BATMAN #5

Review by: TheNextChampion

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Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art by GREG CAPULLO and JONATHAN GLAPION
Cover by GREG CAPULLO
Variant cover by ANDY KUBERT
B&W variant cover by GREG CAPULLO

Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99

I’m not going to lie, this is going to be tough for me. Not writing a review but to make it fair and not making me feel like I am dry humping the issue. Let me get the hyperbole out of the way now so I can be more ‘classy’ down the line:

Not only has this turn into the best issue of 2012 (already) BUT!…..It might be the best single issue I’ve ever read.

My love for Scott Snyder knows no bounds. But I was not ready for what laid before me when I opened the title. Now we’ve seen Batman beaten down, get drugged, and go slightly insane from time to time. But for the first time I think I know what madness truly is. Snyder wrote this issue perfectly in the eyes of a crazed, and deranged human being. Bruce is at the lowest point in his entire history and it doesn’t help he has the most disturbed horror writing creating this madness. If the goal of this issue was to prove Bruce is not ready for the ‘Court of Owls’ then mission fucking accomplished. It’s a mindfuck of an issue and by the end I really don’t know if what happened actually happened. But the madness is played to a ‘T’ and it goes from slight paranoid to full blown hallucinations and rantings in only twenty pages. Of course we also have some disturbing, and gory, elements as well which makes it a pure Snyder comic. I don’t think I will ever look at old people again after this.

The real hero of this issue though is Greg Capullo. Snyder’s words can only go so far and he needs a magnificent artist to make this madness work. Luckily, not only does Snyder have that artist in stock he is more then magnificent. Where to start? Is it the perfect image of madness in ever page? The 30ft cape that follows Bruce everywhere? The slow transformation of Bruce throughout the issue? Or some of the best layouts I’ve ever seen in a comic? I’ve flipped issues around before (like Chew) but it wasn’t because of how the issue was drawn. Capullo literally changes the format of the issue to show the madness the is slowly happening. Bruce’s world literally turns upside down once a certain mother/father come into play and it makes the issue that much creepier to look at. Unlike Severed, which is amazing in it’s own right, I am not scared to turn the page because I want to see the perfection that is shown before me.

Hopefully this review makes some sense, as I am alternatively trying not to drool over the keyboard when I think about it. But know this when it comes to this specific issue of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman. If you want ‘THE’ definitive Batman, and if you want some of the greatest pieces of art in a comic, AND some of the best writing in comics today then look no further. For a while I didn’t know what to make my new favorite DCU book since the relaunch. But this issue shut that conundrum up. If you love Batman, or comics, or hell just anything amazing then read this issue. It’s the perfect testament on why comics still have some fight left in them.

Story: 5 - Excellent
Art: 5 - Excellent

Comments

  1. Best single issue you’ve ever read? You sir, need to read more comics. 😉
    Seriously though, it was fantastic, but there are better single issues out there

    • I can’t think of any issue I’ve enjoyed more to read then this.

      If I pair it up to at least last years ‘favorite single issue’, Secret Avengers #18, then it has no chance against Batman.

  2. To each their own, but there are about two dozen issues of Promethea that did more impressive and innovative things with format and playing with page directions. Flipping pages sideways and upside-down is cool…but kind of like child’s play to anyone who has actually read those comics.

    But if your runner-up for best issue of all time is an issue of Secret Avengers… I don’t know what to tell you, man. I usually consider you a fairly smart, considered person. But this is all hyperbole that you’re saying. You “know what madness is” thanks to this issue? A typical Grant Morrison comic will give you better insight.

    I’m not sure what your background in comics actually is. Read Promethea. Read Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. Take these comics to heart and don’t forget about them when getting caught up in the hype of the moment. You’ll still like Scott Snyder (he IS a good writer) but you won’t be blowing things out of proportion anymore. You could only benefit from having a more reasoned perspective on things.

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