Detective Comics: Is Bryan Hill Going to Build On or Dismantle Tynion's Legacy?

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Detective Comics #983 by Bryan Hill, Miguel Mendoça and Diana Egea, on sale now.

For nearly fifty issues and two years on Detective Comics, James Tynion IV redefined the Bat-family. Former allies, and even some enemies, became members of a Bat-team with a cohesion that went beyond just merely teaming up once in awhile. While his run ended with that team fractured, Batman still has close allies he considers teammates, among them Duke Thomas (The Signal) and Cassandra Cain (Spoiler).

In Detective Comics #983, drawn by Miguel Mendoça and Diana Egea and the first issue for new series writer Bryan Hill, even those ties are being tested. A new villain –one who knows who Batman is and claims to have been "saved" by him – now also claims that Batman's numerous allies have "weakened" him. In response, the villain severely injures Duke in an explosion, and attempts to take out Cassie in similar fashion at the end of the issue, although she's left unharmed, at least for now.

First the Gotham Knights, now Batman's Other Allies?

The first order of business for Tynion on his run was to begin building the basis for a Bat-family. Hill's, conversely, seemingly points towards destroying it. Duke's co-creator Scott Snyder has been grooming Duke as a potential equal partner to the Dark Knight during his Batman run, as well as in his subsequent All-Star Batman. The character also played a part leading up to Dark Nights: Metal and was later given a three-issue miniseries. The developments in the latest Detective, though, not only put a pause on Duke's fledgling career, but also put into question his future one.

Cassie was last seen taking a different path in Tynion's final issue, beginning her formal education under the tutelage of Barbara Gordon. While her days as a crimefighter are already largely on hiatus, that doesn't seem to matter to this new masked villain. His attack on Cassie indicates that he's not just going after Batman's current allies – he's potentially targeting those who have also served him in the past.

What this means for the other players in Tynion's run, such as Batwoman, Red Robin, and Spoiler remains to be seen. Ditto for the Dark Knight's other allies who mostly fell outside of Tynion's wheelhouse, like Nightwing, Batgirl and the current Robin. Tynion's central theme – "Batmen Eternal" – was one of expanding Batman's influence, and thereby strengthening it. Hill's, at least thus far, seems to be the opposite. The villain's vague and repeated mantra regarding Batman – "You're making him weaker" – argues the supposed dilution of Batman's "brand," reaffirming the belief that the Dark Knight is strongest when he's fighting solo.

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Batman – Solo?

While Hill's approach can be construed as opposing Tynion's, it's unfair to assume that it's necessarily any kind of attempt by the former to dismantle what the latter spent the last few years creating, especially after a single issue. Tynion mostly took the Gotham Knights apart on his own anyway, clearing the way for whatever Hill and other future writers had in mind. Except perhaps for Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated, Tynion took the notion of an extended Bat-family further than it had gone before. Tynion convincingly established the workability of such an idea, despite its ultimate failure on the first try.

Hill's idea could very well be simply allow the pendulum to swing the other way – not in attempt to undo Tynion's run, but to serve as a corollary to it. Would a Batman who sees his closest allies cut down become more insular – as he did after the death of Jason Todd – for the sake of their own safety? That would certainly be an intriguing notion to explore, especially in a DC Comics Universe that has seen Batman become more integrated to its center than ever before.

Going solo isn't terribly likely, though - Batman's just become too popular a figure. To backtrack on his character development over the years would do a disservice to past writers, and just put the character back on the sidelines again.

No, Batman's more likely to simply start seeking out new allies, ones that he has fewer or no personal ties to.

Enter Black Lightning

Perhaps prefacing of that very development, Hill reintroduces Batman's pre-Rebirth Outsider ally Black Lightning back into the Bat-verse. As the title of Hill's first arc portends – "On the Outside" – the return of Jefferson Pierce indicates an eventual return of The Outsiders in Rebirth continuity. While the team's original incarnation was named as such because its heroes existed on the fringes of the DC Universe, a new team with the same name could reference heroes that merely exist outside of Batman's traditional sphere.

In that regard, the building of a new Bat-team would be an acknowledgment of Tynion's run, and perhaps even an advancement of it – a new Outsiders team could stand to serve as a kind of Gotham Knights 2.0. Because of the new villain's actions, Batman himself might come to see that the fracturing of the first team did indeed make him weaker. A logical follow-up to Tynion's arc would be the formation of a new team that Batman has no, or fewer, personal ties to, and therefore less of a perceived weakness to any foe who seeks to strike at him through his allies.

Hill has already poised himself to advance what Tynion has already established, and while the start of his story might appear as though he's ready to hit the undo button, there's clearly far more that could happen. "On the Outside" continues in Detective Comics #984, on sale July 11.