Quarter Bin 73 "Coming back to Snyder's Batman"

Bought cheap.  Title is figurative.  And so on.

Batman #1 (DC)
From 2011.
Sometimes I find myself forming opinions as a reaction to what I consider to be the stupid opinions of others.  Hey, we all do it.  I tend to be accused of it probably more than others, but this is a far more common phenomenon than people think (probably for obvious reasons).  Thankfully, I sometimes catch myself.  I hated how much Scott Snyder's Batman caught on.  As an affirmed Grant Morrison fan, I just wanted to shout, Morrison's Batman hasn't even finished yet!  What's wrong with you?  But I can also acknowledge that Morrison is an extremely divisive writer, and his Batman had already gone through several permutations, and had long since moved on from its most sensational story, "Batman R.I.P."  By this point, he was approaching concluding it with the second volume of Batman Incorporated.  Snyder, meanwhile, had created some positive buzz with his initial Batman work within the pages of Detective Comics.  DC obviously recognized his unique new voice, and gave him the chance to get the widest exposure with the Batman relaunch at the start of the New 52.  And it caught on like wildfire.  In the following years, the company even began touting the first collection of his run, The Court of Owls, as a new classic, a must-read.  I thought that was beyond the pale.  I mean, does popularity really qualify something as a classic?

Well, in some cases, probably.  But that's kind of beside the point.  Snyder's work wasn't just considered good Batman material, it became the gold standard of success in the New 52 era, one that every other title DC published failed, time and time again, to match.  I mean, eventually Harley Quinn caught on in a big way, but for the same reasons Deadpool was a surprise blockbuster earlier this year.  That's just the character of fans at the moment.  Snyder's word, ideally, really does transcend the moment.  There's a reason why.  This first issue subconsciously evokes another moment in which Batman broke out of a slump, 1989's Batman movie, actually, which remained the gold standard of Batman movies until The Dark Knight.  Snyder has Bruce Wayne overhear a conversation Jim Gordon has about an open crime scene, and a fat detective waits on-scene (this time one of the good guys, ol' reliable Harvey Bullock). 

Like I said, it's a subconscious connection, probably one few readers realize even now, but it sets the tone.  Snyder's Batman is a hopeful one, in the manner of what Morrison had sought to accomplish, but perhaps mistakenly associating it with a whole movement.  Batman works best when it's clear he's in control, even when he loses control (as he often does in Snyder's series).  Whether he has partners is beside the point.  It's not about subtracting grim from the equation (it's been observed that Snyder's Batman was basically a horror series), but that Batman himself doesn't have to be grim.

I read this issue again, thanks to another lucky find of bargain packs that seem to be popping up everywhere I go lately, before reading the final issues of Snyder's run, and it's the reason I bought those to begin with.  I mean, I've been reading the run sporadically since the beginning, and sometimes I've really loved it, but I've never really shaken my basic reaction, Of course this isn't as good as they say it is.  There will be a lot of reasons why fans eventually cool on the run, all the things Snyder never quite accomplished but easily could have but for whatever reason never did, and while those points will be valid, they don't take away from the base accomplishment, which was to present a whole era in which Batman's popularity was guided by a single man, who more or less lived up to the occasion.  Sound like faint praise?  It isn't.

Batman Annual #3 (DC)
From February 2015.
Snyder's partner in crime during this time was his protégé, James Tynion IV, with whom I recently read an interview that explained the whole relationship.  I never realized what a lucky bastard Tynion really was.  Because I could sometimes slip in my appreciation of Snyder, you can bet I had less kind thoughts concerning Tynion.  But the truth is, he's put in some good work, such as this issue, part of the "Endgame" arc that saw Snyder's vision of the last battle between Batman and the Joker.  One of the running themes of the arc was the true identity of the Joker, which actually doesn't feature into the issue, but rather his twisted relationship with a reporter who found himself in the unique predicament of asking what the hell is wrong with the Joker, to his face, and theorizing that it's because the Joker is incredibly...lonely.  So the Joker agrees to make the guy his special friend, which seems to be a sincere joke, as it were, on his part, but which absolutely terrorizes his most uncomfortable victim.  The fact that I took the time to actually explain what happens in a comic book should tell you that it was pretty memorable.  So it was good to read, while rediscovering Snyder, Tynion as well, and come to a similar conclusion.

Batman/Superman #13 (DC)
From October 2014.
I could never quite bring myself to read this series, which I originally thought was a sad attempt to recapture the glory of Jeph Loeb's Superman/Batman, which later writers in that series, to my mind, amply proved already was all too easy to accomplish (the failure, you understand).  But I knew the series was different, that DC was making a serious attempt.  While certainly a quieter entry than its predecessor in the chronicles of the World's Finest, it attracted some quality talent, like Greg Pak, as part of his overall Superman duties, and Jae Lee, who has consistently produced some of the most gorgeous art in comics.  This issue features the duo with amnesia, and some interesting moments with the likes of Catwoman, Bruce Wayne, and Lois Lane as a result. 

Thus rounding out a pretty good bargain three-pack in what is usually a pretty dicey prospect.