Gorgeous. Art. Even if Snyder was one of those writers who thought they had to explain everything or someone who doesn't say their dialogue out loud as they're writing it, the pages would be worth a look just for the composition, the cinematic eye or the colours.
You know how some comics look like a clown sneeze, they're so garishly overdone with the whole colour spectrum Well it sure makes me admire the shit out of anyone who can dabble the whole palette and come away looking.
. . elegant.
Elegant is not a bad description for Snyder's dialogue either, It's actually fascinating to watch Snyder tread past the work of Frank Miller and a nice touch by Capullo to evoke DKR in one panel or three, by my count.
It's not like he's retreading or cowering in the shadows he's actually taking a few good moments and character flaws and updating them to a reasonably better writing style.
I've heard other reviewers say that this story makes Riddler a darker, more menacing villain, To me, it just makes him bigger, Not the narrowminded obsessive, but a smart guy with big, multilayered plans, and the will or lack of conscience/selfdoubt to execute them,
This is a good set of surprises, for all our expectations that Riddler is still the laughable caricature we knew from Frank Gorshin and Jim Carrey.
And Snyder serves up other surprises too, letting us fall prey to and forget our expectations of the old guard of characters we've known too long in this Batverse.
More surprising or at least more pleasing is how much Snyder imbues into Batman's personal philosophy, There are a few monologues on why he does it, and I'll be damned if I don't find myself falling in love with this character, this particular Batman.
Not the brooding, menacing loner of recent times, and not the supersmart detective just the dude who believes so strongly in why he's doing what he's doing not for himself or his parents, but for the city and its lessers.
A twoparts more than good and original alternate origin tale about another classic batenemy, and the horrific part introducing Doctor Death's modern incarnation was great too.
Snyder amp Capullo's Batman reminds me a lot Nolan's cinematographic one, . .
I can hear Hans Zimmer's theme in my mind while reading climax scenes! :D
'Nuff said, final stars
i didn't connect with this as much as the first one for some reason,
my main issue is that i didn't think the Riddler was a compelling villain, sure, he did a lot of shit, he was always one step ahead of Batman, however, i just didn't buy all the things he's done as well as his reasons for doing them, he is insane, clearly, but you get what i mean right there wasn't enough substance to what he was trying to do,
there were just a lot of what the fuck moments, how the hell did Batman survive that shit there were a lot of instances in this that he should have been dead, yet here he is alive, not well, but alive,
one thing i really liked about this volume was the flashbacks he's had with his parents, those were all good
another plus is his relationship with Alfred and how it evolved overtime,
Comissioner Gordon is always a favorite, but like Batman, there were a lot of times you wonder how he got away with things,
overall thoughts
i liked it, but not as much as secret city, the parts where we ses bruce's past was always good to read about, the other parts were okay i guess, they just didn't wow me,
Probably one of the greatest Batman stories and reinventions in superhero comics ever, Batman has to face the Riddler who has taken over Gotham city and has to fight Dr Death and discover how deep the plans of Riddler are, he has trapped everyone and has control of electrical grid and has put Gotham in surveillance, every day someone challenges him with a riddle but he solves them easily and takes them down until Batman teams up with Jim and Lucius to stop this mad man and rescue his city! Its an epic tale that just digs into the core of who Batman is, who Bruce is and what Gotham means to him and why he will never stop saving the city even at the cost of his own life and great cameos! And the ending was sweet and factors in Duke, Harper too! Fantastic story and the art is just mesmerizing and that cover just makes me love Batman forever!! Zero Year had its share of downs.
The first three issues Secret City challenged Snyder and co, to set up important pieces before they go in motion for the next installments, often favoring emotionallynuanced characterizations than actionoriented sequences to tell the story, which eventually paid off when Dark City's issuesandrolled around because these two are definitely the best of the series for me because all that buildup I witnessed on the first three arcs was realized in their wellbalanced and tantalizing pages.
However, there had been pacing issues onandthe former suffered anticlimactic brevity, while the latter suffered having too much story to tell with little room to expound on them.
And then we took a break from the series to get a sneak preview of Batman: Eternal for issuewhich was quite an effective decision for readers to truly look forward to the doublesized issue.
That last installment of Dark City was at least emotionally satisfying for me even with a couple of misses here and there that are mostly technical or have grating implications like that bigass Batblimp.
I mean, Bruce Wayne has made a donation of blimps for the city so how the hell won't the GCPD make the connection sooner or later that the prodigal Bruce might also the caped crusader since his return and Batman's appearance are already so perfectly timed together Wouldn't that make them incompetent imbeciles if right after Zero Year wraps up, they won't follow the lead on that Batlimp But I digress.
