Review – Batman #7

Batman #7 Written by Scott Snyder Art by Greg Capullo, Jonathan Glapion, FCO, Richard Starkings & Jimmy Betancourt Covers by Greg Capullo, FCO Released: Mar 21st, 2012

So far DC’s New 52 has had it’s ups and downs. Some comics have been really good while others have fallen to the land of no one cares. Batman is a huge part of that really good group. Scott Snyder has been writing about the Dark Knight for a while now. He did Detective Comics prior to the reboot while Dick Grayson was still wearing the Cowl. Now he has made a seamless transition to a new title, with the original Batman back striking fear into the criminal underworld of Gotham City. Or is Gotham City striking fear into The Bat?

I jumped into Batman late, I had been reading Detective Comics prior to the reboot, and afterwards I just kept going with it. It wasn’t until last month that I finally picked up the first 6 issues of Batman and was blown away. Issue 7 slowed down a bit of the crazy from the previous issue, but still delivered just the right amount of twists and turns to leave you craving more.

Greg Capullo does a great job of making Batman look on edge through the entire issue. Over the last few issues we see him slowly unraveling and now he just looks out of his mind. It’s not something any of us are used to with Batman. He’s usually in control, even when he’s not in control of the situation. That sense of unease is what makes the issues, and story as a whole work. If he looked normal through the whole story like he was just doing the usual routine then Snyders story wouldn’t be working at all.

Speaking of Snyders story, If Batman were real, Scott Snyder would probably be the worst member of his rogues gallery. This guy has got a knack for putting the Caped Crusader through some truly terrible situations. He’s not just pitting him up against some deranged super villain. He’s attacking him on a truly psychological level. And it is honestly great, we see Batman get beaten up plenty, we see him lose a fight only to come back better prepared for round two. That’s the standard for any superhero book. But seeing our hero actually become unhinged, and starting to rethink his beliefs in himself and what he’s been fighting for all these years is something completely different. And I’m personally left just wanting to see more, I can’t wait for the next issue or the cross over Night of the Owls coming up in a couple issues.

One thing we didn’t really get anything of in this issue is action, in its place we get some revelation that you really just need to read to fully comprehend including some interesting things about Nightwing’s history. And we see the Court of Owls preparing to take back “their” city. Oh and if you don’t read Nightwing usually, I would at least pick up issue 7. You might be a little confused with what’s going on, but by reading both Batman and Nightwing you get a fuller picture of what’s happening.

So if you haven’t read Batman yet, I recommend starting. It’s been a great ride so far and from what I can tell it’s not even near being over. If only Detective Comics could take a few notes from this book. And since I didn’t mention it early, the rest of the art team is really doing a great job. It’s dark and gritty the way a Batman book should be. And I’m hoping this team manages to stay together for a nice long run on the book.

Chris talks a bunch on PodQuest each week. He's also been known to write about stuff from time to time. You can Email Chris or follow Chris on Twitter @Just_Cobb or Facebook

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