Batman #11

writer: Scott Snyder
artist: Greg Capullo

In the conclusion to Scott Snyder's Court of Owls story, Batman battles Lincoln March, who last issue claimed to be Thomas Wayne, Jr, Bruce Wayne's secret brother.  Thematically this makes leagues of sense, considering the Court was all about secret histories and ties to Gotham City that Batman theoretically could not match, making it an adversary that posed a unique threat to the Dark Knight.  The problem I have with it is that this is a development that probably should have been tied in with the whole story.

Here I ought to confess that I did not read the entire Court of Owls story.  This is only the second issue I've read of Snyder's New 52 series.  I read a few of his Detective Comics previously, but given that my Batman allegiances belong to Grant Morrison, I had a hard time stomaching someone else being considered the architect of the franchise, especially when it became clear that Snyder was setting the Court up to be something of a long-term deal.  It seemed kind of sudden, and the idea of the Court seemed a little fuzzy, a giant conspiracy that wasn't really represented by anyone except the Talons.  The previous issue I sampled, #6, was a showdown between Batman and a Talon, and stylistically, there's no difference between that issue and this one, a random fight that Batman has to survive and looks at several points as if he won't, as if this whole Court just happens to spring up and serve as a challenge he can't overcome without an extreme force of will.  It doesn't chart with Morrison's stories, or the buildup "Knightfall" received, or feel anything like organic.  Maybe that's a price I pay for not reading the whole story, or maybe that's what the story has actually been like, I don't know.

I do know that #11 is a pretty good issue aside from these concerns, magnified as they were by the fairly senseless "Night of Owls" crossover event that further signified that the Court was essentially a random creation that could affect any of the Batman family members with equal ineffectiveness, aside from the general pathos of its existence.  (There's a Talon series launching in September, in case you were wondering, and will probably make better use of Snyder's creation than anything that's been done so far; consider yourself warned, though, because this is basically an update of Azrael.)

Lincoln March himself is fascinating.  I love that he chatters on about his story as he pursues and batters Batman through Greg Capullo's artwork, which takes every opportunity to ape Frank Miller, at least as far as Batman goes.  Whether or not he's actually Batman's brother is somewhat irrelevant, and plays into the psychology of the Court really well.  These are some points Snyder should have considered more closely when he outlined the story.  Given that he writes almost all of his comics the same way (whether American Vampire or Severed), with some kind of weird connection to the past, Snyder should have considered who the star of this story was all along, and how to make it feature Batman without falling into beats that might seem gratuitous or unnecessary.  He's good at world-building, but I'm not sure he knows how to maneuver around it.

Bruce has a conversation with Dick Grayson once it's over, and while there are a lot of words exchanged, it's the same kind of hollow writing, a lack of a sense of consequence (in wrestling, it's called no-selling), as if Snyder really doesn't feel responsible in the same way fans (and DC) have gravitated toward him as the new voice of the franchise.  Perhaps given more time he's feel more comfortable, but at the moment it's affecting his ability to be effective.  In a backup feature with art from American Vampire collaborator Raphael Albuquerque, Snyder (along with co-writer James Tynion IV) explore the Pennyworth side of things, attempting to put a little bow on everyone's lack of awareness.  The art is terrific, but again it's like Snyder is writing something other than Batman, and it's not just the shock of a new approach from a reader who liked an old one, but rather an inauthenticity from a voice that doesn't seem to truly know its subject and is therefore trying to fake its way out of a mess.

I don't know, maybe it's best that I simply avoid reading Snyder's Batman.  Maybe it's simply not for me.  There's plenty of Batman stories I haven't read, and I'm certainly reading others.  There's stuff to like and stuff to at best feel apathetic about.  I wish there was more of the former and less of the latter.  Maybe it's also weird because for Snyder Damian doesn't exist, and to me, it's impossible (Batman Incorporated, Batman and Robin) to picture the current Bruce Wayne without thinking of his son, and in this unbalanced equation everything is thrown off.