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    Batman

    Character » Batman appears in 23537 issues.

    Bruce Wayne, who witnessed the murder of his billionaire parents as a child, swore to avenge their deaths. He trained extensively to achieve mental and physical perfection, mastering martial arts, detective skills, and criminal psychology. Costumed as a bat to prey on the fears of criminals, and utilizing a high-tech arsenal, he became the legendary Batman.

    Scott Snyder's New 52 Batman run any good?

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    gallowscalibrator

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    Late reader, but I'm catching up with the Batman runs in new 52. Wondering if Snyder's run is any good. I've read Court of Owls and its pretty interesting, planning to continue to City of Owls until Death of the Family. But the ones after that, especially Zero Year, I'm getting mixed reviews. Some say it's okay others say it got bad and dropped the book.

    Any reviews? Not just for Zero Year, any review til his latest book (Superheavy) is welcomed.

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    Rurgandy

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    It's good for the most part. Death of the Family is probably its lowest point. Zero Year is the best attempt at a modern origin story that isn't a half-assed rehash of Year One (hello there, Earth One). Endgame was good, but a bit overrated, and Superheavy is a good (albeit a bit long) arc that one can enjoy if they're not busy whining about "not muh Batman and Robin".

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    GonnaGetThat

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    #3  Edited By GonnaGetThat

    I thought he was average. He started strong but he didn't stay there. His run had ups and downs.

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    XavierMarz

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    Overall I thought it was a very good run. It had a few low points mostly during the death of a family and zero year arcs but still very creative, ambitious and well worth reading.

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    JTMac005

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    IMO death of the family was good, but the ending was just rushed and sloppy it seems. Zero year is a great arc. Definitely the 2nd best batman arc of new 52 after court of owls. Endgame was good and super heavy was too long, but they are all worth reading

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    Nathaniel_Christopher

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    Zero Year is the best arc Snyder's done in my opinion, also being a solid origin for Batman in general. His run in general is pretty good.

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    entropy_aegis

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    #7  Edited By entropy_aegis

    It was decent overall, a 7/10 run despite my often harsh criticism.

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    Serddar

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    I enjoyed every arc, some more, some less but overall they were all good.

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    jb681131

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    @gallowscalibrator: Well, there has been worst stories, but his run is very low quality in my opinion. He started of suprisingly good with an unexpected new vilain in his first Owl Arc, even if the end is not top quality. Then right after came a very badly orchestrated Joker arc with poor detective quality and impossible situations. After that so bad story I got disapointed with Snyder's writting that I stoped reading. As I saw the reviews of what he wrote after, it didn't make me want to restart reading. I also didn't enjoy much Capullo's art that is very cartoonish and with a not so good looking Batsuit, an ugly and usless utility belt, and awfull Batmobile. To conclude, it's readable material, but far from a must.

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    General_Disarray

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    yeh very good imo

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    kcomicfan

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    #11  Edited By kcomicfan

    Scott Snyder's Batman run was great.

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    TimeLordScience

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    Death of the Family is really not good and I'd suggest avoiding it. The rest varies from decent to good.

    People that say he has the best Batman run of all time are definitely overhyping it.

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    jb681131

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    Death of the Family is really not good and I'd suggest avoiding it. The rest varies from decent to good.

    People that say he has the best Batman run of all time are definitely overhyping it.

    You're right. Paul Dini, Grant Morrison, Chuck Dixion, Denis O'neil have done much better with the bat. The thing with New 52, is if you miss one story you might not get some future references, and that's anoying !

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    lamdaddy20

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    A lot of people here are overly critical, and a lot of people over hype it.

    It was a great run, in the strong 8s to maybe light 9s out of 10 (Court of Owls was my favorite story).

    I still like Grant Morrison's run better as a whole, though.

    Critics-wise, it's one of the most consistent book out there, with each issue always getting strong praise

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    UltimatePower6

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    Snyder's run while applauded by all has probably the most mixed reactions to his arc. The City of owls goes with Court so it creates one big saga. I think pretty much everybody likes it. Death of the Family is mixed with fans. Personally I like it and it really takes Batman to a dark place. Batman vol 4 (first part of Zero year) I didn't like, but man those colors are gorgeous. Batman vol 5 is the ending of Zero Year and I really liked that one. Batman vol 6 is mostly issues that the trades have skipped like a clayface two parter I think and Batman's reaction to Damian, so there's a lot of "it's okay, but you don't need to read it" from the fans. I haven't read superheavy yet, mostly because I want to read the whole story not just half now half later.

    Not sure if that helps. Good luck!

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    Black_Arrow

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    #16  Edited By Black_Arrow

    It's ok I would rate 7/10, I do critized it a lot but those critiques are just to show that it's not a master piece nor the best run of Batman ever, I consider to be good, overall I enjoyed reading it.

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    gallowscalibrator

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    @jb681131: Ha, yeah I'm starting to think Snyder's opening story with the Owls really brought the people in but the later arcs was just waves of ups and downs. Surprised though, I was interested about Joker's arc when I heard he cut or peeled off his face or something, got real curious. But now I'm gonna tone down my expectations when I read it I guess, in case it really ain't that good. Thanks man.

