The second volume of Jim Gordon as the caped crusader and continuing the Superheavy story-arc. This ups the action after Mr. Bloom crashed Geri Powers party. While Batman is attempting to find a way to stop Bloom, Bruce Wayne is looking to find out who he is. There is a really well done seen where he is sitting on bench by this lake talking to a pale skinned man in a while suit. This scene is so full of tension as you know in the back of your mind that it is the Joker.
Mr. Bloom has tricked Gordon and taken him hostage as he is wreaking havoc on Gotham City. This is almost worse than the War Games story-arc. In the previous volume Mr. Bloom came off creepy and mysterious, all of that has been thrown out the window with this volume. I think Snyder jumped the shark with him in this volume. Bloom is doing just what the Joker did in Endgame arming or infecting the citizens of the city to fight for him.
The real gem of this story is how Bruce Wayne becomes Batman again the dialog between him and Alfred is touching and amazing. The idea that Bruce Wayne has to die to become Batman, is simple but well executed. Also the fact the Julie Madison came down to the cave to be the person to press the button because Alfred couldn't sacrificing her own happiness it was truly touching is probably one of the best things Snyder has written.
Batman the real Batman has returned to take down Bloom and rescue this city and he doesn't disappoint. Bloom is taken down but I feel it is a cop out as we never find out who Bloom was but we do find out who created him Daryl Gutierrez who was the engineer for Jim Gordon's bunny-bat suit. One the things I really liked about this two volume story-arc is that it was written in a very self aware style. that Snyder knew how much hate he was going to get for doing this to Batman similar to the what Dan Slott did to Spider-Man over at Marvel. This is the last main story of Scott Snyder's the next and final volume is an epilogue of sorts to the run as a whole and set up for what is to come with Rebirth.
Endgame has ended and the ending was quite shocking to say the least it was the most gruesome fight the Joker and Batman have ever had. With that being said I feel that story-arc could have been executed better. It seems like Scott Snyder has been chasing the great Batman scribes that came before him. writers like Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Jeph Loeb, Dennis O'Neil, Chuck Dixon and Grant Morrison. I know there are others but these specific writers left a mark on the Batman mythos that others have not been able to. Scott Snyder seems to be trying really hard to be counted among those writers, each of his story-arcs can be tied to one of the stories by those writers I have listed and this new arc is no different.
Its starts off that Batman is gone since the Endgame event, Snyder does do a lot of set for this volume and if you have been reading his run your used to this. Powers International has swallowed up Wayne Enterprises through a take over. I had to look up Powers International because I didn't know who they were it would be nice to have some more build-up when the writer makes some changes to Gotham City because the as Snyder has voice before along with other authors the city is a unique character to the Batman mythos. Anyway Batman is gone and Powers International has taken it upon themselves to build a better Batman. Geri Powers teaming with the GCPD is sanctioning a new Batman that works for them, is trained by them and answers to them. The person they choose to take the mantel of Batman is Jim Gordon. It sounds like a bad idea and fans have been very critical of this move. Unlike the Knightfall saga where Jean-Paul Valley took over as Batman when Bruce Wayne was broken by Bane; Jim Gordon is very aware that this is a bad idea but he does it because he doesn't trust anyone else to do it. But also like the Knightfall saga Jim's tenure as Batman is short lived and confined to the Superheavy story-arc.
Batman has been replaced three different times in main continuity the first by Jean-Paul Valley, Dick Grayson and now Jim Gordon. The only one that fans have loved was Dick Grayson because of the way it was executed and built up. Jim Gordon's suit is very reminiscent of Robocop and makes me long for the days of the Jean-Paul Valley suit. However Batman is not the only change to Batman mythos but also the villain who is Mr. Bloom is brand new. Mr. Bloom started out as a very cool creepy and awesome villain for this whole first volume. Could Mr. Bloom be the evolution of where we see Batman's rogues gallery going.
It is revealed that even though Batman may have died at the end of Endgame, Bruce Wayne did not he just has amnesia. This part of the story I loved the most because it is really well constructed and executed and it is a unique enough to work. In the past Bruce Wayne has been framed for murder, replaced by Hush in the public spotlight and declared dead. But until now he was never given a clean slate. This isn't turning me away from Batman I'm to invested but I am taking a more critical stance on Snyder's choices during his run on the character.
Scott Snyder has spent his entire run really delving into the psyche of the Joker & this story is no exception. If Batman: Death of the Family was a look at the Joker's love for Batman this is a look at the Joker's hate for the Dark Knight. Now this edition is by no means the definitive version of the story there is a Joker: Endgame edition that includes a few other tie ins to make it complete honestly that version is most likely an improvement but this is the one I read. The story starts out with Joker having been gone for awhile but in reality he has been hiding in plain sight. There are some really good & twisted acts the Joker pulls off in this story-arc. The first is poisoning the Justice League & having them go after Bruce Wayne. I really would have liked to see how the Joker got to all of them I think that was a missed opportunity that Snyder didn't capitalize on. Joker's big reveal of who he was working at Arkham was brilliantly executed I would have liked to see play out for a longer period of time so that this is someone that Batman, the police, staff & the inmates of Gotham have interacted with for many issues before the reveal it would have made the reveal even more dramatic.
