Review: Batman #0

I would like to thank Scott Snyder for NOT churning out yet another rehashed origin story. The tale of Bruce Wayne becoming Batman has been done so many times that even my nephew knows it — and he’s only two! 

Rather than giving fans more of the same, Snyder tells a tale of a young Bruce Wayne trying to find his niche in the war against crime. Both eager and naive, Bruce dives in head first, but he doesn’t know the depths he will need to go in order to save the city he loves.

Building upon the mythos he has crafted so well, Snyder gives the reader a barrage of ideas in this tale. From the first Batarang, a chance meeting with James Gordon and a glance at Bruce Wayne’s original “home base”, fans will be clamoring for more just as it comes to a close. Curiosities about the past and how it will resurface in the future will abound you in this well crafted and refreshing tale. But, for me, it is the follow up story that truly makes this book pitch perfect.

On a single night, five years in the past; the “Bat family” ponder just what heroism — or lack there of — means to them. From an alleyway, a principal’s office, a circus tent and a rooftop, these people’s lives have been inexplicably changed by a man they have never met, although his shadow descends over them all. 

Rife with characterization and overwhelmingly intelligent, James Tynion IV has set the bar for emotional tales in eight pages or less! From loyalty to bravado, from fear to childlike awe, this tale gets to the center of all the characters in a simple yet, stunning manner. It is a rare story that will make you appreciate how precious good stories are — even without the “Bat.”