Comic Info
Comic Name: Batman (Volume 2)
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Scott Snyder
Artist: Greg Capullo
# of Issues: 5
Release Date: 2016
Batman (2) #42
Reprints Batman (2) #41-45 (August 2015-December 2015). There is a new Batman in Gotham, and it is James Gordon. With a super-armor and city backing, Batman is going gain official power to clean-up Gotham, and he’ll need it when a new villain calling himself Mr. Bloom appears on the scene providing dangerous Seeds to people. As Gordon adjust to his new responsibilities, Bruce Wayne has miraculously survived his showdown with the Joker…and may very well be a different person!
Written by Scott Snyder, Batman Volume 8: Superheavy is a DC Comics New 52 superhero comic book collection. Following Batman Volume 7: Endgame, the issues feature art by Greg Capullo, and this volume presents the first half of the “Superheavy” storyline. Issues in the collection were also collected as part of Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo Omnibus—Volume 2.
This is where Scott Snyder’s Batman starts to get weird…really weird. While I have found Snyder’s take on the Dark Knight one of the most interesting “long runs” in the character’s history, it is often problematic. This volume is definitely interesting but also problematic.
Batman (2) #44
I like that Snyder isn’t afraid to try something new. The idea of Gordon as a young-ish guy in the New 52 universe never has quite sat well with me (especially since both Barbara and James Gordon Jr. are about the same age they always were). Here you having him shaving his mustache and giving himself a bad haircut…he now is the “vigilante” Batman. While the idea of a police run Batman is interesting, I don’t know that Gordon was the right choice for the storyline. I would have rather seen someone else at the controls of the robot Batman and maybe facing off with the real Batman (aka Bruce Wayne).
It is the Bruce Wayne part of this story that really bothers me. The resurrection of the character with a “new” brain is a bit too sci-fi for Batman who was always an earthy “real” character. It is obvious that Bruce Wayne will return as Batman, and it seems a bit gimmicky and almost like a reboot by Snyder (especially the new Batman machine to create new Batmen forever).
Batman 8: Superheavy is worth reading, but it doesn’t feel much like a Batman book. If you’ve followed Snyder’s run, it is a must because Snyder keeps changing the Batman playbook which had become stale through the years, but like Grant Morrison’s writing, you’ll run the risk of liking it or hating it. Batman 8: Superheavy is followed by Batman 9: Bloom.
Preceded By:
