Witness the moment Bruce Wayne becomes Batman as “Zero Year” makes history! And in the backup story, a young Bruce Wayne fights for his life in a death match in Russia!
Written by: Scott Snyder
Art by: Greg Capullo
Danny Miki
Backup Art by: Rafael Albuquerque
Cover by: Greg Capullo
Variant Cover by: Gary Frank/ Greg Capullo
One of the things that raised my curiosity about Scott Snyder's ambitious "ZERO YEAR" project was how he's going to pull off the whole 'becoming Batman' part considering that this is new territory as in New 52. With the release of Batman # 23 however, I am confident that Snyder and Capullo have already mapped out what they plan to touch on in this brave new world for the caped crusader, his allies and his future enemies.
This issue focuses on a number of the things, the brutal ambush of the Red Hood gang on Bruce Wayne, Bruce's return to the Wayne Manor, Edward Nygma's betrayal of Philip Kane and the finally Bruce's acceptance into being the Batman.
The art, as always, was great. Capullo really went mad with the panels especially for the nonlinear storytelling of the Red Hood gang ambush and how Wayne managed to get his butt back to the Manor.
For some weird reason, this new origin for Batman is working for me. I guess it's really more because it ties in everything neatly while giving this 21st Century energy and vibe to the character. Remember it's been decades since we got any new origin story for the Dark Knight with the last one that got major promotion and push was Frank Miller's BATMAN: YEAR ONE.
+023-003.jpg)
The narrative, the exposition, the timing and even the technology might've changed but you can definitely be assured that most things are left intact most especially the scene in the library where Bruce Wayne finally decides to become the Batman partly after getting beaten, and remembering the little camera he used when he fell down the Batcave back when he was still a kid; like I said, ties in everything together.
The backup was kinda bland because it ends in such a dour note albeit we did get to see Bruce sticking to his no-killing principles as it's being put through the ringer. Again, it had such great pacing but the ending was anti-climatic. Could've been worse though.
One last thing about issue 23, and the entire ZERO YEAR story arc is that it touches on a very nice topic for the Batman mythos. Did Batman bring about the creation of his rogues or were the rogues really going to take over regardless of Batman/ Bruce Wayne returning. Secondly, was the Joker - Batman rivalry just a thing between the two entities after Batman's emergence or has this been going on prior to these two really settling in Gotham City.
The answer for the first is still up in the air as we need to make an assessment on what's going on and how the story pans out. The second question actually gets answered already as Snyder seems to imply that the massive grudge match between Batman and the Joker started before they were even the latter and the former. This puts a deeper meaning into the bizaare relationship of those two, and seems to reinforce the point that Joker proved back in "Death of the Family"... he doesn't care who Bruce Wayne is.
VERDICT: B-
Get your copies of Batman # 23 from Comicx Hub and Castle Geek
No comments:
Post a Comment