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Batman Comes To York… Not New York, But York York (Spoilers)

Batman Comes To York... Not New York, But York York (Detective Comics Annual 2025 Spoilers)

Published Thu, 01 May 2025 11:58:07 -0500

Article Summary

Batman visits the real York in Detective Comics Annual 2025, leaving Gotham for Yorkshire adventure.
Al Ewing and John McCrea bring local Yorkshire flavor as Batman navigates provincial British quirks.
Historic York landmarks and school trip nostalgia collide with superhero action and occult villains.
Mystery unfolds street-level as Batman faces tech bro antagonists and universe-ending threats in York.

I'm a Pontefract lad. Grew up in the West Yorkshire mining town, the big city to me was Wakefield, or even Leeds if I was ambitious. York was another league, with all gilded towers, spiralling structures, and school trips to see Viking tombs if we were lucky. These days, I live in London, and York seems like the most provincial of cities. But it did give name to that much bigger of cities, New York, which inspired the Gotham of Batman comics, albeit only at night.

But in this week's Detective Comics Annual 2025, courtesy of Al Ewing and John McCrea, Batman makes a trip to York. It's an aside of a much larger quest that could have universe-ending consequences, but that also means finding what's left of a small vanity publisher from the seventies. And find that the local superheroes are subject to the same indignities like leaves on the tracks that we all are. And to be fair, it's all a bit, well, provincial… but Al Ewing is a Yorkshire lad as well, keen readers may remember quite a heavy accent given to Mr Horse in the Valkyrie comic.

But York Cathedral is nice. It burns down every now and again. It's the only thing around here to give Batman the kind of levitation he's used to in Gotham. There's nothing much else to swing from.

So all the confrontations have to occur at street level. As Mr Mystic summons the powers of the Court astronomer of Queen Elizabeth I for his own, back when there was little difference between that, astrologer and occultist. Thankfully Batman can outrun him.

And it turns out that Batman has done the same historical research for the city that, well, I remember learning about Layerthorpe on one of those school trips. Here, you can catch up with your homework.

And then it's back to the action, where someone is intending to end the universe in a rather familiar style…

Tech bros really make the best bad guys these days, don't they? There's a reason people do keep using them…

DETECTIVE COMICS 2025 ANNUAL #1 (ONE SHOT)
(W) Al Ewing, Joshua Hale Fialkov (A) Stefano Raffaele, John McCrea ,Fico Ossio, Mike Norton (CA) Mikel Janin
A MYSTERY EVEN BATMAN CAN'T SOLVE! Batman has found himself mired in a haunting case that he can't seem to solve. Now, the Dark Knight must work his way through some of his most maniacal foes to gather enough evidence to attempt to crack this case. His very life–or the life of someone dear to him–may depend on it! Tom Taylor, joined by an all-star roster of collaborators, crafts a mystery that will boggle the mind of even the World's Greatest Detective. Retail: $5.99 In-Store Date: 04/30/2025

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