With this volume Scott Snyder's characterization of Bruce Wayne is starting to wane on me as a reader & a fan. Scott Snyder is taking us back to the early days of the Batman in Gotham City. The main antagonist in this story is the Red Hood Gang run by Red Hood One who any real Batman fan knows is the Joker. This tale is very surreal when compared with Batman: The Man Who Laughs & Batman: The Killing Joke both of which touch on the origin of the Joker. This book has made that tale a little more convoluted than it was previously. Especially with the involvement of Bruce Wayne's uncle & Wayne Enterprises. So the overall story I have some issues with but the little things are what truly make this book amazing & are where Snyder excels.
This is the early years of Batman so seeing an early version of Batman without a cape in cobbled together tactical gear on a dirt bike with purple gloves is awesome & a nice throwback to earlier stories. There are some great bits of dialogue in this book one moment in particular is between Alfred & Bruce about how is conducting himself. The real jem of this book is the introduction of Edward Nigma. He starts out as a consultant for Philip Cain & Wayne Enterprises. There is a nice exchange between him & Bruce Wayne in the museum before they ever meet in at their alter egos.
The reveal of the origin of The Riddler was particularly impressive because it is plays off the way he was introduced in Batman Forever. I am interested in seeing where this is going, however I feel that this is story-arc will not live up to the previous stories of Batman or the Joker's origin. This book is not a replacement for Batman: Year One it is to be read in addition to that title. Frank Miller's four part story-arc is still the definitive version of the origin of Batman. Hopefully part two raises the bar a little higher because I am expecting more from Scott Snyder.
Scott Snyder is a true master of horror & he has made the Batman series t a truly horrifying tale that you almost don't want to read with the lights off. This is perhaps Snyder's first misstep in that he didn't quite stick to the landing of this story-arc. This was supposed to be his big Joker story & Scott Snyder mined the hell out of the archives for this tale. However for all of the set up that we were given the pay off just wasn't there in the end or it was there but it was done in such a way that it went over the casual readers heads much like the ending of The Killing Joke by Alan Moore.
From the start this story is a punch to the gut with the Joker showing up at the Gotham City Police Station. That entire scene is chilling & down right scary like the opening scene in the first book of the Song of Ice & Fire series. The Joker in a room full of police officers & just snapping necks while the lights are out all the while Jim Gordon is trying to find him to shoot him. Just like in the Dark Knight the Joker targets the mayor but it is only a diversion from who his real target is. The story even goes back to the origin of the Joker that was crafted in The Man Who Laughs story-arc by Ed Brubaker. As Batman tracks him down to Ace Chemical only to be tricked by Harley Quinn, while Joker strikes in Bruce Wayne's very home at Alfred.
During this entire story this interpretation of Joker is always one step ahead of Batman & his motivations read like he is obsessed with Batman in a romantic stalker type fashion. Joker maneuvers the other players into position with ease demonstrating why he truly is Batman's greatest rogue out of all of them. His confrontation with Penguin is a great piece of writing. Once the Joker makes it clear that he is coming after all of the Bat-Family that supports Batman, Bruce Wayne decides to tell the the story behind the giant Joker card in the Bat-Cave. This is all leading up to the big show down between Joker & the Batman at Arkham Asylum where Joker has prepared everything. The big reveal of what the Joker has done at the end would have been game changing & the most heinous thing he has ever done but it was an illusion the punch line of this story is that the Joker wants to take away the safety net around Batman to make the Bat-Family mistrust Batman himself. To that end this was a successful story but it felt like a cop out compared to the build up that Snyder put into this story which was alluding to a more grisly ending. The magical touch that really makes this story pop is Greg Capullo's art along with the rest of the art team on this book. There is no doubt that the team of Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo is one of the greatest things to happen to DC. They complement each other so well. If you are a fan of Joker stories this is not one to pass up.
