Comixology is looking to make the summer months a little more pleasant with their Summer Reading List. Over the next 20 days, the digital comic distributor is offering up 20 free comics — one released every day up through June 14 — starting with today’s selection, Detective Comics #871.
The idea here is, of course, to hook readers with a sample so that they come back for more (the same time-honored principle behind, say, Free Comic Book Day), but Comixology is also making sure to let readers know that they’re also able to gift the free downloads to anyone, thus spreading free comics even further. It’s a pretty nifty idea, and they’ve certainly picked up a good comic to start with.
Detective #871 is the start of Scott Snyder’s tenure on Batman, the first step that led to him redefining the Dark Knight’s origin alongside Greg Capullo with the “Zero Year” storyline that’s running currently in the pages of the New 52′s Batman. This issue, however, which sees Snyder working with Jock and Francesco Francavilla on two separate but intertwined stories, was a fantastic tribute to the classic DC Universe, with Dick Grayson in the starring role as Batman dealing with a story that would eventually unite Year One and The Dark Knight Returns in a pretty surprising way.
