Issues Two and Three show Batman in battle. At this stage it looks like the odds are pretty even as the battles are one on one. Batman is either shown as an aggressor or at least still standing. The Owls are clearly a threat here but they look like one that Batman can handle. Issues Four and Nine work as beautiful symmetry. In Issue Four we see a talon watching Batman with the city dripping in blood, clearly showing that the city belongs to the Owls. Whereas by the time we get to Issue Nine, the tide has started to turn. We get a close up of Batman staring down the talons. Wayne Manor is dripping in blood inside his mask and therefore it shows that it does not matter how much anyone tries to take Wayne Manor from Bruce it is his fortress. It is his place, the heart and soul of Batman’s operations and he would never let it go down without at least a fight. Issues Five and Six show Batman on the brink of falling. He is surviving the onslaught but only barely. In Issue Five it is the attack of the Talons that are truly shown whereas Six shows him on the brink of insanity. Issues Ten and Eleven are really the first time we see Batman looking the beacon of strength we are all used to seeing. He is standing upright, yet even on the cover of Issue Ten the Owls are looming behind him. It is as if there is something they still know about Bruce, something that means they still have control over Batman, whereas Issue Eleven illustrates Batman finally ris-
ing from the ashes. An image that clearly shows Batman reclaiming his city and his soul: he is reclaiming that he is the monster that the criminals fear.
Geek Syndicate
ticularly of interest as it would seem that this is all tied up very early on. Yet Snyder cunningly throws us a red herring as the cliff hanger remains in the background until it is finally explained later. One of the best things about this arc is reading back through the story and seeing how everything is interconnected. Snyder has clearly taken his time thinking up the right dialogue for every scene as it feels that every interaction counts, affecting another action later on in the series in some form or another. For example, in Issue One, Bruce says in a speech that if you look at the city and the buildings all you will see are your own fears. How prophetic of the character when you are aware of what is coming in the later issues of the arc. After the developing groundwork of the first issue, the second starts with a bang. The first five pages or so are stunningly crafted with some fantastic plotting. A scene where Batman is grabbing for a crook works so well as it slowly builds up until it finally happens. Snyder and Capullo cleverly never show us Batman smashing the window and instead allow the reader’s imagination to fill in the gaps. Further the scene where Gordon and Batman are doing the autopsy has a beautiful set of panels where there is symmetry between Gordon and Batman. It is almost as if we are seeing that Batman and Gordon both believe in the same ideals but fight in very different ways: Gordon is legitimate
Content Matters
The first three issues do a great job of building the story around us, developing certain aspects of the Owls. At first it does feel like a slow burner as Snyder executes his knowledge of Gotham history perfectly, adding intricacies to the city that had never been there before but feel like they should have been. This is one of Snyder’s many strengths: the ability to make something feel new and innovative whilst at the same time being comfortable and instantly recognisable. Further, Capullo’s art complements Snyder’s writing very well. The first page of the first issue builds this feeling that Gotham is Batman’s city. At the top of the first panel tattered rags give the look of Batman’s cape. In the second panel the building is shown in pitch blackness and has the shape of Batman’s cowl. The added darkness to this panel apart from the two windows that gleam out illustrate the eye sockets, showing that we as readers, like Batman, are meant to assume that this is Batman’s city. In the final panel we can see a winged animal that looks like a bat flying around. He throws in enough clues in the first few issues and some intriguing cliff hangers to make you want to desperately come back for more. One of the first cliff hangers is par-
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