Written by Scott Snyder
Illustrated by Greg Capullo and Jonathan GlapionAs Bruce digs deeper into the mystery of the recent owl murders, he soon finds himself face to face with a shocking enemy — an enemy the Wayne family has secretly been at war with for centuries.
The newest adventures of the Caped Crusader continue this month with Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman #3. And I’m delighted to say, that I’m still completely in love with this comic book.
Find out when we’re getting married after the jump!
Okay, so Scott Snyder’s Batman does everything wrong. For starters, it’s drawn by an Image artist who most of us, by and large, had put out of our minds after the 90s. Secondly, it takes the overused Batman thought he knew everything about __________, but he was W-R-O-N-G set-up that we’ve all seen way too many times. And finally, outside of the first issue, it doesn’t even feature any of Batman’s rogues, opting to introduce a new guy (or guys, maybe) that we know very little about by the end of the third issue.
Under normal circumstances — and especially with a major character like Batman — any one of these would probably send me running for the door, but I’m not going anywhere. In fact, we’re three issues in now, and I’m clamoring for the fourth.
The Court of Owls is quickly becoming one of the most engrossing Batman stories in the character’s history. It’s a superhero adventure on top of a very personal mystery for Bruce Wayne/Batman, and finally, the whole thing’s wrapped up in a sort of urban horror story. And I use the term “horror story” with strong conviction, because #3 was remarkably creepy, what with the recurring folk-rhyme and Batman’s discovery of the various Owl nests and the family photos therein.
As a long time reader, it’s also thrilling to see Gotham City — Batman’s longest running co-star — at the center of everything. It’s not unusual to hear a creator mention that Gotham City is a major character in the story of Batman, but it’s so nice to see someone actually picking up that thread and running with it. And with the Wayne family so intrinsically linked to Gotham and its secrets, as this story unfolds, you can bet there will be more questions as to the Waynes’ ties to The Court of Owls, which already makes this feel less and less like just another Batman story and more like an epic.
If you’ve read or listened to any of the Scott Snyder interviews out there, you know how passionate he is about his work, and this story in particular. Following in the footsteps of previous Batman scribe, and fan-favorite writer Grant Morrison, Snyder’s clearly planning on going big with this one. But where Morrison decided to mine all of Batman’s history to springboard the Dark Knight into a world of new adventures, taking the old and creating something fresh and exciting, Snyder on the other hand, is creating elements from scratch, that seem eerily familiar, but really have very little connection to anything we’ve seen before.
He seems to really get that with this soft reboot of the Bat-books, and DC books as a whole, both old and new readers alike are all on the same page. The new DC Universe belongs to everybody, not just the indoctrinated. With so many new eyes looking on, Snyder could’ve easily chosen to go the Tony Daniel and David Finch route, and kicked off his Batman run with a familiar adversary like the Joker, Two-Face, or pick your favorite. But he didn’t, and it’s no surprise his clean slate feels like the cleanest of all the relaunches.
Also, dude writes Batman using gadgets better than anybody in the last ten years.
I was impressed with his work on the first two issues, and here again, Greg Capullo doesn’t disappoint. He mixes just the right amount of animated expressionism with Batman’s standard dark, atmospheric landscape, which does a good job of setting the mood, while not completely wallowing in the dark of Gotham City. Since Capullo spent most of his career drawing one of the darkest books in comic history, he’s probably the only person who can say Batman’s a light-hearted departure, and I think it’s pretty clear he’s having a ball on this book. His design sense is spot-on, too, as the Owl and the heavily decor-ed Owl hideaways are just about as interesting as Batman’s suit or the Bat-Cave itself.
Continued belowCapullo’s truly an A-lister and a pro, and it shows. That’s something I never thought I would type. Score one for New DC.
The only negative I can find is the books continued use of anticlimactic shocks and scares, maybe. #1 closed on a pretty big hook, only to see the whole thing resolved off panel in #2, which itself has a few death scares in it that don’t add up to much beyond that. And now this issue ends on another cliffhanger that, while interesting in its implications, paints Batman so uncharacteristically careless that before you’ve even closed the issue, you’re done worrying about him.
With eight issues to go in The Court of Owls, things have just gotten started. There’s plenty of story left, and I’m thankful for it, because it’s been a long while since I was this excited about Batman… well, since Morrison left, so maybe not THAT long. But still, if Snyder and Capullo can keep up this kind of quality storytelling over the next year, I’ll be here for the end, and for whatever they’ve got planned after.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Definitely Buy (but do it before the Owls get you)