    @timelordscience: I do believe now people are overhyping it, haha. I got hyped too after hearing really good reviews about Snyder and especially after reading Court of Owls personally. He still have his ups but the downs are still there.

    @ultimatepower6: Glad the Owls arc became a hit actually, feels like a great contribution to the Batman stories. Huh, starting to gather that the other volumes are revisiting old issues (like Zero year). Haven't dug much about the other volumes, so I have no clue really hah. I actually thought the other volumes would be new arcs with more new villains because how he integrated the Owls into the Batman history was quite good and yeah, people were so hyped about him that I thought he created a new great era of Batman arcs, characters and all. But hey that's not bad either, always love reading how authors write their own take of Batman. Don't worry, all of your reviews are helping me tons, thanks man.

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    gallowscalibrator

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    By the way, thanks for everyone commenting, read them all and they've helped a lot. Surprised with the reviews with Death of the Family, I was very curious about Joker's game there.

    Feel free to add more reviews, still have time anyway - having problems acquiring the next books (local book shop ain't restocking, been ordering since January this year).

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    tcrighton

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    Personally, I found Scott Snyder's a fun read. I have read every vol including the tie ins. Court of Owls is a good start to his run. I feel it shows a good side of the detective Batman. City of Owls is the logical continuation of vol 1 and does a good job introducing more backstory to Batman. Now, Death of the Family was amazing. Not only was it an intriguing read, but it also solidified that the previous encounter between the Batman and Joker happened in the New 52 timeline. This had speculated, but now there is no doubt. Zero Year was amazing. What I am about to say might be considered heretical. I think Zero Year is a better origin story for Bruce Wayne than Year One. Vol 6, Graveyard Shift is okay. The Clayface story is interesting, but everything else should have been included in its respective arc. Finally, Endgame. This story arc is amazing. A lot of people didn't like the idea of Joker being a demon, but I thought of it aggrandized the myth around the Joker; similar to the myth of Batman being a mythical creature. I never believed Joker to be a demon, just an interesting idea. I hope this helped!

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    jackiplier

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    It has some that might become classic in the future, but there are also some down points.
    One of the good runs, but portrayal of Batman is sometimes sloppy.

    7/10

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    jb681131

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    @tcrighton: Scott Snyder has interresting ideas, but executes them very badly. Batman detective skills are diminished, he becomes more a hintting machine and a swiss army knife. The Joker takes half of Snyder's 6 years run. And very improbable events occure. It might be fun to read, but I don't see where the amazing is. Even the Owl arc (which is the best of his run) has a poor ending. No major event really happens. It is like marvel movies (the ones made by Marvel itself), you see them once, and end up by forgetting them. I agree there has been some way worst stories but no that much. Honnestly having read many many other arcs and stories, Since Death of the Familly, I consider Scott Snyder is one of the forgettable writers of Batman. He is at least behind 20 other writters in quality of writting. But don't take all that personnaly, everyone has its owns tastes. It is just that if you look in details of his stories you will find lost of flaws: some length, some sloppy portrayal of Batman, some borring moments, some improbale events/situations, too much gadgets and armors, ....I will also add as a personnal opinion that I disliked his looks and the Batmobile in the New52.

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    tcrighton

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    @jb681131: I agree there are issues with his stories--there are with all writers. I loved Tomasi's Batman & Robin run until Damian's return--too improbable. However, I disagree that Snyder is a forgettable writer and I'll explain why:

    1.) With the introduction of the Court of Owls, Snyder is able to create a new adversary that reaches far back into Gotham's history. This allows Snyder to retroactively implement story lines that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

    2.) With the Death of the Family story arc, Snyder solidified that all the encounters between Batman and Joker which occurred before the creation of the New 52 retained their validity into the New 52.

    3.) Zero Year created a new origin story for Batman in the New 52 universe; this effectively separated the New 52 universe from the post crisis universe--New Earth vs. Earth Prime.

    4.) Endgame, as I said before, aggrandized the idea around the Joker the same way the idea of Batman was aggrandized. This continued Snyder trend of paralleling the relationship between Batman and Joker.

    Bruce Wayne/Red Hood One-->Batman/Joker-->Batman (demonic creature)/Joker (immortal demonic creature)

    If one looks a little deeper, there is a lot to appreciate in his run.

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    apokos7

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    #23  Edited By apokos7

    Scott Snyder's New 52 Batman run was great in my opinion. The Court/Night of Owls and Zero Year were the best parts of it in my opinion. I also greatly enjoyed both Joker stories (Death of the Family and Endgame) and Superheavy was a really fresh take on Batman's mythology in my opinion and it scored a lot of points for keeping Bruce Wayne front and center. Definitely recommend it and I can't wait to see it collected in a couple of omnibi!

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    RustyRoy

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    Zero Year is the best arc Snyder's done in my opinion, also being a solid origin for Batman in general. His run in general is pretty good.

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