BATMAN #11

STORY: Scott Snyder
ART: Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion

This month, Scott Snyder wraps up "City of Owls", the mega-arc that has spanned all eleven current issues of Batman as well as all the other Bat-books during the "Night of the Owls" crossover in May. It's difficult to explain just how significant the Cour of Owls has become in less than a year. While (pretty much) every other book is showcasing character history, new threats, or reimagined ideas, Snyder has built a new entity in the DC universe akin - in narrative scope - to the Green Lantern Corps or the Legion of Superheroes. The Court is now a major player in the going-ons of more than just Batman, and that's a remarkable achievement. DC is so invested in the Court affecting the future, that it's debuting Talon - a new ongoing series based on the Court of Owls - as part of the "Third Wave" of titles slated for a September premier. Along with last month's revelation about Bruce Wayne's younger brother, Snyder has truly made a significant impact on the DC universe.


Batman #11 is split into to distinct acts: Batman vs. Owlman, and Bruce's epilogue-y lament about the Court. While Snyder's inter-character dynamic has been phenomenal thus far, he slips a bit here with Owlman's monologue. The first 15 pages are dedicated to Lincoln March (I'm going to call him that because it sounds cooler than Thomas Wayne Jr.) and his issues with Bruce, his father, and Gotham City at-large. After a few pages, March's angry rant starts sounding whiney and pathetic. The whole speech is supposedly meant to give the readers a sense of how sad March's life has been. Unfortunately, condensing this aspect of the arc to a single issue makes it come across as a little disingenuous. March has spent years and years hating Bruce, so having a few choice words for his older brother wouldn't be that abnormal, but to seemingly have an entire speech memorized - one that has an ascending and descending flow - whilst dragging another person through the sky is a bit far-fetched, even for Batman.

Which brings me to my second big gripe with their battle. March's Owlman suit gives him flight abilities, so he jets around Gotham with Bruce flailing behind him connected to some tether. At one point, March shoots into the sky and dangled Bruce in front of a passenger plane turbine engine. It's a dramatically drawn scene, but the reality of having a conversation only inches away from a furiously spinning plane engine is that it couldn't possibly happen. The sheer noise emitted from the engine would drown out anything else. While this might seem trivial on some level, it's a sloppy mistake that should have been changed. There wasn't any meaningful reason why March decides to use a plane as a torture device, so there's no reason why the scene couldn't have been made to be more realistic. Fortunately, Act II fares a lot better than the Owlman fight.


Bruised and (mostly) broken, Bruce is visited by Dick Grayson. Their awkward conversation stems from their last meeting, in which Bruce bitch-slapped a Court of Owls gold tooth cap out of Dick's mouth. Dick has a vivid memory of this, while Bruce tries to breeze right past this subject and into his feelings about the Court. While I normally don't condone pages filled with speech bubbles, it's nice to see Bruce out of the suit and a little more relaxed than usual. Snyder recognizes that he's been putting old Bats through the ringer for some time now, and that a little downtime is needed. That being said, Batman's downtime is all about debriefing. Bruce understands that Gotham isn't his - or Batman's, for that matter - and that he can't know everything about the city he thought was familiar - "Part of me was doing [the Gotham expansion initiative] to have more lookouts. More bases for Batman rather than the city itself. But I see now that I was wrong." Snyder deftly handles this scene, giving an honest portrayal of a man finally understands his place in his own world.


The Court of Owls is poised to be a major part of the DC universe moving forward. Scott Snyder has done what many writers only dream of doing - making a significant impact on a character and their universe. If all comic books were this good, there would be a whole new mainstream appreciation for this form.

GRADE

 A-

(COMIC) BATMAN #10

STORY: Scott Snyder
ART: Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion

** HEAVY SPOILERS. READ ISSUE BFORE READING REVIEW**



Now that "Night of the Owls" is over, most of the other Bat-books have gotten back to their regularly-scheduled story arcs, except for Batman, Scott Snyder's golden series that cannot seem to do any wrong. Every month, Snyder and Greg Capullo combine intricate, devastatingly good narrative with sharp, clean art that actually conveys emotion and behavior. Basically, Batman has been a joy to read and look at since issue one. Every month, I sit back after reading Snyder's work and just think about how good it was - I don't write the review immediately, and I don't reread it again for a few hours. I like to go over the events, think about how Capullo's artwork makes Snyder's words even better, and how everything is always leading to something bigger.  Batman #10 keeps Bruce on the trail of the Court of Owls, intent to take them down for good.

