Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Greg CapulloBe here for the start of a new era for The Dark Knight from writer Scott Snyder (AMERICAN VAMPIRE, BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM) and artist Greg Capullo (Spawn)! A series of brutal killings hints at an ancient conspiracy, and Batman learns that Gotham City is deadlier than he knew.
Scott Snyder switches from Detective Comics to Batman, and he steals Greg Capullo from Image and Haunt to do so. Given the celebrated nature of Snyder’s Detective run, what could Snyder bring to the main title that he didn’t already throw into Detective?
Oh, a bunch of things.
Now I, the adamant and petulent Batman admonisher, am going to read Batman #1 and tell you all about it — after the cut.
Before we begin the review, a quick word from the writer: I don’t like Batman. I read Batman/Batman and Robin/Batman Inc. because Grant Morrison, but I will generally avoid 90% of Batman from DC. Get it? Got it? Good. Let’s begin.
Why did Scott Snyder’s Detective Comics run work? In a world full of Batman titles here, there and everywhere, what made Snyder’s work stand out so much amongst the crowd?
Simply put, Snyder understood that telling a Batman story shouldn’t just be about which famous villain is going to show up this month, but rather about Batman actually being a character in a story as opposed to a device — being a detective, immersing himself in the world of Gotham, seeing what he can find, etcetera. A good Batman story shouldn’t just wait for the Joker to show up or be an endless set-up for one mega punch, but instead play to the strengths of the character as the vigilant force of night he is, striking fear into the hearts of villains everywhere. (If Batman can’t even scare us a little, what’s the point?)
Snyder’s work on Detective utilized this to a great extent, reminding everyone just who Batman and his world should be. But then again, that was always the point of Detective Comics, now wasn’t it? Detective features Batman the mystery solver in a more grounded world, and Batman proper is the title where Batman could just punch the guest star villain of the month while in space!! (Or, you know, whatever.) We’ve also got David Finch’s Batman: the Dark Knight in which Batman probably does a thing or two (I think that book is actually just David Finch playing with his favorite toys more than anything else) and Batman And Robin, which is less about the solitary detective and more about the father who doesn’t know how to be a father, albeit much less sitcom-y than that sounds.
So the inherent question of the book becomes: Can Snyder bring everything he had in Detective to Batman? Can he take the solitary detective immersed in a grand conspiracy, put him in a greater environment and still evoke the same sense of dread and excitement with Bruce over Dick?
The answer, in case you want to skip the rest of the review, is yes.
The basic fault that any of the other (four!) Batman titles can succumb to is that some people believe Batman is an “easy” character to write. The fans eat his titles up like cake and probably always will, and at this point in Batman’s career, most writers are more comfortable with putting a new shine on his coat and just making sure the wheel can roll down the hill. The “general” complaints I have towards the average Batman book is certainly numerous, but my biggest issue is that some writers try and infuse too much darkness into the Batman titles with little to no character work. Everything is pure surface value, like a Michael Bay action film. I also guess that most writers assume that if the book is “gritty” and calls upon Frank Miller’s seminal work with the character, it will pass as “good,” but that’s just not the case.
Continued belowFor example, Tony Daniel’s Detective Comics shocked readers with its dark story and grotesque finale, featuring the Joker’s face hanging on a wall. This was especially interesting to some readers (like us) because Daniel’s previous work as a writer on Batman had simply featured Batman fighting ninjas, and this was certainly different. But at the end of the day, it’s most equivalent to a film like Hostel or Saw, which revels in shock value as opposed to actual horror or worth. There isn’t really a mystery to solve here; it’s just a matter of “oh my goodness, who cut off the Joker’s face?!” as opposed to the previous run on Detective by Snyder, which featured several mysteries and one horrifying question at the center of the entire run — “Who is doing this? And why?”
Snyder is a writer who, between books like American Vampire and Swamp Thing (and his humble prose origins) is certainly no stranger to horror, understands how to invoke the chills that slowly creep up the back of your spine, and it’s that gut wrenching aspect of his work that launches Batman above and beyond the crowd of additional titles. Snyder makes Batman worth reading in the same way that Jason Aaron took Wolverine and turned him from “that short guy in every Marvel comic” and molded him into one of the best characters in the Marvel Universe. While some might have fears that Snyder might lose his grit and focus trying to figure out how to work Mr. Freeze into a storyline as we move from Detective into Batman, it’s safe to say that Snyder hasn’t lost his groove at all. Featuring an incredibly strong opening issue that has Snyder slyly calming fears of his fans and slowly setting up the chess pieces of what is to come.
