52 Pickup: The DC Shuffle – Batman

 

The New 52 Reboot of Batman is in the hands of writer Scott Snyder, who walked Detective Comics to its conclusion pre-reboot.  And if the first issue is any indication of where this title is going, I’d say it’s in very good hands.

 

The central theme of the issue is Bruce, as Batman, re-identifying with Gotham.  He is looking to find his place in the city and in the costume again.  Granted, he’s been Batman for more than a year now, traveling the world, but the feeling of Batman in Gotham City is different than anything else.  The feeling comes across as we see Batman enter a fight with a host of villains inside the walls at Arkham Asylum and he utters to himself, “there’s no place like home”.

 

As Snyder takes us through Batman’s inner thoughts he returns to this idea of “Gotham is” and how citizens all view the city differently.  Most see it negatively, but some see it in a positive or at least possibly positive way which is to identify Gotham as Batman.  That he truly is seen as the symbol of what Gotham is and can be.

There’s a scene in the issue where Bruce is about to speak to a roomful of Gotham’s most influential and as he’s testing out a new gadget the whole family is together in one room.  It was definitely interesting to see Bruce as a father figure talking to his former Robin’s, Dick and Tim and his actual son Damien, who cracks a joke at Tim Drake’s expense.

It wouldn’t be a Batman story if there wasn’t some kind of strange crime, or in this case, a murder that occurs.  In this instance a man is killed through an unorthodox and exceedingly painful method of bleeding out via dozens of stab wounds where the blades are left in the body.

 

At the crime scene Batman also discovers a message left in hidden form written on the wall pronouncing a soon-to-come attempt on Bruce Wayne’s life.  The victim’s body had trace elements of his attacker’s skin under his fingernails and upon running the sample through the bat-puter (yeah, I said it) the results are very surprising!

 

 

Batman gets an ACE rating from me.  It has all the elements you would want in a Batman book with a few extra bits to take it to that next level.

 

The best is yet to come so keep your eyes (and browsers) open on 8DaysAGeek all month long as we tackle the biggest story in comics!

 

For now,

 

This is your Bin Fodder Guru Tim Blacksmith signing off.

 

p.s. Did you spot the hooded lady?  I’ve included a picture below.  She keeps showing up in the strangest places!  Who is she?  What’s her impact going to be on the new DCU?  Discuss below in comments!!!

Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.