In this review of the Detective Comics 2025 Annual, why does the victim of a bizarre murder ask Batman to not solve the crime? Then, Batman’s #1 fan lives his wildest dream when he helps the Dark Knight investigate a mystery at his school.
Detective Comics 2025 Annual main cover by Mikel Janín (DC Comics)
DETECTIVE COMICS 2025 ANNUAL
Written by AL EWING and JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV
Art by JOHN MCCREA, STEFANO RAFFAELE, FICO OSSIO and MIKE NORTON
Cover by MIKEL JANÍN
Variant Cover by JOHN McCREA
Page Count: 40 pages
Release Date: April 30, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Detective Comics 2025 Annual features two all-new, self-contained Batman stories that puts the “Detective” in Detective Comics, and also features an unexpected team-up on an unusual case.
The first story, “Batman Don’t Solve My Murder” is told in three parts by writer Al Ewing and several artists:
Chapter One begins with an obscure musical message that leads Batman to the secure underground bunker of a reclusive, book-loving tech billionaire, where the Dark Knight discovers its sole occupant has been stabbed to death, and the message “Batman don’t solve my murder” scrawled in the victim’s blood. Batman investigates the smart house and uncovers a shocking clue in the form of an incomplete manuscript containing a formula of immense power.
Chapter Two takes Batman across the Atlantic to a small English village where he locates a duplicate (and complete) manuscript at a local publishing house, and squares off with a magic-wielding local. Batman outsmarts the second-rate warlock (by using his knowledge of local topography), and then returns to the publishing house currently under siege by the true murderer/mastermind.
Chapter Three comes full circle (after a fashion), as Batman confronts the mastermind behind the scheme to create a magical weapon from the old manuscript. The mastermind has a bomb strapped to a hostage, so Batman gives him a key page from his manuscript after playing a hunch. Batman correctly deduces that the mastermind misinterpreted the weapon’s purpose as the mastermind activates the spell, and traps himself in an impenetrable bubble of frozen time.
The first story in Detective Comics 2025 Annual ends with Batman back in Gotham City, pondering the fate of both the imprisoned murderer/mastermind and the destructive potential of the manuscript Batman now holds.
The back-up feature, “Batman & David Rosales, Seventh Grader”, is a charming all-ages mystery that balances an intrepid amateur sleuth’s observations while on a thrilling team-up with his idol. Twelve year-old David Rosales, (head of the local chapter of the Batman Fan Club), becomes suspicious of problems plaguing Gotham Public Middle School after incidents of students experiencing terrifying hallucinations continue to multiply.
While poking around the school, David gets himself accidentally locked in a storeroom connected to the cafeteria, where he encounters Batman sneaking in through a window (in the daytime). The pair trade notes and theories as Batman continues his investigation in the lower levels of the school, while offering words of encouragement to David.
David’s theory that Scarecrow’s fear toxin is behind the rash of student freak outs is proven correct, not because of a sinister scheme Batman points out, but rather that Gotham City built the new middle school directly over the site of one of Scarecrow’s abandoned labs, and the fear toxin leached into the ventilation system.
The second story of Detective Comics 2025 Annual ends with Batman taking steps to fix the problem, and then offering David a ride home in the Batmobile.
Analysis
Writer Al Ewing proves he’s done his homework for Detective Comics 2025 Annual, as he riffs on the classic locked-room murder mystery, but cleverly pivots by revealing it to be the scheme of a magic-obsessed culprit. Ewing puts Batman in full detective mode here, piecing together clues, solving puzzles and deducing the potential danger of a centuries-old manuscript. Ewing also displays his knack for writing character, dialogue and narration, as a large portion of this story revolves around Batman’s inner monologue.
Chapter One is drawn by Stefano Raffaele (The Joker), who manages to make his pages exciting despite the plot essentially being “Batman wanders around an underground smart home and looks at things in different rooms”. His figure work and layouts are remarkable. Raffaele’s art style appears to be influenced in part by Batman artists Jorge Fornes and David Mazzuchelli (among others), but his eye-catching style is still decidedly his own.
Chapter Two features art by Hitman co-creator John McCrea, whose layouts are solid, but his style is sketchier here. McCrea crafts a few interesting panels with Batman in action, but there are other instances of body contortions and scale issues that prove distracting, with Batman fighting a pair of magical ghosts (it’s a thing), and also when he towers over a trio of local British cops making it look like he’s ten feet tall while standing on the ground.
Chapter Three is drawn by Fico Ossio (Marvel Adventures Spider-Man) with cool action shots, some nice figure work and exciting panel layouts, as well as amazing facial expressions (see the look of utter madness on the murderer’s face for example). Ossio has adopted a sketchier style here (not nearly as hatch-marked as McCrea’s), but his artwork ties the entire story together by including flashbacks from the previous chapters in Ewing’s story.
After reading Detective Comics 2025 Annual, I keep wondering about the original DC Connect solicits for this issue, and how current series writer Tom Taylor’s plan for “…a haunting case that he can’t seem to solve…” involving “…some of his most maniacal foes…” would have turned out, and how Detective Comics 2025 Annual would have tied into Taylor’s overall run on Detective Comics.
The back-up feature, Batman & David Rosales, Seventh Grader, (nobody panic, maybe it’s DEI, but it’s all good), is a charming all-ages mystery that balances the point-of-view of an intrepid young sleuth’s observations about his school with an unexpected team-up with Batman.
The story by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Mike Norton reads as more of a middle-grade story (with little action, and only mild profanity), but overall it’s just a fun mystery story of a young man who admires, rather than fears Batman. When David deduces that his classmates were suffering from Scarecrow’s fear toxin, I was convinced the story would end with the reveal that David’s team-up with Batman was also an hallucination. Thankfully, that did not happen.
Final Thoughts
Detective Comics 2025 Annual is a solid, self-contained effort, with clever dialogue, intriguing mysteries and magical maniacs, but a mixed bag of art that bogs down the main story. The back-up story is an entertaining tale with a simple mystery and feel-good ending.
