Batman #24 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors) and Nick Napolitano (letters)

Back-up by: Snyder & James Tynion (writers), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors) and Taylor Esposito (letters)

The Story: Batman finally hatches his plan to take down the Red Hood.

Review (with SPOILERS): Boom!  Batman is really back!

I’ve had difficulties enjoying the first several issues of Zero Year (beginning with issue #21 in June).  It was the first Bat-related story from Scott Snyder that I haven’t LOVED (since he started working on Detective Comics  in the Old 52).  It was weird and shocking for me NOT to think the Snyder/Capullo Batman was among the Top 10 comics in current publication.  I just didn’t enjoy revisiting Batman’s origin for a whole pile of reasons that you can find in those older reviews.  Mostly it was because the origin conflicted with my preferred Old 52 origins and the fact that Bruce Wayne stories are usually less interesting than Batman stories.  Has there ever been a comic called Bruce Wayne: The Death of the Parents #1?  No… Well, there’s probably a reason for that.  Bruce is less than Batman.

Batman #23.3 – Review

By: Frank Tieri (writer), Christian Duce (art), Andrew Dalhouse (colors) and Taylor Esposito (letters)

The Review: This can be a pretty short review because there really isn’t much to say.  Batman #23.3 isn’t a bad comic, but there also isn’t any reason for it to exist beyond selling another issue to fans.  It doesn’t reveal anything new and interesting about The Penguin and it doesn’t seem to feed into any upcoming storylines for the other Bat-books.

If you are a passionate fan of The Penguin or if you simply MUST have something comic book-related to read for the next 10 minutes (and think that 10 minutes of mediocre entertainment is worth $2.99), be my guest.  The issue tells a done-in-one story of The Penguin.  He’s basically the same character here that he always was in the Old 52: Musty old crime boss.  He still has a top-hat, monocle and trick umbrella.  At the end of the day, he’s really a kinda dumb character; he was designed for children’s comics back in the 1940s and have never really been updated successfully like some other Bat-villains.

Batman #23.2 – Review

By: Scott Snyder & Ray Fawkes (Story), Fawkes (writer), Jeremy Haun (art), John Rausch (colors) and Taylor Esposito (letters)

The Story: Riddler is out to settle an old score.

The Review (with minor SPOILERS): This was pretty solid.  I mean, it won’t inspire me to buy a lot of other Villain’s Month comics from DC, but it did restore some confidence after the mediocre Batman #23.1 last week.

Two things help this issue succeed where #23.1 failed.  One, it ties somewhat into the ongoing story from Batman.  Lurking in the background of the Zero Year has been a young Riddler who still works for Wayne Enterprises.  This story doesn’t occur at the same time as Zero Year, but just the fact that we’ve seen Riddler recently makes it feel more like a tie-in than an extra issue that is shoveled at us a la #23.1.  Like I said, it isn’t exactly the same, but it feels more like a natural thing to be talking about since we were just reading about Riddler.

The other cool thing is that this Riddler actually has an edge on him.  I just didn’t enjoy seeing Joker training a Gorilla in #23.1.  It seemed really stupid.  But seeing that Riddler has severe and violent issues with people merely TOUCHING HIM was pretty nifty.  The last time I saw Riddler was in the Old 52 and he was a quasi-good private detective who hung out with the Gotham City Sirens from time to time and helped the police and Batman.  THIS is a pretty big change to see him go full-on psycho.  I mean, at the end of the issue, we find out that he orchestrated this entire break-in of Wayne enterprises just to get revenge on a guard who had once tormented him in Arkham (and is now Wayne’s head security guard).

