snyder batman, however, i've really enjoyed. death of the family, especially the court of owls... he and capullo are doing some great stuff. definitely my favorite regular-run in years, at like 25 issues in (and i think they mighta signed on through 50, which is great, cuz i love when teams stick together).
Inverse question for Klinton: why did you not like it? I haven't read it at all, but I'm hearing interesting things about what Snyder is doing, so I'm curious?
well, the reasons i like snyder and capullo's batman run are possibly the reasons you won't. i believe the only bat-stuff we have in common is the occasional portrayal where batman is a lil nutty (and where he's ok with that) and that's not here.
snyder's batman is similar to morrison's in that he's a badass. he's a brick. he'll dive head first into anything, save a kid while he's on fire, punch a face
with a face, etc. even past the point where he's way over matched, he'll keep on keeping on. after bane broke his back, snyder's batman would slap bane in the shins.
there's a great mix of detective work. some scifi-level gear. some fun ultra-spy-bond kinda scenes. some "he can't do that ... wait, he's batman!" type moments.
there's also an amazing portrayal of everyone else. from alfred to gordon to the entire batfamily. noting bruce as a separate persona, snyder's bruce wayne is just as much a badass as his batman. with the extended robin group, i grew to quite like the incredible complexity of a world that has dick grayson, tim, jason, and damian in a single room. they're all so different and all so important to bruce in their own regard, and though its
very much a solo batman book, snyder got to each in different ways. and, my other favorite attribute whenever there's an element of "family" to the bat world, they're all so clearly second rank - there's only one batman.
that's the summation of character and such. storywise, there have been a few main arcs so far: death of the family, court of owls, the start of year zero and a bit more. "death" is the joker story (the tie-ins are great compliments, but unnecessary) which was not just a great tale, but one of those
extra great stories that left a lil bit of uneasiness post-mortum, killing joke style. court of owls might have been my favorite arc in a decade or more of comics. its this amazing tie-in to bruce and gotham and such a cool villain, with all this amazing built-in history that could be expanded upon for years.
i don't want to discuss either arc in too much detail cuz there honestly is a great deal of "oh shit!" moments to each. both of those two big arcs are like "stand-alone book" good, where its a bit surprising they're part of a regular series. i strongly recommend giving them a shot, especially if you can find a cheaper TPB or something.
