One of the most difficult things about contemporary Batman comics is the titular hero never really seems to learn from his mistakes. Even in the pages of James Tynion IV’s current Batman title readers are presented with a hero who, despite having failed his city and his own family in Tom King’s run preceding it, exhibits the same behavior—attempting to “save” Gotham by exerting every aspect of control he can both as Batman with extralegal violence and Wayne Enterprises’ CEO with the company’s technology. In both, Batman is at least temporarily bested not by his greatest enemies also, but his own hubris and any associated back-to-basics fallout ultimately cut short. However, in Future State: Dark Detective #1 writer Mariko Tamaki succeeds where others have failed, serving up Bruce Wayne and Batman facing the error of his ways and thus delivers one of the most interesting and transformative Batman stories in a long time.
