I don’t know man, want to give this issue a better grade then a 3, but I just don’t know if I can. I mean, with issues 1 through 5 Snyder and Capplou delivered the goods and Batman quickly rose to the ranks of my favorite comic book series. This Court of Owls story arc has been truly captivating and creepy. Every issue has been building up towards the encounter with the Court and the breaking of Bruce/Batman. And then issue 6 hits and I have to say I’m a bit disappointed with the developments in this closing of this first chapter of the mystery of the Court.

Like I said, the first 5 issues this book has been cleverly written and held a suspense that you don’t often find in a comic book, but then something happened in issue 6 – it’s like Michael Bay got ahold of the book and said, “Dudes, you need more ACTION! Batman needs to punch something!” Don’t get me wrong I’m all for Batman fight scenes and awesome drawings by Capplo, but honestly, my favorite parts of this series so far are the scenes where Batman is holding that tiny flashlight in his mouth, poking around dark places in Gotham city. I love the quite and the stillness of these scenes. To me it has been what is making the difference on this book. Issue 6 felt like an issue of David Finch’s Batman: The Dark Knight.

And did anyone else think about Hulkamania when Batman is down and out and about to be done in by Talon, and then (just like in the WWF) he gets his second wind, shakes off his pain and comes back to life to pummel Talon, just like Hulk Hogan (Bat’s only needed to hitt his chest and put his hand to his ear as the crowd roared to complete the picture).

I still love the hell out of this book and it’s still my favorite thing out there right now, but to me this is the first chink in the armor I’ve seen on Snyder