Batman #24

by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, James Tynion and Raphael Albuquerque

Is it just me or do these Batman arcs tend to lose steam after so long? Don’t get me wrong, Snyder is great. He’s one of the very few writers who totally “gets” Batman through and through. This is the start of a new arc, but it’s still part of the Zero Year storyline–something that is already getting old for me. That being said, this issue is technically sound and still entertaining.

Snyder is a master of Batman symbolisms/metaphors/imagery. It’s usually quite clever and subtle. In issue 24, not so much. He seems to beat you over the head with it. The best writers expect you to “peel the onion” in order to find the deeper meanings. Snyder typically does that, so I don’t know why he went a different way in this issue. There are some powerful moments involving such meanings that still work well enough, though.

The “big reveal” towards the end is exactly what we were all expecting. It’s not necessarily bad, it’s just sort of “meh.” If the Red Hood leader was revealed to be somebody else, it would have been a heck of a curveball. It all makes sense and comes together nicely, so at least there’s that.

Greg Capullo, like usual, is on top of his game. Batman with purple gloves and a Golden Age vibe is just too cool. Back on the symbolism again, Capullo’s art is the greatest part of setting a mood and leaving little shrewd representations. The only problem is Raphael Albuquerque. Albuquerque closes up shop and draws the final 9 pages –pages which are drastically different in style and quality. It takes you out of the story, especially when you see that the heads on characters look deformed.

Despite the nitpicking, this is a good issue; it’s just not a great one, like it should be. What’s worse, the issue has extra pages, demanding a $6.99 price tag. Would it be worth $3.99? Absolutely. $6.99? Well, not as much.