Batman #22 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors) & Nick Napolitano (letters)

Back-up by: Snyder & James Tynion, IV (writers), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors) and Taylor Esposito (letters)

The Review (with very minor SPOILERS): This issue/storyline still isn’t really grabbing me.  From a technical standpoint, it is 100% good. The dialogue is excellent and the art is crisp and lovely.  But it still doesn’t have me on the edge of my seat…

Why have I LOVED everything else that Scott Snyder has done with Batman, yet this story gives me a lukewarm reaction?  Let’s consider some possibilities:

• It’s still early in the story: If memory serves, Zero Year is supposed to be an eleven-issue story.  We’re only on issue #2 of this story, so perhaps it just hasn’t had time to fully congeal?  However, Snyder has written other lengthy Bat-stories (The Black Mirror, Court of Owls) and those tales got under your skin right away.
• It’s about Bruce and not Batman: You’ve heard the old argument about whether the guy really IS Batman, and Bruce Wayne is just his disguise?  It’s usually framed as a contrast to Superman/Clark Kent where Supes is still mild-natured, midwestern Clark even when he puts on the tights.  I’ve never been as interested in Bruce and his motivations and his family and his relationship with Alfred.  So much of Bruce is wrapped up in the lack of a family and that’s something I was never able to identify with…  I was fortunate to always have my father around and I’ve always been around for my family as well.  I suspect that the Bruce/Alfred relationship speaks more to readers who had less of a relationship with their own fathers.
• It isn’t creepy: You’ll hear some commentators complaining that Snyder is a one-trick pony and that he only does horror-themed stories.  Black Mirror, Court of Owls and Death of the Family were all very creepy.  So is American Vampire and so was Severed.  Swamp Thing was kinda creepy.  Zero Year is not even remotely creepy.  It’s a different look for Snyder.
• Maybe expectations are unreasonably high: With the track record of Snyder and Capullo, you just expect an epic masterpiece right away.  I think they probably demand masterpieces from themselves and I admire their work ethic, but you can’t hit a home run every time.

Seriously, the funny thing is that I’m talking about this like it was a bad comic and it isn’t.  It’s a solid “B” which is entirely respectable and my criticism has more to do with the immense respect and admiration I have for the creative team.  I expect them to blow my socks off  every time and they aren’t quite doing it yet.

Batman #21 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors) and Nick Napolitano (letters)

Back-up story: Snyder & James Tynion, IV (writers), Rafael Albuquerque (art), Dave McCaig (colors) and Taylor Esposito (letters)

The Story: A young Batman has to deal with the Red Hood and other Gotham menaces.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): When the last two Bat-epics you’ve written have been the Black Mirror and Court of Owls, expectations are bound to be high when you launch a new 11-issue saga with the ambitious title “Batman: Zero Year”.  Scott Snyder and his able companions are mostly able to live up to expectations and give us a solid first issue that leaves us wanting more.

Probably the strongest part of this issue was the first several pages where we see a trashed Gotham and a little boy spear-fishing in the flooded Gotham subway system.  He gets attacked by some guys wearing horrible masks [What is it with Snyder and creepy masks?  Owl Masks, gas masks, etc….] and he is saved by Road Warrior Batman.  The single panel of Batman with his sleeves ripped off and kitted up with all sorts of post-apocalypse standards like crossbows, dirt bikes and rope was really tantalizing: I’m willing to read just about any story if the payoff is that we learn how Batman ended up in that state.  I think we’ve found Greg Capullo’s Batman: Black and White sculpture!

Batman #16 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), FCO Plascencia (colors), Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt (letters), Katie Kubert (assistant editor) & Mike Marts (editor)

Back-up by: Snyder & James Tynion, IV (writers), Jock (art), David Baron (colors) & Taylor Esposito (letters)

The Story: Batman goes into Joker’s lair to confront the madman.

Review (with SPOILERS): Geez, where to begin?  This issue had so many nifty moments.  We’ll get into those below, but let’s take a second to bask in how this creative team is really functioning as a TEAM.  That is to say that I don’t think every story beat is coming from the mind of Snyder and I don’t think every artistic flourish is coming from Capullo.  This comic really shows what can happen when gifted creators are working together rather than just having writers shoveling scripts at artists (and the teamwork continues at another level given the amount of history that Capullo, Glapion and Plascencia have together).   Onto the cool moments….