"Gotham Is The Bat"
Synopsis
As Batman suppresses another breakout at Arkham Asylum, his civilian ego Bruce Wayne wows Gotham's elite with his plans for the city. However, the enigmatic Court of Owls plays it's opening hand...
The Good
Straight off the bat (pun intended!), writer Scott Synder explores the idea that Batman and his home Gotham City are both explicitly linked ("Gotham is the "Bat" being one quote in the issue). From the fantastic double page spread of the mass breakout at Arkham Asylum (featuring many villains both classic and more recent) to the opening strike from the emerging Court of Owls, we as the reader are sucked straight in. I just can't fault the writing, it's just fantastic! I followed Snyder's previous run on Detective Comics, loved that so I honestly wasn't surprised at how good this new series started out. What I can say though, is that I imagine completely new comic readers will to be able to get into the issue, sure they might not get some of the various villain cameos (recent ones as the likes of Pyg, Flamingo, Big Top, James Gordon Jr. for example) but I'm positive they'll like this issue all the same.
Hey, might as well mention the art too. Greg Capullo wasn't someone I was aware of before, but wow does he do this issue well. My favourate part has to be the Arkham Asylum scene, how he manages to fit all these villains in as well as have them taking on the Dark Knight - fantastic! A big mention must go out to his interpretation of the Joker, damn does he look creepy.
The Bad
As a rather superficial point, I really don't like Flamingo's new look. It's that darn cape, it just looks silly. Since he only cameos in a couple of panels, not too big a deal though. Still.....silly cloak...
Conclusion
Buy it. Whether a long-time fan or someone new, just get it! Fantastic writing and art, you'll love it. It was worth the wait!
As Batman suppresses another breakout at Arkham Asylum, his civilian ego Bruce Wayne wows Gotham's elite with his plans for the city. However, the enigmatic Court of Owls plays it's opening hand...
The Good
Straight off the bat (pun intended!), writer Scott Synder explores the idea that Batman and his home Gotham City are both explicitly linked ("Gotham is the "Bat" being one quote in the issue). From the fantastic double page spread of the mass breakout at Arkham Asylum (featuring many villains both classic and more recent) to the opening strike from the emerging Court of Owls, we as the reader are sucked straight in. I just can't fault the writing, it's just fantastic! I followed Snyder's previous run on Detective Comics, loved that so I honestly wasn't surprised at how good this new series started out. What I can say though, is that I imagine completely new comic readers will to be able to get into the issue, sure they might not get some of the various villain cameos (recent ones as the likes of Pyg, Flamingo, Big Top, James Gordon Jr. for example) but I'm positive they'll like this issue all the same.
Hey, might as well mention the art too. Greg Capullo wasn't someone I was aware of before, but wow does he do this issue well. My favourate part has to be the Arkham Asylum scene, how he manages to fit all these villains in as well as have them taking on the Dark Knight - fantastic! A big mention must go out to his interpretation of the Joker, damn does he look creepy.
The Bad
As a rather superficial point, I really don't like Flamingo's new look. It's that darn cape, it just looks silly. Since he only cameos in a couple of panels, not too big a deal though. Still.....silly cloak...
Conclusion
Buy it. Whether a long-time fan or someone new, just get it! Fantastic writing and art, you'll love it. It was worth the wait!
