Detective Comics #603
(DC Comics, 1989)
Writer – Alan Grant
Pencils – Norm Breyfogle
Inks – Steve Mitchell
Colors – Arienne Roy
Letters – Todd Klein
Greetings from the Wasteland!
Detective Comics, before the New 52 re-launch, was one of the two longest running comics series without renumbering. With that longevity comes a mix of feelings. Can a series stay fresh when looking at a 700-plus issue run? The history of comics is tied tightly to Detective Comics, if only for the fated issue 27, the appearance of comics’ greatest detective, Batman. By the time I was reading them in the 80’s, there was no other star of Detective other than Batman.
Detective Comics #603 is an issue that I’ve had in my collection since 1989. I bought it for the simple reason that I loved the cover. Batman is standing atop a building lined with grinning gargoyles, and the Demon, Etrigan, is hanging below. It was my first introduction to Jack Kirby’s classic character.
Alan Grant, who wrote for 2000 AD in addition to a nearly twenty year run on Batman, penned the story. Norman Breyfogle drew the book. More on art later.
This is the third in a three-part series called “Tulpa”. Batman has been fighting demonic “constructs” throughout Gotham, and due to their hellish nature has requested the help of Jason Blood, who has refused. In #603 he has teamed up with Randu Singh, longtime friend of Blood, and the Dark Knight and blind mystic are careening through the streets of Gotham, on the trail of a six-armed demon name Mahakala, who is trying to kill a couple of hoods in police custody. Batman engages the beast, and the two fight their way through a construction sight. After smashing Mahakala with a wrecking ball, Batman turns away only to have the creature rise again and through its golden axe.
Across town Jason Blood is toasting his will power in keeping the Demon at bay. Just as Mahakala rises up again he feels the surge of demonic power within him, and he knows that he must let Etrigan loose. This is where Breyfogle’s talent shines. There is a one-page collage of the transformation; with the demon’s arms reaching almost farther than you would think possible, showing great movement.
I’m going to take a second here to praise the character of Etrigan a little. As the years have passed he has become less a superhero and more an anti-hero. He is less a superhero with a yellow mask on and more of a hellish demon. He becomes more of an enjoyable character for me because he will cross the line when he feels its necessary. And with Grant and Breyfogle teaming up on this title, we see what a great writer/artist team can do. At this point in his timeline, Etrigan is speaking in rhyme, and to be able to keep to that Dr. Suessian rhythm and still keep within the confines of story dialogue takes a steady hand.
Back to the story, Etrigan arrives and quickly smites Mahakala. “Forged in hate? Fear, made to live? Pah! You’re nothing…a man-made shell! It’s hate you want? It’s hate I’ll give…All the hate in Hell!” And with that he vaporizes the apparition’s head. These are the phrases that made me love this character.
Once Mahakala is nothing more than a smoking corpse, Etrigan turns on the hoods himself, the demonic forces in him hungry for vengeance. Batman, already nearly defeated by Mahakala, grabs the devil by the wrist, and thus incurs his wrath. Batman vs. Etrigan, it’s on. The two wrestle through a couple of panels, the Demon obviously with the upper hand at all times. He has Batman on the ground, hands around his throat, and Batman, in a last ditch effort, gives Etrigan a two-handed smash on either side of the head, which gives the Demon pause, then sends him into uproarious laughter. “Cheer up. It’s over. Go your own way…free. Because there’s something deep inside you man, that’s very much like me.” He kisses a shocked Batman on the cheek, and as he bounds away, says, “From now, when caged in skin and bone, I’ll take comfort knowing…I’m not alone.” Etrigan knows the truth inside Batman, and sees their similarities. Batman’s look is one of shock, and he despairs at the end of the book because he knows that Etrigan was right.
The tone of the book is matched by the great art. Breyfogle’s art has become a classic look for Batman, favoring a ridiculously long cape that would later be employed by Todd McFarlane for his Spawn character, and long pointed ears on the cowl. Grant has taken the Demon Etrigan and made him a likeable villain. The use of rhyme in the dialogue is clever and makes sense in the rational progression of the plot. The last panel of Batman bemoaning his life choices would not be as poignant with either of these ingredients missing. Breyfogle and Grant were a great Batman team, a standout on a book that has had so many greats.
This book was a favorite of mine as a kid in 1989 and has only become more treasured reading it in 2013. It is only with the passage of time that I can realize how good the artist/writer combo is here, and how they forever changed the way I envision characters like the Demon and Batman.
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