WARNING! Spoilers to Detective Comics #1027, out now!
If there’s something strange in Gotham, even the dead superheroes know who to call. In Detective Comics #1027, James Tynion IV and Riley Rossmo’s “Ghost Story” sees the Dark Knight and his sidekick Robin team up with Boston Brand aka the spectral hero called Deadman to stop the latest Gotham villain, the Specter Collector from consuming Gotham’s dead.
In this massive anthology celebrating this latest milestone in the Caped Crusader’s history, Batman and Robin await on top of a cathedral for Deadman on a rainy night. Making his usual entrance by possessing people, Boston jumps between the two heroes, mentally explaining that this unorthodox team-up will end quicker if Boston takes Batman for a test drive. Robin pokes fun at Boston’s former reputation before getting left on guard duty because what’s coming isn’t for young and impressionable eyes to see.
As they head underground, Boston fills Batman in about Specter Collector, a human whose use of the dark arts allowed him to make physical contact with spirits. With glowing green mechanical gloves, the villain is able to hurt or even consume any ghost he captures. It believes their essence grants him powers which Deadman denies and says only supports the fact that he’s crazy. The only real threat is that when the spirit is consumed, they are completely destroyed, their afterlife and memories disappearing forever instead of eventually finding peace in the afterlife. The supernatural duo interrupts Specter Collector’s dinner and sensing Deadman’s spirit within Bruce, he figures Boston Brand will make for a tasty replacement.
With the story jumping back and forth between the present and Bruce’s memory of a conversation he had with his mother about ghosts, Tynion and Rossmo tell a story from Batman’s past that gets you in the mood for Halloween as the Dark Knight is confronted with the supernatural and magic, which may be hard for most people to accept much less battle. But Batman has seen and done so much in his superhero career that he just rolls with whatever the situation is, proving that he can be flexible depending on the situation, even if it means allowing himself to be possessed. Nobody is going to be consuming the souls of Gotham under Batman’s watch.
But as the heroes are victorious and remove the Specter Collector’s gloves carefully, Boston asks the same question that Robin asked earlier, why isn’t Batman afraid of ghosts? Bruce answers the question in the same way that Green Lantern John Stewart did when someone asked him if the Green Lanterns don’t feel fear- they completely do, but it’s their ability to overcome it that matters. Batman, a person of logic and science, has seen and experienced enough things that truly astound and terrify him but when it comes to ghosts, it’s simple. After the conversation he had with his mother years ago, ghosts are not that scary to him. So in the end, Detective Comics proves it, Batman ain’t afraid of no ghosts but Robin on the other hand… not so much.
