Batman #24 Review
So far, Batman Zero Year has been up in the air for me. With the first major act finished a month ago, we begin the second act. And let me tell you right now, the second act so far is amazing. And don’t let the $6.99 price tag fool you either, you are getting two issues worth of comic book here.
What took the first few issues in this arc so long to accomplish, Bruce Wayne has finally become Batman. Fast forward a little bit, we come to issue #24. Batman is now a thing and Gotham City finally gets its savior. What we see here is Batman’s first major encounter with a greater evil in the Red Hood. One can’t help but think while we are reading this issue that we are seeing the origin story of not only Batman, but of Joker as well. As a matter of fact, this might as well be a Joker origin story as well as the parallels to what we have known as Joker’s origin are all present here, albeit in a different format. However, given the fact that Scott Snyder is at the helm, I really can’t say for sure that I am 100% sure that what I think is true,which is brilliant.
The way that Snyder has found to portray Batman’s origin is refreshing. He is able to weave together an original origin taking place in the present in a way that is not only unprecedented, but eerily relevant. We are even given insight about how the broken, flooded city of Gotham has come to be that we saw in the first issue of this arc. The seaport that Red Hood 1 refers to is more than likely hooked to the flooding of Gotham, or so I think.
If there are any negatives I see in the book, it’s the fact that some of what we see is so ham-fisted that it made me laugh. The fact that a brand new Batman is able to capture, tie, and pose a few members of the Red Hood gang on a billboard in the shape of the Batman logo in a matter of minutes is amusing. Moreover, the humungous bat-shadow-blackout that Bruce Wayne was able to cast over Gotham was laugh worthy.
Nonetheless, the issue was phenomenal. Greg Capullo’s art in this issue is nothing short of amazing. I can not praise him enough…what you see here is comic art at its best, folks. Meanwhile, FCO Plascencia continues to deliver the best colors in comic books, hands down. I’ll just say this, the art in this book is just about as good as it gets. I know that Capullo thinks that awards are meaningless, but he and the colorist deserve some kind of accolades for this marvel.
Where I found myself wanting for more before this issue, all my questions have been answered. This is an issue for the ages in what is surely to become a story for the ages. Read this.
Score: 9.5