The current DETECTIVE COMICS team led by writer Paul Dini and artist Dustin Nguyen can't stop with the awesome as "Heart of Hush" keeps rolling toward what's sure to be a grisly conclusion -- at least for someone, and perhaps for everyone -- with issue #849, available now at your local comic shop.

And before we go on, I'd like to take a second to say that BOF's very own Stephanie Carmichael just got to interview Mr. Nguyen for the Girls Entertainment Network, and you can read her awesome interview with my favorite

DETECTIVE artist since Pete Woods HERE.

Leave her a comment and show some support for one of our own. (And support for high-quality Batman coverage, too.)

Last month's issue was one of the best Batman comics I've read in my entire life, and this one starts just as wickedly, with Dr. Jonathan "The Scarecrow" Crane disgustingly taunting the guards leading him to his cell in Arkham before Batman shows up to unleash one of the most brutal interrogations I've ever seen in the pages of any Batman book. I won't spoil Batman's means of making Crane talk, but let's just say that The Joker, who watches the whole thing with glee, calls it, "Better than Christmas. Swear to God."

The Scarecrow talks. Batman walks. And The Joker looks down at Crane's crumpled form and wonders aloud, "Ohhh, Johnny ... what did you do?"

He aided Hush in a plan to destroy Batman that involved cutting out Catwoman's heart, that's what.

As Batman races to confront Hush with info he got from Crane, Dr. Mid-Nite and Mr. Terrific monitor Selina Kyle's condition. She's being kept alive by a mysterious machine, and all involved know it's only a matter of time before her real heart -- wherever it is -- gives out.

Dini has always been a master of dialogue, and he does a really nice with the contents of the conversation Mid-Nite and Terrific have about Batman's human side. I won't spoil the details for you, but it's awesome stuff.

One of the things I like best about this storyline is that Dini and Nguyen continue to humanize Hush in such a way that makes his action seem all the more inhuman and insane. His motivations were clear enough in the original Loeb/Lee Hush story, but here Dini takes us even deeper into Hush's heard and mind. He sees Batman as "an angry child throwing a temper tantrum at every injustice" from behind a mask, missing the entire point that Bruce is the exact opposite of all the reasons for which Hush hates him.

We get another beautifully drawn (and colored, by colorist supreme John Kalisz) flashback into Tommy Elliot's past, where his ailing, manipulative mother continues to brutally ridicule Tommy for his personal choices -- including his love affair with Peyton Riley, a mobster's daughter doomed to someday take up the mantle of The Ventriloquist. (See previous reviews for more information on Dini's amazing use of Peyton throughout his run on this title.) Worst of all, Mrs. Elliot continues to remind Tommy at every turn that he's no Bruce Wayne. Tommy, therefore, continues to nurture his hatred for the "arrogant moron" Bruce pretends to be in public while, unknown to Tommy at this point in time, he's really preparing himself for a lifelong battle against evil. This is all beautifully written stuff on every level, full of twists. You almost feel sorry for Tommy, until you remember that he tried to kill BOTH his parents, succeeded with one of them, and didn't exactly grow up to be a nice man.

We also get a really good scene between Tommy and Peyton, who, in yet another nice touch by Dini, is the only person who calls him "Tom." It's such a small thing, but it says so much about how much she respects him. It makes the love she feels for him different and unique and therefore all the more special for it. It's also good because Peyton herself knows what it's like to deal with difficult family issues. She obviously loves Tom and wants to help him, and we know it never worked out between them, so I'm curious to see what finally happens between them in next month's finale.

Back to the present, Batman and Hush face off at Hush's hospital of horrors in words and actions that will excite and amaze. Hush continues to show his vile, tiny-minded hatred of the women in Bruce's life, calling Selina a "gutter slut," and he also reveals what happened between Hush and The Joker after the non-ending cop-out A.J. Lierberman dumped on us with the final issue of the terribly written "Hush Returns" from the now-defunct BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS comic.

We also get two big reveals in this issue. We find out how Hush is keeping Selina's heart alive (thanks to someone who didn't get to come out and play in the original Loeb/Lee Hush story), and we also find out what Hush did to his own face that shocked Selina so much last issue.

It's a big gamble, but Dini makes it work with the dialogue by reminding us that Hush knows it's a big gamble, too. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't read it, so let's talk about it in the DETECTIVE section of the BOF MESSAGE BOARD and maybe come up with some theories about what might happen next issue.

#849 ends with yet another gut-slammer of a cliffhanger, and next month we'll get a double-sized conclusion in #850.

This is the most awesomely written and drawn storyline I've seen in this title EVER, and I can't wait to find out what happens next.

See you then! - John Bierly