Warning: contains spoilers for Detective Comics #1027!
It’s no secret that Batman is more than just a pair of fists and some batarangs - the masked vigilante is also a skilled detective. And while Bruce Wayne tends to employ those detective skills as the Dark Knight, in Detective Comics #1027, it's not just Batman who can solve the mysteries and take down the villains.
Unlike Superman’s Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne is less “mild-mannered” and more the genteel, reclusive billionaire trope at best. Polite and philanthropic, but still masculine and capable, Bruce Wayne serves as the perfect mask for the caped crusader - the Don Diego for Gotham’s own Zorro. Sometimes, a vigilante isn’t quite what’s needed to take down the baddies, and Bruce Wayne must step in to the role of crime fighter.
A rainy golf course is an unusual place for a meeting but, as it turns out, the perfect place to meet to do crime. In Detective Comics #1027, Bruce Wayne arrives before sunrise to tee off with Mr. Steele. The crime boss waxes poetic about strength and masculinity, pointing out the differences between himself and the perceived weakness of billionaire Bruce Wayne. He pushes Bruce Wayne to sell him a particular piece of property, insisting that refusing would be a mistake. “Mistakes happen,” says Steele. “Smart man channels mistakes into opportunities.” When Bruce Wayne holds his ground, Steele pushes harder, telling him that he has the city council, cops, “everyone you think would be on your side” in his pocket. In response, Wayne calmly asks the officers at the other end of his ear piece if they heard that.
Intercut with this pre-dawn game of wits is panel after panel of Batman taking down the criminal underlings, the dirty cops, everyone under Mr. Steele’s thumb. He punches and threatens his way through the men in true Batman style, but at the private golf course meeting, there is none of that trademark aggression. It’s not Batman who takes down Steele himself, but civilian Bruce Wayne with a patient sort of Pimpernel aplomb. He plays the criminal quietly, letting himself be perceived as just soft enough to allow Mr. Steele to believe he is strong. It’s this playing on Steele’s hubris that is the crime boss’ inevitable downfall.
We only see one, brief exercise of violence - if it can be called that - at the end of the story, as Mr. Steele runs from the approaching police. Watching him run, Bruce Wayne picks up his golf club and hurls it at Steele, tripping the man and allowing the police to arrest him. “Might get into the game after all,” he muses after.
Detective Comics #1027 is by Matt Fraction, Brian Michael Bendis, Peter J. Tomasi, Grant Morrison, Dan Jurgens, Mariko Tamaki, Greg Rucka, Scott Snyder, Marv Wolfman, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Tom King, Jim Cheung, José L. García López, Lee Bermejo, Jamal Campbell, Dan Mora, Ivan Reis, Emanuela Lupacchino, Riley Rossmo, Eduardo Risso, Chip Zdarsky, David Marquez, and Chris Burnham. It's available now.