In fact, Bruce tracks them down to Harbor House, the building he ventured into decades earlier, hoping to connect the Court of Owls to the murders of his parents. As a boy, he found nothing, but this time, Batman knows the Court is there; he knows that he's got them all cornered.

Until he discovers they're already dead.

Honestly, this first act of the issue is pretty anti-climactic. The Court has been a chilling presence to be reckoned with since it's first images in Batman #1 back in September. Their owl masks and dapper appearances made them villains with an intense duality of enigmatic means and public wealth. Not unlike the best secret societies throughout the history of human culture, the Court's power comes from their secrecy and their secrecy comes from their power. Snyder is forced to take out the entire Court with a mass suicide through poisoned wine in order to advance the story to it's conclusion. Ever the skeptic, Bruce makes sure the members of the Court are legitimate before descending into frustration.

The second - and shortest - act of the issue shows us Bruce's detective skills telling him it doesn't add up; the Court's collective suicide was a facade for something bigger.

I'm just going to come out and say it:

LINCOLN MARCH IS BRUCE'S BROTHER, THOMAS WAYNE JR.!

The final act of Batman #10 brings back Lincoln March after his swift death at the hands of a Talon last month. In a grand, final twist in the entire "Court of Owls" saga, Scott Snyder reveals that Lincoln March is actually the youngest Wayne son, defective at birth and sent to live at a children's hospital to heal. When the Wayne's were suddenly murdered, Junior was lost to the system, leaving him ripe for the picking by the Court as a moldable man - someone they could build and change to suit their needs. It's a pretty devastating reveal (one that will have ramifications for years to come, I'm sure), not to mention Lincoln/Tommy-J. injected himself with the reanimation syrum before the Talon got to him. Yep, he's a zombie now. And he's got the Court's newest Talon armor they had been developing before they decided to reanimate the old Talons. The issue ends with the new Owlman lunging toward Batman with the hate only a long-lost brother can harbor.

It was a pretty bold decision to not only introduce Bruce's brother, but also to revamp him as Owlman, a character that has traditionally been an evil, alternate version of Batman from the parallel Earth-3. I'm not sure how much I like these decisions yet, but they're HUGE nonetheless.

GRADE:

A

(NIGHT OF THE OWLS) BATMAN #9

STORY: Scott Snyder
ART: Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion

The shit has hit the fan.

Scott Snyder has spent the last year crafting one of the best Batman storylines in years - and it didn't involve a death of a main character! Snyder's Court of Owls is such a great metaphor for the unknown, the uncovered. This month puts Bruce right into the thick of the "Night of the Owls", first by finishing up his fight in the Batcave, then to save Lincoln March, a character Snyder developed fantastically early on in the series and is just now coming back...only to die.

Batman #9 is probably one of the least plot-heavy issues of the series to date, relying mostly on action sequences to push it forward. While this might normally be a problem, "Night of the Owls" continues on through issue eleven in Batman - while only crossing over with the other Bat books this month - so stretching out Bruce's plot isn't as detrimental as it could be. The first half of the issue is spent wrapping up the attack on Wayne Manor, pitting Mecha-Batman against a half-dozen Talons. Alfred is dropping the cave's temperature as fast as he can to counteract the Talons' regenerative abilities and the Bat-Gundam is slowly being torn to pieces. 

Of course, the Talons finally freeze and Bruce makes his escape to go and save Jeremiah Arkham - a plot point added at the eleventh hour - before going after March. Bruce's visit to Arkham Asylum is depicted in the pages of last week's Detective Comics in rather dull detail. Fortunately, March's panels at the end of the issue are superb, and while his time in the Batman universe has been brief, he was such a good foil to Bruce that I still felt upset when he died. His last words are about how great Gotham can be, telling Batman to make sure Bruce Wayne knows that the dream shouldn't die. It's probably one of the best emotional moments in the series so far, and it simply pushes Bruce past the edge.

GRADE:

A+