Batman: Detective Comics: Deus Ex Machina Review

Finished reading Batman: Detective Comics: Deus Ex Machina, continuing the DC Rebirth series as writer James Tynion IV gives Azrael a character centric story as his past has come back into his life this time threatening Gotham itself. The book opens with an old friend of Azrael's walking into a basketball stadium and collapse in front of him, Luke and Kate who all take him to the Belfry where Nomoz warns Jean-Paul of an android named Ascalon who was built by the Order of St Dumas only to turn on its own creators and is now heading to Gotham to kill the last members of the order. Meanwhile Bruce Wayne decides to go to the Iceberg Lounge to meet with his old friend Zatanna who make hold the key in helping him find out some answers through the use of magic. The second story in the book looks in on what Spoiler has been up to since she left the team earlier in the series as she sabotages the Bat signal on top of the GCPD to try and prove that Gotham doesn't need Batman to intervene all the time as only for her needing to help with a hostage situation. Overall this was a great book as the brings a Azrael centric story to the series as Jean-Paul's past at Nomoz comes back into his life which leads to Jean-Paul having some internal conflicts of his own while also dealing with the threat of Ascalon. The secondary story of Batman meeting with Zatanna is great as it dives into the history between the two with how they originally met each other and their interactions with each other feel very genuine thanks to how close they are as friends allowing for some fun moments between the two. The book's art is great throughout as the actin set pieces are draw with a great amount of detail with how each character is position on the page, along with delivering on some great character features and designs with how character interactions come to life and how the book is able to make Bruce and Zatanna look and feel more like teenagers in the flashback scenes compared to present day. 8/10.