Comics! Batman #12

Batman #12

Scott Snyder: writer
James Tynion IV: co-writer, pages 22-28
Becky Cloonan: artist, pages 1-21
Andy Clarke: artist, pages 22-28
Sandu Florea: inks 8-11, 19-20

Solicitation

• It’s the epilogue to “The Court of Owls”!

• The next major storyline begins here!


Preview

Why I Bought It
Batman. Batman good.

What I Liked
This comic was going great. Seriously, a nice story, a cool new character who gets a backstory, and Batman actually coming around to fight common street thugs and bullies and not a major villain. I think that was my major joy in this comic, we actually got to see Batman fight regular street crime and not some big super villain when introducing this new Bat-ally.

The alternate cover was just as cool as the regular cover, which I is probably one of the first times that I thoroughly enjoyed the Digital combo-pac cover more so than the regular cover. Both worked well, but I could dig the inverse color job.

I enjoyed this art. It sorta reminded me a bit of Scott Pilgrim, but more set in a superhero book. It had details in the background. Each character had an expression on their face that sold the story when it needed to. There was a handle on framing the scenes and using the panels to the artist's advantage.

And then there was the second half of the book.

What I Didn't Like
I'm calling shenanigans on that solicitation. There is one reference to the Court of Owls in this book, so that epilogue thing is flat out BS. The next major storyline involves the Joker, and I don't see him here. Unless Harper is going to be the one to save Bruce in the next adventure, then the second part of that solicitation is flat out wrong as well.

This book felt like a major league baseball game where the starting pitcher is throwing a no-hitter. Then, right in the 8th inning, he tosses the ball to a reliever. There was a shift in story and tone that really ruined the book for me. And then the flaws started.

I've read some people's reviews that said it made sense for the change, because when Batman shows up for the superheroics is when the art changes and the whole theme of the book changes. I say not so. Batman appeared earlier in the book when there wasn't an art change. And it wasn't just an art change, Tynion joined up to finish the book. Fuck that, I want the artist and writer who started this to finish it out.

Of course, when I get thrown like that, then I start to see the other details. Like the fact that Harper Row is, in essence, part Jason Todd and part Tim Drake in female form. Think the street wise survival skills of Todd with the intelligence and potential to learn Batman's identity from Drake. We will see where the character goes from here, but if her brother dies and she puts on a costume, I may lose interest in her. Keep her grounded and away from the superheroics. Make her like Oracle.

Panel to Remember
I'm going with Cloonan's last page that was a one-page spread. It was good artwork that I enjoyed and hope to see more like it. It would have been interesting to see how she would have finished the book, and its a loss that we didn't get to see it.

Quotable
"That was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my entire life." - Probably the same thing I would say if I saw Batman in action.

Grades
Words: 6/10
Pictures: first half - 8/10, second half - 6/10
Buy Next Issue: It is #0 month! Let's see how Batman's origin will be told in this book.