The book certainly feels like a bigger-in-scope follow-up to his Detective work with just one issue, and the first few opening pages play like a tribute to the general fan curiousity of why Snyder would switch titles in the first place. While there is no great answer in the text, it’s interesting to note how Snyder immediately reacts to the opportunity of having every famous Batvillain available for his story: opening in an Arkham riot, we see just about every recognizable Batman villain from the Riddler to Two-Face, somewhat slightly changed and standing face to face with the Dark Knight poised to attack (including a favorite of mine, showing Snyder’s love of Morrison’s work). Snyder gives us every recognizable villain in the first pages of his book and then has Batman punch and kick everyone in the face. It’s a brilliant little scene with Snyder/Batman pontificating over it with comments about Gotham as an entity, as if to say, “Alright. We’ve covered this. Now let’s go do something else.” And it’s fantastic.
The rest of the issue is Snyder acclimating with Gotham and his new job with Bruce (with a nice tip of the hat segue for his Detective fans). While it’s never fully clear within Batman about what happened to Batman Incorporated and just how canon the past canon truly is, philanthropist Bruce takes center stage of the title with new gizmos and gadgets. From what we’ve seen with the other two Batman books released so far, each title launches straight into an arc somewhat in the middle of its story already, with no real reason to read the book besides for Batman being there. Snyder’s Batman, though, starts with a heavy focus on the character of Bruce Wayne as opposed to his role as Gotham’s protector, and that aspect of the book makes it worth reading for fans of the character.
What’s ostensibly impressive here is Snyder’s understanding of Wayne as a character. Snyder doesn’t seem satisfied with simply defining him by his cape and cowl, and that’s absolutely fair. Leaving the real Wayne as the stoic character we’ve come to know him as, we’re instead given dialogue with other characters to reveal intriguing little character bits (a clever comment from Dick Grayson post-riot sums up Batman in a nut shell). It’s nice to see a writer besides Grant Morrison not assume that readers of the book don’t want to see Batman pushed in new directions, and Snyder delivers that wonderful balance between punch giver, detective and human being that the book has been missing for the longest time. Snyder has taken Batman from the Villain of the Month title it was, and instead has specifically tailored it to be about the man who is the bat, which is perhaps the best thing that could’ve happened to the title and fully explains why Snyder needed to write Batman instead of Detective.
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The perhaps greatest element of the book, though, is how new reader friendly it is without being too obvious about it. Considering that DC decided not to reboot the continuity of Batman or Green Lantern, it stands to reason that after Green Lantern was very unfriendly to a new reader, Batman might follow the same route. Fortunately, Batman the title doesn’t play by anyone else’s rules (much like the character, really). Let’s be honest — at this point, everyone knows who Batman is. I don’t think he really needs his origin retold a million more times, and Snyder knows that. So instead of talking about Crime Alley and trying to explain who Damian is with heavy exposition, Snyder instead creates a new narrative device that gives a legitimate excuse for characters and their various roles in his life to be explained, thus sneakily allowing new readers a quick easy catch-up of who’s who while not bogging down older readers with stories of yesteryear. It doesn’t take a new reader outside of the experience and make them feel like they need to read fifty other books, and it doesn’t make the older reader feel like they’re losing story space in place of catch-up for someone else; it’s the perfect middle point.
Of course, Snyder isn’t alone on the title. Aiding him on the book where once we had Jock and Francesco Francavilla, Greg Capullo steps up to the plate to illustrate the events of the Caped Crusader. Capullo cut his teeth on books like Spawn, so it should really be no great surprise why he would work well on a book like Batman. Capullo feels like a good fit for the title and its role in the DCnU, especially given how many of the books seem to have that 90’s Image vibe going for it. Bringing over his Spawn and Haunt sensibilities, Capullo has a great eye for action, and the opening scene seems tailor made for him just as it is a clear nod to fans and critics. Capullo also perfectly brings Batman as a shadow into the book, which is illustrated towards the end. Anyone even remotely familiar with Capullo’s previous work knows that there is going to be quite a lot to look forward to with the title (and for those of you that aren’t familiar, just look at this).
The only general complaint I would have is that while Capullo excells at the Batman sequences, his Bruce Wayne bits don’t transition quite as smoothly. Capullo is certainly great at the action, but when it comes to people just standing and talking to one another it lacks the personal feel that Jock and Francavilla had with Snyder on Detective. There’s also a notable curiousity that Bullock and Gordon both kind of look like Sam and Twitch from the Spawn-verse, but that seems like an accidental coincidence/convenience at best as opposed to something done on purpose. So while one can’t help but miss both Jock and Francavilla a little bit, its worth it to say that they have very tough shoes to fill, and over time Capullo will assumedly acclimate to the title and make it his own just as they did.
Suffice it to say, as a rather avid non-fan of Batman, I find myself incredibly intrigued by the future direction of the title. Snyder is a very apparent fan of Batman, and it’s nice to see that what is good enough for everyone else isn’t just “good enough” for him. It isn’t for me, and it certainly shouldn’t be for anyone else. With Snyder continuing his Detective work on a bigger stage and bringing in Greg Capullo to do it with him, I think it’s safe say to say that Batman actively deserves a spot on any DC fan’s pull now, relaunch shmelaunch.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy, or Batman will probably punch you
