Batman Annual #3: I totally cried at the end of this issue. It's all just perfectly paced. Taylor builds the tension between Alfred and Bruce throughout the issue, and he brilliantly uses Leslie to bring it to resolution. Using the title at the end of an issue to reveal its purpose is a long-standing trope, but I've never seen it used so effectively as it is here. "Father's Day," indeed. I've been sort of struggling with similar issues as Alfred does here, and I can't say how much Taylor helped me see these issues from a new lens. It's definitely one of the best issues of the year.
Detective Comics #994: Jesus fucking Christ, whatever happiness Taylor gives Tomasi takes. We start the issue with Batman and Gordon examining a double murder where the bodies are floating in an aquarium tank. It's a little more complicated than that, though: the bodies are exact replicas -- down to the smallest detail -- of Thomas and Martha Wayne. (Tomasi brilliantly has Batman start to call them "my parents" before stopping himself. It's great because it seems clear he's stopping himself just to pay homage to the lie he and Gordon tell each other that Gordon doesn't know his secret identity.) Tomasi makes it ever grimmer by revealing they have pearls embedded in their mouths. (I told you it was grim.) Then, suddenly, a creature attacks Leslie (whose importance Taylor brilliantly underlined in "Batman" Annual #3) at her clinic, and Bruce rushes to save her. Leslie is spectacular here; she realizes she's bait for Batman, and she attacks the creature before it can land a hit on Bruce, telling him to leave "the boy" alone. Bruce eventually saves her, but not before the creature managed to breathe what we later learn is Joker Gas on her. The issue begins with Batman seeing his dead parents floating in water and ends with him on the floor with a hysterically laughing and possibly dying Leslie. This issue, this issue feels like a Batman story. Tom King, take notice.
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