Batman hits the New 52 where it counts
Summary
As I open up my brand new copy of Batman #1, I am greeted by the first page, in which we have Batman talking about the current state of Gotham and a newspaper column where people try to finish the sentence "Gotham is" in three words or less. Most responses are negative, claiming that the city is "cursed", or "damned". And on the first page we get to see how Gotham is dark, worn-down, tiring. Flip the page again and we get a scene where many villains, such as the Scarecrow, Two-Face, Mr. Freeze, and who appears to be Killer Croc, are telling Batman that he is cornered. We then see Batman just taking these villains apart, it almost looks effortless. Right after, we see Bats thrown through a window, landing on the floor where a familiar character (The Joker) appears and seems to be teaming up with Batman against the criminals. Then there is more of Batman's monologue, stating that some people submitted Batman's name to the "Gotham is" column, and how he likes to think they mean the hard-workers in Gotham. Next is a scene where Batman explains why he was in the asylum, and Commissioner Gordon asks some questions. We transition to a scene taking place in the Batcave, where we see the Joker come in and reveal to the readers that he is simply Dick Grayson, Nightwing and former Robin, wearing an E.M.P mask. He takes it off, and leaves with Bruce. Next, we get a nice little scene where three (Dick, Damian, and Tim) of the Robins are talking and interacting with each other. Bruce shows his future plans for Gotham at a party, talks to a possible business partner, and then leaves to investigate a murder. In the end, we see that under the victim's fingernails, there was the DNA of Dick Grayson!
The Good:
I can't praise this issue enough, you have beautiful art, a great starting point for the story, a ton of major villains on the second page, nice interactions between the Robins, and we even have a murder mystery on our hands. This how Batman should be.
The Bad:
I know a reviewers job is to find the good and the bad, but frankly, I don't see anything wrong with this issue.
The Verdict:
this is a must-have for all comic-book fans, and even the non comic-book fans too. Definitely recommended.
