Following the mind-blowing execution of last months issue of Batman, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo refuse to let up as they continue to follow Batman as he remains a prisoner of both the Court of Owls and his own worsening state of mind. This is the issue that takes Batman to the brink after his tormentors have toyed with his mental state over the course of several days. Batman takes beating after beating and is seemingly worn down to the state of a fragile old man as he almost admits defeat; succumbing to the punishment at the hands of the Owls’ assassin.
Snyder drives home the fact that this whole ordeal is truly an attack on Bruce Wayne moreso than his masked identity. It’s Bruce who’s being tested here, knowing full well that the Court of Owls has been targeting the Wayne family for centuries and that he may just become their latest victim. Snyder skillfully uses Bruce’s internal dialogue throughout the issue to help paint the disparity of his situation and forces us to see our hero have his mental and physical strengths pushed to their breaking points.
Snyder has been doing so well with writing out Bruce’s internal thought process that it’s really quite redundant to continue praising him at this point. Even so, issue #6 can be seen as a high mark for the writer as he captures both the darkest and seemingly hopeless moments for the character while still infusing a few shining moments of hope that turn things around for the caped crusader by the end of the book. There’s a gritty portrayal of Batman’s humanity in these pages. We feel more for the safety of the character here than we have in any other Bat-book currently on the shelves. Ultimately, Snyder has successfully created both a significant threat and foreign environment in which we actually start to believe that Batman may lose the ultimate battle; his battle for survival.
In keeping with this extremely surreal world in which Bruce is struggling to survive, Greg Capullo once again knocks the art out of the park. In fact, following the impressive panel layouts and artwork that we saw in issue #5, Capullo manages to better refine the hallucinatory imagery and, in turn, almost improves upon his work in the previous book. The most haunting images of the issue arrive while we watch Batman observing the Court of Owls players, standing high above him as he lays beaten and lifeless on the brightly lit floor. The ways in which we see Batman perceive these figures as both drug-fueled hallucinations and their natural selves is just so damn creepy and leaves us worried as to what Batman is actually seeing with his own two eyes.
When Scott Snyder writes in the moments that give us hope for Batman’s survival, Capullo’s art kicks into high gear as we see a ferocious Batman deliver several mighty blows to the Court of Owls assassin. After all that Batman has been through since the start of this series, it’s at this point that the reader may actually begin to cheer out loud while reading. Again, Capullo’s artwork remains both sharp and defined while maintaining a kinetic grittiness in the panels that stands out more than any of the other artwork currently being viewed in DC’s other ‘New 52′ Bat-titles.
It’s hard to imagine seeing this book lose its momentum in the coming months, particularly with the expansion of the Court of the Owls storyline getting ready to spread into the other Bat-titles, but we won’t dare be upset with the talented team behind this title if they take a moment to breath. In a nutshell, this new title is delivering one of the finest crafted Batman stories to be written in recent years and we applaud Snyder, Capullo, Glapion and FCO’s skills for delivering such a feat.
Written by: Scott Snyder
Pencils by: Greg Capullo
Inks by: Jonathan Glapion
Colors by: FCO
Letters by: Richard Starkings
Cover by: Greg Capullo
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: Wed, February 15th, 2012
RATING: 9/10
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