Batman Vol. 10: Epilogue

This is the last volume of Scott Snyder's run on the main Batman title but not the end of his run on the character.  This collection is filled with little one shot stories setting up the next run.  The few issues in this book explore the relationship between Batman and Gotham City.  It also delves into part of his childhood and how Alfred motivated him to become the man he is at the end of this volume.  The annual issue ties in with the events of Arkham Manor and the Superheavy story-arc.  The Futures End one shot is part of this collection which ties in with that event.  The gem of this volume is the inclusion of the Batman: Rebirth issue where Scott Snyder hands over the reigns to Tom King.  in this volume readers get to see who Duke Thomas is about to become.  The issue is very Calendar Man heavy and has portrayed him as interesting villain.  I am interested to see where Tom King takes the Batman mythos as a whole.  There is no doubt that Scott Snyder has left his mark on Batman similar to the way Grant Morrison did just not as jarring.  It has been an enjoyable ride.

Batman Vol. 9: Bloom

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.

Batman Vol. 8: Superheavy

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.

  

Batman Vol. 7: Endgame

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.

Batman Vol. 6: Graveyard Shift

This collection is a mixed bag of single & double issue stories that Scott Snyder & friends put together.  Issue zero in this book really is connected to the Zero Year story-arc so I don’t understand why it wasn’t collected in those volumes particularly the first volume.  However that story is not as important it is the backup written by James Tynion IV that focuses on the first lighting of the Bat-Signal it showcases so many characters of the Bat-Family in there & how inspired they are by seeing the signal.  As a Batman fan I have a big problem with this in that it skews Jason Todd’s origin writers seem to forget that he was ever Robin & keep throwing references to him becoming Red Hood.  That they forget why he took the Red Hood persona in the first place, it was to psychologically mess with Batman due to his history with the Joker & what the Joker did to Jason Todd.  This is one of the biggest problems for me out of the New 52 era.  I also have issues with how they have treated Tim Drake but that is a discussion for another entry. 

The next story is the requiem issue for Robin R.I.P. which was the finally of Grant Morrison’s multi-year spanning Batman run through multiple titles.  This issue sees Batman deal with the loss of another Robin but this time it goes much deeper as Damien Wayne was his son.  This is also a very Harper Row centered story.  The following two issue arc is a Clayface story that is truly suspenseful.  I have come to realize that Snyder may not always write the best voice for Batman but for his rogues gallery he is spot on.  The backup’s to the Clayface story take on the mystical side of Gotham City.  It’s not a great story but it is nice to see Batman & Superman team-up.  The following single issue story is a Batman Eternal crossover that was written by Snyder & friends.  This crossover sees many things happen such as Jim Gordon be arrested, Catwoman becoming the Kingpin of crime in Gotham City & the return of Stephanie Brown as Spoiler. 

There are two more single issue stories one which sees Batman helping the staff of Arkham Asylum test out their new security system.  Batman comes face to face with one of the oldest inmates of Arkham.  She accuses Batman of changing the purpose of Arkham from a place of healing to a living hell.  The next story showcases that no criminal is above the law when it comes to crime & they are not below Batman’s radar.  Batman is on the hunt for a serial killer who is murdering Dr. Thompkins patients & burying them in potter’s field.  It is a great little story about Batman’s crusade on terror.

Batman Vol. 5: Zero Year, Dark City

The second half of Scott Snyder’s Batman origin story-arc is full of highs & lows.  There is a lot to like in this volume the first Batmobile for example is a prowler that is purple & yellow that can jump like the Tumbler from the Christopher Nolan movies & drive on the ceiling of the tunnel.  The villain that is introduced in this story is Dr. Death I can’t say l like him very much as he is a very outlandish villain for Batman to go up against in this early set story.  His motivations are that of a disgruntled employee whose experiment has gone horribly wrong.  He reminds of the Man-Bat in many ways but he is just a pawn to the real threat. Even though I don’t like Karl Hellfern as a villain I did a little research & he apparently is one of Batman’s early villains so kudos to Scott Snyder for including him for a new generation. 

It is during the first half of this collection that focuses on Dr. Death & his supposed plan one of his victims is Dr. Isley so it was nice to see Poison Ivy briefly before she goes all villain.  Along with seeing the first Batmobile we get to see the first Bat-boat & the Bat-blimp.  The big reveal at the end of the first half of this book is that Dr. Death is not the big bag but instead a pawn of the Riddler.  The Riddler is beginning to take center stage as Batman & Dr. Death have their final showdown.  One of the great things about this story is that the Riddler is able to best Batman throughout most of this story & the first half reads very much like a Batman story.  Batman crashes with the falling platform only to wake up to a whole new city.  This is where the first volume started. 