The Joker's main weapon of choice in this book is a two pronged attack on the one hand he is using his chemical expertise to create a chemical to make everybody go mad. I have to say it is nice to see Snyder take the Joker in this route in terms of giving him a weapon & making him a threat to Gotham as a whole that hasn't been done in a while. Most of the stories that I can remember the Joker goes after individuals. That is still the case in this story but the city has become his minions. Greg Capullo's art is almost more compelling than Snyder's writing. The showdown between the Joker & Jim Gordon is simply amazing it gave me chills just reading it. Those two characters have so much shared history with what the Joker has done to torment Gordon it was just amazing to see. Likewise with the reveal of patient zero being Joe Chill & Duke's family about to play the part of the Wayne's in Crime Alley while Batman watches is one of the most amazing set ups but I think it would have worked much better if it had been built up more. The Court of Owls makes a brief return in this story but they have chosen not to interfere because they want to take over after Batman's defeat. Joker's parade through Gotham City with the trophies from the Bat-Cave is awesome & a nice throwback to the 1980's Batman movie where Joker throws his own parade. The final showdown between Joker & Batman is one of the most brutal outside of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. The brutality doesn't bother me its the fact that they made a reference to the Lazarus Pits in this story & it is central to curing the City but Ra's Al Ghul is no where to be seen in this story I would have liked to see the Clown Prince try to taken down Batman while also facing a threat from the Demon's Head for contaminating a Lazarus Pit. Now that it is revealed that the Court of Owls also uses these pits for the Talons I hope so see them going head to head or teaming up with Ra's in the future. I feel that this was one of the biggest lost opportunities with this story-arc & could have lead to so much more.
There were several things that took me out of this story I think most of it falls in the editors lap but I think Snyder & Capullo can be blamed as well. First off when the Joker appears in the Bat-Cave his face is messed up pretty bad but I have no idea when that happened because when we the reader saw him swimming his face was fine. The second was the switch between Bruce & Dick in the story it was vaguely foreshadowed but it was executed poorly & should have had a better effect on the outcome of the story than it did. As I have said in the past Snyder wrote a great Dick Grayson Batman in Batman: The Black Mirror but he isn't as adept to writing Bruce Wayne Batman. The back up story where the inmates of Arkham are telling their stories of who they think the Joker really is or I should say what he really is; it makes for an interesting side story but it doesn't feel right to make it part of DC Universe canon. It just doesn't feel right that Batman's biggest bad should be the devil incarnate. I could see it working as an Elseworlds story but for canon work this is really what took me out of the story I couldn't agree with this.
There are several characters that should have died in this book & if Snyder wanted to truly shake up the Bat-world he could have killed off any or all of them but each one was kept alive in kind of a cop-out feel way. Back to Jim Gordon in this story-arc I really think they could have killed him off in this & it probably should have happened. I really don't see how he survived that interaction with the Joker. Alfred goes head to head with the Joker & loses a hand for his trouble. This is by far the most gruesome scene prior to the end of the arc. I still don't understand why Joker left him alive. The third death should have been Dick Grayson simply because of the switch which wasn't executed well as I stated before. I understand why they didn't kill him off because they tried to Forever Evil which compromised his secret identity as Nightwing. I feel this would have been the right story to kill him in & it would have put another Robin under the Joker's crowbar. Now if your upset with Dick Grayson getting the ax in the street battle you could have switched him with any of the supporting Bat-Family Batwing, Bluebird, Batgirl, Red Hood, Red Robin, Spoiler or Batwoman. It wouldn't have mattered I think someone should have gotten the ax. I know that would have been controversial & fans would be up in arms but it would have proved how high the stakes were. Remember this is after the death of Damian Wayne & before Robin Rises event so there is no straight up Robin.
I wish that there had been more substance to this story-arc than there was. Batman is one of those rare comic book characters that benefits from having story-arcs that are more of the maxi-series than mini-series in terms of issues. They need the build up to be fully effective. This story felt rushed to hit all the right notes I feel it could have been longer to make it more effective. I would have liked to see an epilogue issue of how they retrieved Bruce Wayne's body from the cave-in at the finale; done in a way that doesn't spoil the next arc. That is another thing that I have noticed throughout this whole run & I didn't realize how much it bothers me until now Snyder doesn't transition between arc's he leaves them like they are individual books which is good but if you are trying to read an entire run there needs to be some connectivity.
