Review: Batman #6 by Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo

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I want to let you all in on a little secret. Come closer. Don’t let the other Comic Nexus guys let you know, I’m telling you this. Shhhhh.

The secret is that it isn’t much fun reviewing good ongoing comic books. At the end of the day, when trying to review a comic book that is just as good as the issue from the previous month, then all you want to say is “As good as last month, but you already know that, because you’re either reading it already or there’s nothing in my review that will make you go out and buy it.”

For me, there are three comic book types that are truly fun to write:

  • Something new: New comic, new writer, new artist, new character, new story arc, new direction, new costume, new bad guy… just something new.
  • A bad or overrated comic: There’s always tons to write about when you think the creative team either didn’t do a good job, left a lot on the table, or generally isn’t as good as everyone seems to think it is.
  • The truly spectacular: Sometimes, you get a comic book that makes you all warm and gooey inside. It is art. It is an amazing story. It transcends comic books into something more.

I read a lot of reviews on the internet for Batman #5 that put it into the truly spectacular category. While it was certainly good, even very good, I didn’t feel it quite hit those marks. But I understand why reviewers would see it that way. Simply a matter of personal tastes. For me, the best steak ever cooked will always pale in comparison to a great seafood dish.

However, giving you a little preview of the review to come, this issue DID hit those marks for me. So much that I rushed to start typing my review.

Batman #6: Beneath the Glass

Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Greg Capullo
Release Date: 02/15/2012
Cover Price: $2.99
Review: Digital Copy (From Comixology)

Batman has been chasing the Court of Owls who has secretly controlled parts of Gotham City for years. When investigating them, he finds himself trapped in a labyrinth beneath Gotham City for 8 days. The Court of Owls drives him to the brink of madness, before The Talon stabs him with a blade. 1

Synopsis

  • After stabbing Batman through his midsection, the Talon offers Batman to the Court of Owls who demands that he is hurt more.
  • Batman is weakened, and is surrounded by the members of the Council of Owls, but he sees a picture of his great-grandfather, Alan Wayne, and is inspired to fight back.
  • Batman battles The Talon gaining the upper hand, destroying the Talon’s will and knocking him out.
  • Batman is able to escape by exploding a camera filament plate, falling into Gotham River, but finding himself trapped and falling to the bottom.
  • The Council of Owls prepares to awaken all of The Talons that are kept in coffin-like containers in The Labyrinth.

Questions and Answers (optional)

Q:    The Court of Owls has honored three valiant enemies in the past by displaying their bones. Are these enemies known to us? (i.e., Alan Wayne, Jonah Hex, etc.)

A:      The leader of the Council of Owls appears to be an elderly woman with a red muff. 1

Analysis

I guess I just like Batman triumphing rather than taken to his wits end. I didn’t like issue #5 as much as others for two reasons:

  1. It seemed like 8 days was a really long period of time to be without food, especially for an athlete like Batman.
  2. Batman being taken to the limit by an adversary that has only existed for the last 5-6 months seems to somehow cheapen Batman or the other villains in his Rogues Gallery.

Regardless, this entire series is a triumph, and this issue is the best one yet.

Batman stabbed, drugged, and crawling on the ground before an enemy who may very well kill him, and he still has enough in him to notice that they moved the camera. Such a simple moment, but it explains more than any monologue or and action sequence, exactly who Batman is. He never stops, even if he wants to stop. He has trained his body and mind that it never stops working, even when his spirit is at its weakest.

I’ve been reading comic books a while. I don’t get creeped out by comics. I just don’t. But the little girl, playing with a doll, wearing an owl mask, saying “Hurt him… more.” really disturbed me. I was shocked that I was disturbed by it. I’ve seen creepy kids in comics before, but this really hit home.

I was very confused by some of the art in this issue. Now, I think that confusion is 100% intentional by Greg Capullo (or by the creative team as a whole). However, I was not sure whether the members of the Court of Owls are supernatural in nature (i.e., actually owl looking) or whether we were seeing owl-like humans through Batman’s drugged eyes. I think we are meant to think the later, but as such, the scene where the Court of Owls comes to take Batman’s bones is very strange. Why and how?

We all have moments in our life where our body tells us to give up. Hopefully, all of us only experience this during exercise, where our body says to not do that last lap, push-up, or jumping jack. We don’t see that from our heroes, as you want to make that defiance against one’s own body to be powerful. Reading the sequence where Batman finds strength while looking at the image of his great (great?) grandfather, Alan Wayne with eyes pleading for someone to help him, I found it to be one of the most powerful things I’ve ever read or seen in comic books.

That said, I felt that the over-exaggerated cartoony, giant demon like Batman splash page weakened the moment we just went through. That should be a picture of the man, not the drugged exaggeration, in my opinion.

In some moments Greg Capullo really captured what an emaciated Batman would actually look like. If Batman has gone 8 days without food and limited water, then his body would reflect that underneath his costume. I would think that is VERY difficult to capture artistically, and Capullo did a masterful job of it.

One of the best lines of Snyder’s entire Batman run: “The City at your feet? It’s not the real Gotham! It’s an arts and crafts project!”

I did find it slightly out of character for Batman to use words as a weapon against the Talon. It’s just not a typical Batman move. I liked it, but a little out of character.

The one thing that I really didn’t like about this issue. We have Batman at the edge of sanity and death, fighting with his last breath to survive. He is able to triumph and escape using every bit of training and skill he has left. And then, we’re left with another cliffhanger where Batman gets trapped again? Completely the wrong note for the tone of the story.

Plus, then you go even further, and kill the cliffhanger when The Council of Owls decides to awaken all of The Talons from slumber. Unless they need them for some purpose that has nothing to do with Batman.

After six issues, I am a ‘little’ tired of the Council of Owls. If I were plotting, I think I’d go away from them for a few issues and then come back. It is just my opinion, one which certainly will not prevent me from reading issue #7 next month.

Verdict

Ehhhh, it was just okay, I guess.

I kid. This was tremendous. Scott Snyder is really flexing his muscles with the character, and adding some real substance to Batman, his city, and his mythos. All of which have been quite explored by other writers over the last 70+ years.

Overall Grade: 9.5 (Two hairs shy of perfection)

Series Grade: A+

Footnotes

1 – Reminding me too much of Grandma Marie L’Angelle from Garth Ennis’s Preacher.  And not in a good way.

RJ Schwabe is a man who just cracked his fourth decade, and has yet to put his toys away. He is a life-long comic book fan, who is enjoying digital comics more than he ever thought he would. Big fan of nerdy television and comic books, and is a recovering pro-wrestling addict. His review blog can be found at http://looksat40.wordpress.com