Review: Batman #21

When a new origin story is announced throughout the comic world, a resounding “Ugh!” can be heard almost everywhere. The venom is spewed even more vehemently when it pertains to an iconic character. So, when it was announced that Scott Snyder would be doing a definitive “origin” story for the New 52 Batman, you could feel the shudder creep across all aspects of the genre. But, in this case, it was a shudder of excitement!

Combined with Greg Capullo’s spectacular art, Snyder continues to build upon his vision of the Dark Knight, one that new readers and the most die hard of fans can agree upon as one of the best Batman runs in the past decade! 

Scott Snyder does not bring a razing to the old origin, in fact, it is done with reverence and integrity and handled with the utmost care. He brings iconic images from the Batman mythos – a coin, a car, a cane – into the tale to give a sense of nostalgia all the while creating his own niche to his ever widening classic tales of the Bat. He does not truly touch upon the continually told tale of the birth of the Batman, rather he weaves a tale within the tales of old to heighten them even further. From a boy’s love of Gotham, a young vigilante’s quest for order, to a hardened hero’s battle to bring life back to a broken city, Snyder creates a “look behind the curtain” tale of the life of one of the most iconic characters ever created.

It is heartwarming to see glimpses into a wide-eyed Bruce Wayne’s childhood, one where a father and son bond within the solidarity of a garage. And it is quite exciting seeing how that same boy grows to be a man fine tuning his driving skills in the back-up story by longtime collaborators James Tynion IV and Rafael Albuquerque. They are fantastic glimpses into the heart of a hero that builds upon the basic origin tale that has been told numerous times. But it is also these same glimpses, these finite moments that push that classic tale further than it has ever been before, stretching it from iconic to epic in a single issue!