I didn’t really want to write a review here, but I think I have enough to say to warrant it (if anyone reads it thats another story). This issue starts off smack dab in the middle of an action scene. A pretty good one too, but it left me scratching my head until later in the issue when the “why” is explained. The other thing that messed it up (at least before the Red Hood gets to rambling- c’mon folks this is EXACTLY how he wrote the Joker) was the flashback that was happening at the same time. Snyder has done this before, but to much better effect. This kinda felt like the same words spoken over and over, almost purposefully to confuse me.

Now, someone asked the question: does Bruce walk all the way from downtown Gotham to the mansion after almost being killed, leaving a heaping trail of blood the entire way? Unless something was left out…YUP! Two issues ago he was driving a “stolen” car. That would have been a PERFECT way to get him to the mansion, not this unbelievable walking business. I’ve seen him do it in other comics with a lot more life in him and he didn’t make it home before sunrise. Big time minus points. The whole thing left me wondering why the apartment played any sort of role in this. Bruce could have easily came home to the mansion (or is that too mcuh like Year One?). 3 issues in and it burns?

The wordy interchange between Bruce’s uncle and Ed Nygma was pretty good at first, (I like this Riddler. He’s cool and smart. Extra coniving. I dig the chops.) but it gets killed the second the magnet turns on. Extra “lame points” for: “if you would have gotten that plate 2 years later…” Sure, you could say, “Nygma covers his bases so well that he looked up the info on his uncle and planned this ahead.” I’ll give you that, it just seemed kinda weak.

The time we see Bruce and Alfred together was short and sweet and I rather liked it. Good job.

Now “the Moment”. I found it cool and creative, but ineffective. At least much less ineffective than Miller’s Year One moment. In Year One, Bruce is on the verge of death, the bell his only lifeline, ring it or die, suicide by omission, what is going to happen, “help me father.” That shit is GOLD! Here we get a recovering Bruce. There is no suspense, and the bell is nothing more than a tool so we feel more at home with this one. The orb thing was kinda cool except it only lit the walls and not the furniture. I liked it, just not as much as what it hearkened unto, and I think, at the end of the day, I would have prefered lo-fi and simple, but with more of a consequence. I’ve complained a lot about Snyder’s flare over content and this is a great example.

The art was very good as always. Besides the fact that the orb should have shown on everything, that double page spread looked great. The fighting was awesome, and the storytelling was thumbs up. Ghostmann pointed out how good the silent scenes were in this issue and I agree 100%. Capullo can tell the story on his own, and I find the dialogue has me rolling my eyes quite a bit. The colors were a little different here. Looked more like Hollingsworth’s colors in The Wake, than a Batman book. Didn’t hate them, but different.

The backup was once again perfect. I wish Snyder and Tynion would have just told the story of Bruce’s travels rather than this Zero Year thing. There is a lot to learn about Bruce in his formative years, and it is a rather untapped source for Batman stories. “You can’t win the war unless you kill. The battle yes, but never the war. Your enemies will come back again, and again.” Talk about foreshadowing Batman’s career. That was AWESOME! Give me more of this. Great art, and a deep story in a setting that appears all but deep and all but trying.

It was good enough to get me back for one more, but so much of this is just not good enough to warrant the remake or the number of issues involved, but the backups are consistenly great and Albuquerque and Capullo’s artwork is great to look at.