@MuyJingo: I'll take a shot at this... I won't bother quoting your entire post. I'll separate each of my responses to each of your points in order by paragraph, but you should be able to piece together what paragraph is in response to what.
-I don't think it's a good idea to form too many opinions on the Red Hood gang stuff yet. We don't know where Snyder is taking things. What could very well happen to the gang is that it gets crushed by Batman's initial efforts in fighting crime and falls into obscurity, so that when sane-Joker puts on the Red Hood persona, Red Hood could still be relatively obscure image like you want it to be. We certainly know that the Red Hood gang isn't anywhere as important as the more traditional mobsters like Falcone, so it's understandable if they kind of are forgotten for a bit or fall into a new role when Batman crushes them. Regardless of any of that, what I'm trying to say is that we don't know where this is going. The zero issue ends with "to be continued in 2013" anyways. You're mainly complaining about change for change's sake, yet we don't even know what these changes are.
-He was away for 4 years, yes, but that doesn't mean he wasn't training all of his life, or, really, from the time when his parents died. He doesn't need to travel the world to study some of the things he does, so, it's less about condensing Bruce's entire training to only 4 years, but rather, narrowing his disappearance from Gotham down to 4 years.
-I believe that part with Tim was written by James T. Tynion IV, working off of the new Tim origin set up by Lobdell... so I don't know how you can blame Snyder for this one.
-The stuff with Dick seeing the Bat signal kind of falls back on what I said in my previous point, but, really, I kind of see the bat signal as adding to the Batman myth, as opposed to detracting from it, which seems to be your point. Regardless, the bat signal is revealed in Batman: The Man Who Laughs, which happens before Dick becomes Robin or any of that. Not sure if TMWL is still in continuity, but since it follows basically Batman and Joker's first major encounter, there are parts of it that I'm sure still fit into continuity.
-From my understanding, you seem to like a Batman who is more in line with Morrison's vision: one that is nearly perfect, if not completely perfect, in his detective work and superhero activities. Yet, you dislike Snyder here, for actually having Batman not listen to his emotions and take the more objective route of not trusting Dick when there's a small chance Dick could be behind it, whether it was from Dick's free will or he was mind controlled or something. This is perfectly in character for Batman, who doesn't trust anyone completely, and it falls into line with a Batman you prefer, yet you still really take issue with it? It comes off as contradictory to your following points. If Batman hadn't distrusted Dick and Dick had been the one behind it, perhaps because he was mind controlled, then you would have blamed Snyder for making Batman incompetent, I'm sure.
-I imagine his cape can help him glide (I think it happens in issue 10), but the glider here is for longer distances.
-Batman said in the same issue (issue 4) that he had checked up on the court since then and found nothing. He isn't just basing it off of what happened to him as a kid. Now, you can blame him for being incompetent and not finding the court later on despite being the world's greatest detective, but I think that lends to building the court up more as opposed to bringing Batman down. The court has been operating long before Batman, so it's understandable for them to be able to hide their activity so well, since they've been doing it since before Bruce was even in diapers.
-I can understand why you would take issue with this one. I think it's in character for these reasons, however: A) Batman is working off the fact that he believes that the court doesn't exist. If he would even entertain the possibility that the court exists, he would see it as him acting off his emotions and not looking at things objectively. Whether or not that is actually true is irrelevant, because at the end of the day, Batman's assuming the court doesn't exist and there's something or someone else behind all of this. Since he doesn't entertain the possibility that the court is real, he wouldn't expect a trained ninja to sneak up behind him and bust him through a wall. B) Batman is working off of little sleep. Sure, he's done that plenty of times before, and probably for longer periods of time, but you can't argue that Batman without sleep is just as good as Batman with sleep. C) He thinks he knows Gotham better than anyone. This has clearly been built up previously in Snyder's run, along with in Batman lore preceding this story. He doesn't just think that there isn't a pit leading into a maze right behind this wall, he knows there isn't a pit leading into a maze right behind this wall. Of course, he's wrong. But then we kind of fall into the whole argument about Batman being incompetent vs. the court just being that good, which I addressed above.
-I think there's a number of psychological factors behind Batman's demise in this issue that you're kind of missing. But before any of that, not only is Batman without any food while in the maze, Batman's only source of drink for a week is drugged water. I know he's good at resisting stuff like that, but, eventually, over a week's time, his godly diet can only do so much. So there's that to remember. But anyways, psychological factors. The maze represents the antithesis to Batman's entire mindset during Snyder's run, which, as I've said, draws from Batman stories from the past (Year One, TDKR, Knightfall, to name a few). Basically, Batman thinks Gotham is his city. He knows it better than anyone. The maze shows that he doesn't. It shows that the court is real. That its history is real. But more importantly, that Batman doesn't know everything about Gotham. That Gotham isn't his city. This strikes at his mindset so hard that it sends him into a state of denial. Now, once again... you'll say that makes Batman incompetent or something along those lines. But, that couldn't be any further from the truth. Batman thinking Gotham is his city is one of his greatest strengths. Why? It gives him confidence. It drives him. It's the source of the sort of Batman you like, the one that transcends a normal man's might and power or even a great man's might and power. It gives him the will to fight on, knowing that he's doing it for his city, so that his city doesn't produce another individual that causes the same tragedy that was his parent's death. The notion that Gotham is his city is hugely important to Batman's persona. And the maze attacks that source directly. Batman breaking down is not only important to the story's themes, but it's also in line with the precedent set up by past Batman stories and in line with his character.
