Tony Daniel's Detective
DesertHermit
Posts: 80
I just would like to know if I'm in the minority here. I cannot abide what Daniel has done with any of his recent Batman stories. I just plowed through the 7th issue of Detective and I'm ready to drop the comic. I don't want to stop reading Detective, but if I have to read another "written by Tony Salvador Daniel" credit in the byline, I may be forced to do grievous harm to my person.
Does anyone agree, or am I now officially the smelly old fat guy at the back of the comic shop who can't stop muttering about "this isn't my Batman"?
Sub-question: Does anyone think it was a good move to put Daniel on the re-launch of Detective in the first place? Sure as an artist he's great, but as a writer?
Does anyone agree, or am I now officially the smelly old fat guy at the back of the comic shop who can't stop muttering about "this isn't my Batman"?
Sub-question: Does anyone think it was a good move to put Daniel on the re-launch of Detective in the first place? Sure as an artist he's great, but as a writer?
Comments
To answer the sub-question - no, but we don't know how this story was initially pitched, nor anything of the other pitches.
Sub-Sub-question - who would you like to see take over the title should Daniel vacate the writers chair?
I personally think he's okay at best.
Look, I get the whole ambition thing, when you're in comics to begin with, to be able to do the whole megillah must be a heady temptation. But how much opportunity do you give a guy before you have to make a determination over whether he's got it or not?
Sub-sub-question: Who should take over?
Man that's a good question, eh? I'd love to see Darwyn Cooke take over Detective for like 2 years and give us some awesome crime noir. Or maybe get even crazier, and have someone like Craig Thompson or Alex Robinson do a run.
I don't know, I just wish they would do what they used to do in the 50s and 60s and give writing jobs to writers.
I'm all for cutting people a break, but I don't want several years to go by while my favorite comics wither on the vine.
I thought the first arc was decent enough as a "Baby's First Batman" story, and the first issue cliffhanger was undoubtedly stellar.
Everything after that has been, at best, an absolute bore. Batman deserves better than this, even if Snyder is writing the must-have Bat book already.
Daniel has no ear for dialogue, and he clearly has no real inspiration to write Batman anymore. His last issue? How many times have we seen someone steal a fear toxin/Joker gas/dangerous drug and try to innundate Gotham with it? It's boring. Especially in an inconsequential one-and-done. That was a worthless issue that no one will remember in a year, if they haven't forgotten it already.
Mike Marts is nuts to give Daniel THIS much high-profile writing work.
I mean, he gave him Battle For The Cowl, for god's sake. And that comic looked and read like something from Image circa 1993, in the worst way possible.
So, that happened, but I still cut Daniel some slack. Because the BFTC mini-series, when all was said and done, didn't really mean anything. The "real story" or "important canon" really started with Morrison's Batman & Robin #1.
Then Marts let Daniel write the "Batman" book proper on and off for a couple years. And... at that time I DID think Daniel was slowly growing as a writer. I didn't read every issue, but I checked in for a storyarc here and there. And I thought it was an okay, fun, edgy Bat-book.
But by the end of his "Batman" tenure I felt that Daniel was relapsing into "Battle For the Cowl" quality again, and I was floored to see him as the writer for the new Detective Comics #1. I mean, this is the book that DC is named after, and they're having Tony Daniel write it?
At least with David Finch's Bat-book, Marts (or maybe Finch himself?) had the humility to admit that, okay, he needs someone else to help him write. But with Daniel is just full steam ahead with atrocious dialogue and stories that--
Y'know what, I'm not even going to berate the guy's writing in detail. It's enough to say that he just isn't a good writer. Certainly not good enough to be still writing such high-profile Batman comics. Especially not after having written such clunkers, and especially not since it's clear that he isn't continuing to grow as a writer. Hell, even Todd McFarlane grew as a writer.
On the other hand, I can at least see where maybe teenage boys would like what Daniel's doing. And Detective is very high on the sales charts. Daniel writes edgy stories and draws cool, moody looking stories. But every sensibility I have says that they're bad stories. I would think that whatever audience Daniel has (and he DOES have a big audience) is more interested in his art. So I have no idea why they don't put someone else on the book to write it or at least do Daniel's dialogue for him or something.
Anyone. Scott Lobdell. Chris Claremont. Dan Didio. Literally, put anyone on it, no matter how "'90s" they seem, it could match the artwork, actually.
All I can figure is that maybe DC's paying Daniel less for writing AND drawing than they'd be paying two people to do the same jobs.
Overall, I liked Tony Daniel better when he was playing C-3PO.
You brought up Finch's 'The Dark Knight'.
Whoooo-boy. This brings up a question. Do the "editors" of various books actually vet the storylines that writers propose? I would expect that if you asked them they would say they do. What the heck else would they be doing with their time?
But 'The Dark Knight', to me, is clear evidence that this does not happen.
Firstly, who would approve such a derivative dis-jointed story, and secondly, it's obvious that Finch was writing on the fly, as the story has little logical coherence.
I was truly looking forward to this comic when it was announced. How hard would it have been to make it GOOD?
I realize this is off topic, but I started the thread, so there....
the host agreed with him (of course)...
Then again, I'm the yutz who decided to give this second series a chance...