Batman continues to work with the Justice League in order to solve a murder mystery. A 200 foot tall skeleton is resting in the snow and it is up to Batman’s detective expertise to figure out what happened.

Detective Comics #46 has a lot of problems. The first being the nature of the story. The entire issue feels like nothing more than a filler, trying to cash in by having the Justice League involved. The entire story centers around a monster of the month premise. The first half of the issue, slowly unravels the mystery of what happened to the creature this large skeleton they find belongs to. This does not have a lot of weight to it. There’s no real reason for the reader to be invested in the crime. It does nothing to build Batman, or the Justice League, as characters. It becomes a lumbering crime procedural that does little to build excitement.

Oddly enough, the second half of the issue is the complete opposite. The Justice League cameo still feels forced but, once the monster responsible arrives, the story gains a lot of heart. The backstory of the creature is legitimately heart breaking and sad. The tale actually become pretty engrossing. The ending of the narrative is very somber and also, shows an interesting personal side of who Batman is.

The artwork falls into the same issues of being hit or miss. When there is a closeup of any character, the models and facial features look very impressive. But, as soon as the panel pulls away, the models become bland and smudged. The backgrounds are also very bare but, that is more of a result of the setting than the actual artist.

Overall, Detective Comics is nothing more than a filler issue and Justice League cash in. But, once the monster of the months story progresses, albeit at a slow pace, there is some heart and tragedy to the tale. The problem is, it becomes too little too late to redeem this comic book.

Story: Peter J. Tomasi Art: Marcio Takara
Story: 5 Art: 6 Overall: 5.5 Recommendation: Pass