With the second half of this book the we are introduced to Duke Thomas who becomes a new ally for Batman later on in Snyder’s run.  The Riddler has transformed Gotham City into a Savage Land where nature is working to reclaim the city & parts of the city are flooded.  For me this is where Snyder appears to have jumped the shark with his story.  I understand how it is possible given the theft of Pamela Isley’s research but at the same time it feels very fanciful.  The Riddler is holding the city hostage while also waiting for a citizen of Gotham to rise up & be a hero for the people.  This entire scenario feels very old hat especially since it was part of the plot for the Dark Knight Rises.  Also it is never explained how the Riddler was able to get all of his equipment as he doesn’t seem to have any henchmen.

Batman faces off against the Riddler in a battle of wits multiple times in this book all are memorable but it is the last two that I am most enthralled with.  In their second encounter Batman is stalling for time which the Riddler seems to see through & pulls a Jabba the Hutt by dropping him into a lion pit.  After Batman dispatches of the lions in a cool & unorthodox way he is off to find the Riddler.  The final showdown for Batman & the Riddler takes place where Bruce Wayne first encountered Edward Nygma at the museum in front of the Sphinx.  The whole entrance of the Riddler coming out of the shadows clapping reminds me of the Joker clapping in The Dark Knight or the entrance of Silva in Skyfall.  The Riddler has one final game for Batman to play for the future of Gotham City.  This is straight out of the classic Batman stories of the past & the animated series.  A series of riddles & each misstep is detrimental to the safety of the city; it is simply chilling as Nygma explains the rules & says “rrrriddle me this, Batman.”  That came straight out of Batman: Forever for me with Jim Carry’s portray of the Riddler.  The giant penny makes a return in this story as well as the origin of the Bat-Signal to warn the fighter jets.  The Riddler has the mother of all failsafe mechanisms that Batman has to get around to save the city.

Again Snyder plays to his strengths which is character development & conversations I like those moments of just talking between Bruce Wayne & Alfred but also Bruce Wayne / Batman & Jim Gordon.  There is some great backstory here that is portrayed by all of the characters involved.  It is also great to see a younger Lucius Fox interacting with a young Bruce Wayne.  There is one splash page in this collection that hints at many other characters & their involvement in this event but their issues are not included in this story frankly I don’t see why they were even alluded to because this is primarily a Batman story.  There is a nice little back story about Harper Row & it is still not clear what Scott Snyder has planned for her.  

Again Greg Capullo shows us just why is the artist for this book every page is amazing there is a great single image of Batman performing a leap of faith from the blimp to the Riddler’s floating platform with is a reference to The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.  Now what Batman origin story would be complete without touching on the death of Thomas & Martha Wayne.  Snyder does just that but he approaches it from the perspective of Bruce Wayne which puts a new spin on it & the potential trauma that it creates in him.  There are a lot of big reveals in this story as the Riddler is the first official inmate in Arkham.  But also that Bruce Wayne checked himself in there many years before because he could not cope with the loss of his parents & he was going through therapy to create a new personality for himself.  This is truly an amazing & terrifying aspect to introduce into the Batman mythos.  The end of this collection is truly touching & shows the great devotion Alfred has to protecting him when an old girlfriend comes back to Gotham to reconnect with Bruce.  As readers we see both scenarios of that meeting & it is the real one that pulls on our heartstrings. 

There is a lot to like in this story-arc as a whole the two volumes of Zero Year but for everything I like there is something I dislike.  For all of the characters involved there are a few decisions that they make that are either out of character for them or reckless in their execution.  For example Jim Gordon leaping off a building into a flooded subway stairwell Batman drinking gasoline & blowing flame at a lion while it looks cool it seems out of character for Batman.  The failsafe that the Riddler has is again another out of wreckless moment where Batman attaches it to himself to defibrillate himself to save the city.  In the end Snyder & Capullo have crafted a great story & I have no doubt that history will showcase them as one of the premiere creative teams to ever work on Batman but this is still not a tail for everyone.  If you love the Riddler as a villain then this is a must read.

Batman Vol. 4: Zero Year, Secret City

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.

Batman Vol. 3: Death of the Family

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.

Batman Vol. 2: The City of Owls

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.

Batman Vol. 1: The Court of the Owls

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.

Superman Unchained Deluxe Ed.

The first Scott Snyder story I ever read was Batman: The Black Mirror & it was incredible!  Now this book has all of the makings of greatness in it with Scott Snyder writing & Jim Lee on art but for some reason it falls short of that incredible factor that I have come to expect from Snyder.  My primary gripe with the book is the portrayal of Superman as an enemy of the free world, hunted by the military industrial complex like the Hulk over in the Marvel Universe.  The lack of fleshing out this apposing force known only as Wraith.  Don't get me wrong there are exceptional moments of characterization here as well between Lois & Clark along with a few other characters.  The real scene stealer of the entire book is Lex Luther.  Every scene that Lex was in was amazing Snyder has brought an intensity that I have not seen in the character in awhile.  Jim Lee's art is top notch as always it truly is a shame that some of the best creators of all time have taken up positions that prevent them from giving us this type of quality on a regular basis.  I like Snyder's work on Batman but if he is going to branch out to DC's other top heroes then it needs to be on a monthly book instead of a mini-series.