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turret's review
5.0
+9 Set during Bruce Wayne’s teenage years before he became Batman, Blood Secrets follows Detective Harvey Harris mentoring Bruce whilst solving a crime in Harvey’s hometown.
This is a very original take on Batman - examining him in a younger, more vulnerable and inexperienced state with a role model to scowl Bruce whenever he makes a mistake, and that was wonderful to see. At this point in his life, Bruce is just an angry and impatient teenager - angry at himself, at his parents, at the world around him for giving him so much misery.
In later stories, that anger is still prevalent, but more subtle and grounded. Bruce has no responsibilities at this point, only wishing to gain as much detective knowledge from Harvey despite being so irrational. The mystery itself was also unexpected, particularly with the twist behind-the-scenes villain. On top of that, the climatic exposition dump about the investigation heightened how tense the whole plot truly was in that moment for me, as well as no noticeable plot holes, making this a truly tight-knit story.
The art by Val Semeiks was consistently nice to look at, though I did find myself sometimes wishing there were more details in the facial expressions. Adrienne Roys' colouring is superb though, the blood-red of the cloak, varying shades of blue highlighting black hair, the yellow from torches lighting up the racists raiding the shantytown.
A really solid annual!
[Read in February, read and reviewed in June 2023]
This is a very original take on Batman - examining him in a younger, more vulnerable and inexperienced state with a role model to scowl Bruce whenever he makes a mistake, and that was wonderful to see. At this point in his life, Bruce is just an angry and impatient teenager - angry at himself, at his parents, at the world around him for giving him so much misery.
In later stories, that anger is still prevalent, but more subtle and grounded. Bruce has no responsibilities at this point, only wishing to gain as much detective knowledge from Harvey despite being so irrational. The mystery itself was also unexpected, particularly with the twist behind-the-scenes villain. On top of that, the climatic exposition dump about the investigation heightened how tense the whole plot truly was in that moment for me, as well as no noticeable plot holes, making this a truly tight-knit story.
The art by Val Semeiks was consistently nice to look at, though I did find myself sometimes wishing there were more details in the facial expressions. Adrienne Roys' colouring is superb though, the blood-red of the cloak, varying shades of blue highlighting black hair, the yellow from torches lighting up the racists raiding the shantytown.
A really solid annual!
[Read in February, read and reviewed in June 2023]
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