I was extremely disappointed in Daniel’s Detective Comics #1, though I’ll state right now he handles the second issue far better.
SPOILER WARNING!
Daniel is working again both art and writer with inks by Ryan Winn and Sandu Florea. Anyways, Daniel starts us off this time with a business meeting that interestingly takes place on a rock wall (which seems to be an actual rock) between Hugh Marder and and Bruce Wayne. Basics of it is Hugh is looking for a company to run his project of some sort and though Q-Corp outbid Wayne Enterprises but WE can get Hugh’s thing up and running a full year sooner. Whatever it is though is described as a risk and Bruce explains he’s taking it so he can bring more jobs to Gotham. How it is stated even hints a connection to Batman #1‘s Gotham restoration project Bruce ran an event for. This meeting is soon interrupted by Charlotte Rivers – who if you don’t recall was mentioned by Alfred in issue 1 as Bruce missing a date with – and she brings up a point that me and Lebeau were talking about not long ago. That is, how does Bruce Wayne continue to pull off the playboy persona? Mostly Miss Rivers states that many of her viewers are wondering if Bruce Wayne really is that big of a playboy as he seems considering he runs his company so well and are thinking it is just a facade. Sadly we never get any answer to that as the two soon have sex (which is tastefully only hinted at by Daniel and not shown) and afterwards set up a date for the weekend before Bruce leaves.
We soon see Batman on his Batcycle with some inner monologue telling us two things. First being that the Joker escaped which would help explain why at least in Batman The Dark Knight #1 he never worried about the Joker when at Arkham. The other is that he escaped having left behind his face. After Batman talks with Gordon that sets up on a trail for Batman to follow, he heads off to follow it. When he gets to the scene it seems he mostly passes up the squad car which had a trap set up for when Gordon got there. That came off as odd Batman would seem to skip that over before scoping out the building where he gets ambushed by two well trained men patched together with various skin parts. More people start to appear and it seems the main villain here is the “Dollmaker” who Batman has not heard of before along with his daughter Matilda, one of the original attackers was named Orifice, and a few more that don’t even get names. They toss Gordon down by Batman and the issue ends with Batman holding Gordon who’s face is patched up much like his attacker’s.
Art is again nicely done and we don’t get an overuse of over-the-shoulder-shots that I complained about in the first issue. That matter we don’t get an overabundance of full body shots like the first issue and the story felt better paced to me. This meeting between Gordon and Batman actually gave me a feeling the two had a connection while the first felt forced. The earlier meetings Bruce had with Hugh and then Charlotte also came off nicely handled to give us a hint of what Bruce’s life was like not as Batman while last issue we only got a few notes from Alfred. Maybe my expectations coming off the first issue were so low that I enjoyed this one, but bottom line is I did rather enjoy this issue and thought Daniel handled it much better than the first one.
Action Comics #2 (lebeau’s take)
Action Comics #2 (Cal’s take)
read/RANT! 
I really liked how Bruce maybe not really being a playboy was addressed in this too, especially after our talk on the matter in the comments of that one review. I really do hope though Daniel or one of the other Batman writers actually gets to addressing that unfinished comment and soon. Along with a real addressing of people questioning Damian Wayne (not to mention we never see much of what he is like in public).
Still, this was another issue dealing with Batman going right to Arkham (at least this one wasn’t a third mass breakout attempt). I mean wow, that place has some serious security issues to have two mass break out attempts not to mention the Joker slipping away unnoticed so closely together!
Good review, glad to hear you enjoyed issue #2 more. You can read my review of it here if you’re interested 🙂 http://mycomicbookreviews.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/detective-comics-2-review/
Yes I agree that is a bit odd and yet quite interesting. I think I preferred issue #1 over #2 simply because firstly it was my first experience of Batman in a long time and secondly due to that final splash page.
I have to disagree with you, I thought Daniel handled #1 amazingly, but I guess we all have our preferences to taste.
This or Nightwing is my clear favorites along with Birds of Prey in the relaunch at this point in the game.