It has been a great ride that didn't disappoint fans and only annoys every now and then but only when you really nitpick, all thanks to Synder, Capullo, Miki and FCO.
Next, we have Savage City, It opens up with a dream sequence from Bruce Wayne, He wakes up from that and finds himself in an almost fairy taleesque setting: Gotham City is presently infested with shrubbery and forestry thanks to Pamela Isley's plant formula which the Riddler stole while its despondent citizenry haplessly shuffle through their lives, waiting for a hero who has only woken up, and one who is still unsure how to undo the terrible 'curse' that intellectual narcissist Edward Nygma has cast.
Looking through the illustrations, my mind just started having nostalgic recollections of Sleeping Beauty and it certainly fits the atmospheric tone and mood of the entire issue,
This is the foremost reason the storytelling itself spoke to me resonantly, I love a murky setting which most fairy tales have, especially when there's the general good and evil forces thrown into the mix, Nygma as the Riddler is a pompous, selfserving man who claims to have the higher ground by challenging the city to 'get smart or die', taunting them to oneup him through a sick game of riddles.
So far, no one has defeated him in this mental battle and this is definitely the side of the Riddler that I can get into because Edward Nygma had always believed he is intellectually gifted and it distraught him to be surrounded by lesser minds.
This riddle game of his is also his way to show off and make people around him inferior which definitely strokes that bombastic ego of his, The expanse of the artwork and illustrations by Capullo, Miki and FCO are and I cannot stress this any more than I already have since the beginning of Zero Year is sheer perfection the attention to detail and coloring are staggering.
Each page is just so full of lush even the grittier action sequences look pretty,
The comic book medium is a rich tapestry that combines the elements of storytelling narrative and visual artistry so in reading, reviewing and appreciating the content of a comic book issue, one must never neglect to take the aesthetic appeal that complements the written passages within.
Scott Snyder's Zero Year issues have been widely acclaimed not only for its scope of story but also the splendid collaboration among Greg Capullo penciler, Danny Miki inker and FCO colorist to produce some of the most engaging and stunning artwork and illustrations that truly capture the essence of Snyder's stories as they come to life in the pages.
Another thing to commend for this saga are the covers which range from minimalist depictions of objects to beautifully detailed portraits that have symbolic meanings, The cover for this volume falls on the latter category, One of the most iconic images of Batman is whenever he's standing on a skyscraper somewhere, his figure but a shadow across the ominous dark sky, However, in this cover, we see Batman crouching almost in defeat on top of a gargoyle that is covered in shrubbery while the sun sets on his side.
Batman has a bow but no arrow which could indicate his aimlessness as well, It evokes an emotion of hopelessness as if Batman himself has been weighed down by something so heavy he can't stand anymore, And yet hope is on the horizon as signified by the sun rising,
It's really a moving illustration and one that paints the events inside this comic book issue so accurately,
Readers will be
so lost in the story and action in the past issues that we might overlook Bruce Wayne's character development in all of this, but we will see how far he has come along from the early issues where he is angry and vindictive because finally, he understands that being Batman is not some sort of mission to avenge his parents alone.
It's not just about striking fear in the hearts of criminals, It's a true act of altruism foremost where he has to stop being just a man with a haunted past but become more of an unkillable ideal that lives on for hope's sake.
Bruce has acknowledged that he wants to be a hero, one who is flawed yet determined to stand back up again in every failure,
He has acknowledged that this isn't a selfserving mission he is carrying out being Batman also means championing the citizens of Gotham showing them that there is always going to be a fighting chance in hell as long as you keep holding on to the belief that the darkest of times will always be followed by the brightest.
I recommend this series for three reasons:
You're a longtime Batman fan and you probably had this on your bookshelf for a while, waiting for the series to end and making sure the reviews are positive: Fear not, Batgeek.
You won't be disappointed when you get around to reading this, preferably by also dropping everything right now and just go for it!
You only knew and enjoyed Batman through television or the Nolan trilogy: This will definitely be a good sidebyside comparison with Batman Begins which is essentially a great origin story for Bats.
However, Zero Year offers more nuanced characterizations, plot lines and callbacks to previous adaptations in all mediums that Batman had embodied throughout the years, There is a strong cinematic style in Capullo's illustrations that will be visually appealing as well,
You want to start reading comics and Batman is a superhero you hugely favor and you want to start from the beginning: Though this is the Newwhere DC comics in general have been rebooted, I think Zero Year is a great place to start with in correlation to the classic Bat origin story Year One.
It makes little difference if you decide on that one or this one first as long as you BOTH read them,
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Get Hold Of Batman, Volume 5: Zero Year – Dark City Conceived By Scott Snyder Accessible Through Textbook
Scott Snyder