-Art is very subjective. A large majority of people love his art. Even those who didn't like it at first came to love it. I don't think we can ask for much more from an artist.
-That was a symbolic vision, not literally what happened. The issue even starts off with saying that people close to death see a vision, that doesn't necessarily reveal what happened in real life, but rather it reveals secret truths. The secret truth in this instance is that Batman's been mistaken about his dominance in Gotham for a very long time. The vision works excellently because it works off of previous Batman lore, but it doesn't change a thing, merely using it to build on the points of this story's major ideas.
-I don't agree that it showcases another example of Snyder's poor writing of their relationship, but I do think that Bruce doing that in a highly impractical manner was kind of silly.
-I don't see how this changes anything. It doesn't contradict any information revealed in the past. It simply adds to it. It isn't change for change sake. It's adding to previous Batman lore, working off of it to put the new ideas Snyder's presenting into perspective. That's what a good Batman writer does: looking towards the past and respecting it by not changing it fundamentally but rather revealing what was already there all along. I'm sure you'll take issue with this explanation, but what it really does, and I don't think you can disagree, is take away a lot of objectivity from your analysis. If you don't like what's been added, that's fine. But there isn't anything objectively wrong with what Snyder's done here. You personally don't like it, but it doesn't mean it's wrong.
-The evidence is already contaminated from Batman touching it. Crushing the paper isn't going to ruin what has already been ruined. Now, you could say, "Well, Batman shouldn't have contaminated the evidence in the first place then by touching it like that." But then, you're pretty much taking the scene out of context. Batman finding out what is written on the paper is much more important than DNA checking for Lincoln's finger prints or something. At this point in time, it isn't even evidence for him to use, because he doesn't know Lincoln's back story.
-I agree that Batman shouldn't have been captured so easily, but at the same time, a normal human wouldn't have been able to get out of that net so easily, either. Batman let himself be captured and remained in a weaker position on purpose, to let Lincoln talk and reveal as much information as possible. He could have escaped at any time, but he did so at the end when he knew that Lincoln was done talking.
-I thought the zombie-Talons were kind of ridiculous, too. Oh, and the man who dresses up as a bat and runs around the city fighting crime. That's a little ridiculous, too. Once again, here, you come off as contradictory. You want Batman to be capable of ridiculous feats that go beyond normal human capability, which would involve him getting into situations that go beyond what normal humans usually get into, yet you dislike it when Snyder does just that.
-I would imagine the court covered up Lincoln's DNA at the hospital, seeing how they were still working with Lincoln at that point in time. The court has an interest in hiding Lincoln's DNA, of course, because the whole deal is that they may have tricked Lincoln into believing he's Bruce's brother. The court can't let Bruce find Lincoln's DNA to confirm this one way or the other.
-We don't see Joker in action here. We don't know what he's doing. He's in the shadows. We saw earlier how he had people working with him, helping him out. This could very well be one of those cases. Simply put, we don't know. We're led to believe that Joker did this all himself because that's what Joker wants us to believe. But it doesn't mean it's true. Joker's a notorious liar.
-Seeing how Batman did actually figure out that the officers were at risk, but by then it was too late, doesn't really make him sloppy as much as one step behind the Joker, which sort of seems in line with previous Joker stories (Killing Joke, Morrison's Arkham Asylum).
-I imagine that he would have checked Gordon's blood at the bunker, where there would be better equipment. Seeing how Batman knows that Gordon wouldn't want to go into hiding after what happened to all those police, it makes sense for Batman to predict that Joker knows this too, and how Joker might use Gordon's stubbornness against him. Getting Gordon into safety becomes a much higher priority then checking to see if Gordon's blood with whatever Batman might have with him, instead of checking Gordon's blood in the bunker where the results could be much faster and accurate.
-Once again, I think it's more of Batman letting Joker talk, seeing how Batman got out of the trap rather easily and quickly when he needed to. Nonetheless, I agree that Batman probably should have made it a little tougher for Joker to get him into that position.
-Batman sat into the chair for the following reasons: A) the people Joker dressed up as superheroes were in immediate danger, and Batman sitting in the chair was the only way to appease Joker into not killing them. B) He doesn't know if the monitors' images are real, but that doesn't mean he could just assume they're not. Once again, he has to act on the side of caution and assume his family is in danger. Considering this is the Joker he's dealing with, that's the best case of action. If he didn't sit in the chair and just blatantly assume the images aren't real, he would be putting the family into greater danger and underestimating the Joker: under estimating the Joker is something you should never, ever do. That was set up in the very first issue of the arc with Damien's dialogue.
-Finally, the last one. Bruce told Joker he's Batman in this scene, you're right. But the problem is, Joker already knows or already could have known. Telling Joker here doesn't make any difference. Joker has already been in or could have been in the cave for any amount of time. That was explained in issue 15, I think. If Joker wanted to know, Joker would know. Batman here in this scene is testing why Joker doesn't care: it's because Joker only cares about Batman, not Bruce Wayne, which was the whole reason why Bruce wasn't in Batman costume in this scene. It was to see Joker not caring about Bruce Wayne, to confirm Bruce's theory. Regardless, telling Joker he's Batman doesn't risk anything at all. It isn't stupid. Because Joker either already knows or could have know.
I apologize if I skipped over any of your points on accident. If you need any clarifications, just ask.
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