles the madman, he must also locate the antidote for the virus before it consumes Gotham. The meat of the collection begins with an assault on Wayne Tower that effectively wipes out the city's database. Encouraging citizens to now chose their own path, the mysterious Anarky distributes copies of his golden mask to Gotham's doorsteps. While the city begins to erupt in chaos, the Dark Knight teams with Harvey Bullock to discern the identity of Anarky, his twisted connection to the Mad Hatter, and the bodies of five young orphan children. The book concluded with two one-shot issues; the first is an Endgame tie-in that highlights the teenaged children who would go on to star in the We Are Robin series, while the second is a Futures' End look at Batman and Riddler teaming up to stop Calendar Man's threatened blackout. Variant covers close out the tome, including the Flash anniversary, the Lego version, and the Darwyn Cooke design to name a few. Overall, this Detective Comics volume does attempt to put the focus on the detective work of Batman, but gets too caught up in its storytelling plots to adequately conclude each adventure. The new Anarky is also somewhat unnecessary, as the classic version is hinted at taking up the identity sometime down the road. Taken as a whole, the Anarky collection is a chaotic run that lives up to it title.

[John H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't believe how quickly the airplane story that started this book ended. Weird.

[Cale · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've got to say I'm glad I read this after I did my plane trips, because the first couple collected issues here would have upped my stress levels with the amount of time spent in airports. The art and story build up surprisingly good tension as a plan full of dead lands and sparks a quarantine at Gotham Airport, with Batman not immune. I was very pleasantly surprised with these issues. The main story, focusing on Anarky, wasn't quite as interesting. Jettisoning most of Anarky's Pre-52 history (with a minor nod), it instead follows a new Anarky who rides the coattails of Anonymous to strike a blow in Gotham. The twist is a bit predictable (and honestly, Batman should have figured it out right away), but there are still some tense moments and decent action sequences. And the final issue, which follows up on a tangential character, offers a new dimension for the series to explore. Overall, a better than expected collection, although I was a little disappointed that Anarky strays from his previous roots.

[Nate Deprey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had a chance to be an all time great Batman story. There is a cliff hanger at the end of issue 37 that had the explored it would have taken the best of Law & Order's "ripped from the headlines" style of storytelling and also examined the idea of vigilante justice in the cell phone camera era. It is a real missed opportunity that I wish DC had been brave enough to pursue.
As a grown up who reads comics I want to know what it means to be a violent vigilante in the modern, police brutality era we now live in. I want to know what it would mean for a hero to be caught on a cell phone camera over the body of an innocent victim. It was all right there and and instead we swerved back towards a traditional bad guy/Gotham cult leader story. A very good one mind you but still this could have been so much more that I can't help but be disappointed.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars.
The majority of this novel is a straightforward 'Batman as detective' story against Anarky. This iteration of Anarky is a orphan who was tormented as a youth by fellow orphanage kid Jervis Tetch, aka Mad Hatter. Very satisfying to have the complete story wrapped up in one Volume.
The first two stories are a race against time for Batman to figure out a virus epidemic that has broken out at an airport. Very well written and fast paced.
The final story ties into the "Endgame" event from the main Batman title.
My rating for this would have been higher had the art been better. The book looks so sloppy at times.
Recommend though.... classic Batman detective action.

[Gary Fortuin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some so-so stories but great art. Another reviewer commented that for being ‘Detective Comics’ Batman doesn’t do a lot of ‘detecting’. This is spot on. The first story about a biological terrorist attack n Gotham seemingly gets solved by a phone call to Germany where Nightwing is torturing some bad guy for information. I suppose he IS the worlds greatest detective so maybe one call is all it takes?

The Anarky story is really well done and the highlight of the volume. I agree with some of the other reviewers in that they could have made the story a little longer and it could have been even better.

The Riddler story and a few shorts at the end left me flat.

[Reggie_Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first Detective book and I wasn't disappointed. Never been a huge fan of Batman (despite loving the villains and women surrounding him), but I really liked this format. The stories flowed better than the typical Batman/Villain story-lines. When you don't think Batman's the shit, it's nice to read about him being a team player. Also, HARVEY.

[Thomas Maluck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes, Detective Comics gets so good it rivals the main Batman series.
In the New 52, I believe this has been the case from Volume 4 onwards, and with Manapul at the wheel, this trend shows no signs of stopping.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not to much to say here.Each story was good nothing earth shattering.The story with the Mad Hatter and the one with The Riddler being the best of the bunch.The ending to the story with The Riddler was excellent.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is book is simply lovely. Francis Manpul's paneling is some of the best work I have seen. I have become such a fan of his work since his run on The New 52 Flash. I will pretty much read anything he works on from now on.

[Joshua Bellah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was selected to receive this book in a Goodreads giveaway, and its not bad. Manapul does a good job overall with Anarchy but the older 1990's character was much better in appearance and motives. Batman and Anarchy make for good adversaries but this volume doesnt stand out as a must read.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

never read the original Anarky story but this was just okay.

[Alvey · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Mateusz Swietoslawski · Rating 2 out of 5]

Check this and my other reviews in here!

Now, that was a mixed bag.

Anarky is a direct follow up of Icarus story arc, reviewed by me before. Its main players are the odd couple of Batman and detective Harvey Bullock and the story is still more grounded (at least for a mainstream Batman book that is). This time around Gotham City is faced with a V for Vendetta wannabe, Anarky; and I don't mean just the obvious similarities like the white mask and the anarchistic motivation. His plan is almost the same as the plot of V for Vendetta. Lets see:

Bombings of major landmarks in the city? CHECK
Is it a cover up for personal revenge, or if I may I say so, a vendetta? CHECK
The clever detective finding his way to a place of origin of the anarchist's trauma? CHECK
Everybody in the city receives the anarchist mask in a box? CHECK

Add a domino sequence and a shaved headed woman in the rain and we would have a bingo! Not only the plot is a copy paste of something far superior, but the mystery of this volume does not work either. Gotham faces a new masked villain and at the same we are introduced to a new moderately important secondary character. I wonder who is hiding under that mask...



It is not to say that this story does not have any merits. The storyline with  the Mad Hatter is really creepy. It fits the gothic feel of Batman mythos but also makes it more realistic; he is still a guy obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and mind controlling headwear but he is also disturbed and disturbing pedophile and a psychopath. The way he is dealt with left me unsatisfied, but I guess it is just another sign of my superhero fatigue.

I am happy to say that Brian Bucellato's artwork is still fantastic.  The colorists on this book bring so much life to Batman's world, that I am afraid to pick up any other Dark Knight book knowing well that it will be once again dark and gloomy.

But that's just half of this volume! There are two tie-ins for DC events, but they are meh at best.

The real treat is at the beginning of this book. The two issues long storyline called The Terminal. It is written by Ben Percy and drawn by John Paul Leon. The premise is simple: a biological attack by an eco-terrorist forces police to quarantine Gotham airport. Batman has only few hours to find the source of the spreading epidemic, the man who orchestrated it and the cure.



Leon's art is simple, without detailed characters and some fun original panels, it reminded me of David Aja's work on Hawkeye and believe me it is a big compliment coming form me. The colors are subdued, the panels operate mostly on grays, blacks and various oranges and yellows bringing to mind hazmat suits and the warning signs. A fitting choice that adds to a feel of urgency and danger of the story; after all yellow and orange and the colors which nature uses to warn us about toxins.

On top of all this goodness we have a very sweet buddy cop partnership of Batman and the head of airport security and a kick-ass Dick Grayson cameo. You know what? Skip the volume and buy just these two issues.

VERDICT

Two out of five The Terminals (just for The Terminal).