The second half of Scott Snyder's opening Batman story-arc. The Court of Owls has released their Talons on the city. City officials are dying left & right, Alfred has sent out a call to all of the Bat-Family. Wayne Manor itself is under attack as the Talons fight Bruce Wayne in its halls, on the roof & finally in the Bat-Cave. Batman is able to shut down the Talons he then goes looking for the court itself only to find them all dead in a secret meeting room. What really makes this story are the little tidbits of mythos that are thrown out from it.
The first is that after the death of Thomas & Martha Wayne, Bruce went looking for the court. He felt that the court was in some way responsible for their deaths. However in all of his searching as a child he was never able to find them. The the building in which he found the deceased court is the same building that he came up with as their headquarters when he was a child. The second is the story about Mr. Freeze this is one of the creepiest stories in this book. In just the annual issue Snyder has crafted an origin tale mixed with the discovery that Freeze unknowingly helped the Court of Owls. Victor's origin is tragic & it shows just how homicidal he truly is. The reveal of who Nora is also great. I still believe that nothing will surpass Batman the Animated Series episode Heart of Ice but this was damn close. The next story was told through flashbacks involving Alfred's father & Martha Wayne. Martha was pregnant with a second child Bruce was about three at the time. She was being threatened by an unknown group. There was a car accident & the baby was lost. Jarvis blames himself as he keeps receiving phone calls from this mysterious person. Jarvis is writing his son to warn him not to come to this cursed city. But a Talon has come for Jarvis kills him in a burning building. That reveal also plays with the events that happen in the present. Lincoln March who was running for Mayor of Gotham City. Lincoln drops that bombshell that he is Bruce's long lost little brother. He was taken to the children's orphanage that Martha Wayne funded after the accident. He killed the court because they began to view him as a liability. He supposedly dies in an exploding building. But the damage is done through the reveal or is it. Bruce does some research & there is evidence that doesn't add up but it is still inconclusive. Only four other stories come to mind that shake the very core of Bruce Wayne's world, Batman & Son, Hush, Under the Red Hood & R.I.P. I like the potential for future stories. If this was the only Batman story that Snyder was to write that would be enough but I have a feeling that for as long as Snyder is contracted to DC comics that he will have some influence on the Dark Knight.
Scott Snyder is no stranger to the Dark Knight before the New 52 he wrote one of the all time favorite Batman tales in Batman: The Black Mirror. I do think that the New 52 hurt Batman in terms of continuity the only series that came through unscathed was Green Lantern because that was Geoff Johns baby, but I digress. Snyder's opening salvo with Batman in the New 52 is one of the great lessons of mining the material something that all writers are able to with Batman & friends easily. In this case Snyder creates a new threat for Batman that is built into the very city itself & has an even richer history than Batman does. The Court of Owls is one of the greatest Batman creations since the League of Shadows was created.
The first seven issues of the series can be found in this first volume. Bruce Wayne is trying to add a more modern look to Gotham by addressing some of the infrastructural problems of the city. Gotham has always looked old fashioned compared to Metropolis. Snyder builds a sense of suspense in his writing that Grant Morrison was unable to in his run on the character. Snyder plays off the natural relationship between bats & owls. Snyder's first story-arc is broken down into two volumes this first sees that court push Bruce Wayne to the limit. Batman has underestimated the court he went searching for them after they tried to kill Bruce Wayne. However the court was to crafty & Batman wakes up in an underground maze. This maze is used to play with the court's victims before the Talon dispatches them. Snyder has even crafted a very catchy rhyme to strike fear into the reader similar to Nightmare on Elm Street & other scary movies. Batman finds a way to escape the maze after having a final showdown with the Talon. There is a big reveal at the end of this volume that Dick Grayson was in line to be trained as one of the new Talons. The court has a plan to demonstrate their power in Gotham & they release all of their Talons to take out Batman & the city's leaders. Snyder makes the reader want more with the cliff hanger at the midway point of this story.
