Batman:  Gates Of Gotham (DC)
Written by Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins & Ryan Parrott, drawn by Trevor McCarthy, Graham Nolan, Dustin Nguyen & Derec Donovan
Collects Batman: Gates Of Gotham #1-5, Detective Comics Annual #12 & Batman Annual #28

One my favorite parts of going to any comic convention is digging through $5 trade boxes. I scored a number of Exiles Ultimate Collection volumes at this year’s NYCC, but was also incredibly excited to get my hands on a copy of Batman: Gates Of Gotham. I’d read a few of these issues here and there, but lost track of it. At the time, I didn’t know about Scott Snyder, but have since become a huge fan of his after reading Severed, American Vampire Volumes One and Two and the first book of his New 52 Batman stuff. He plotted this miniseries along with New 52 Nightwing writer Kyle Higgins who also teamed up with Ryan Parrott for dialog. Between that general appreciation and the fact that I also recently came into a copy of Batman Volume 2: City Of Owls, it seemed like a good time to go on a mini-Batman reading spree.

The miniseries bounces back and forth between the early days of Gotham as we know it, when the city was being built up by a pair of architect brothers known as the Gates of Gotham. They worked for the Waynes, Cobblepots, Elliots and Kanes, the four richest families in town at the time who funded many of the biggest construction efforts in the late 1800s. Meanwhile, in the present, Batman (Dick Grayson) is trying to figure out who is blowing up some of those older structures and what the two have to do with one another. Luckily for him, he’s got Robin (Damien Wayne), Red Robin (Tim Drake) and Black Bat (Cassandra Cain) to help him out.

Much like American Vampire, I dug how Snyder, Higgins and company were able to make this history lesson not only interesting, but intriguing. That story itself could have supported its own miniseries, but you’ve also got all the action in the present and the mystery of how the two are connected. Plus, there’s a great little twist at the end that was clever and fun.  This is a great, fun miniseries that I really enjoyed and will happily add to my collection, but I really do wish that they would have been able to stick with Trevor McCarthy for the whole series. I really dug his angular, animation-ish style and while the other guys aren’t bad, they do have different styles that can bring you out of the story because it’s so obvious that you’re dealing with a different person behind the pencil.

There was one interesting aspect of this book that actually had nothing to do with the writing, but more of the setting. This is, I believe, one of the last pre-New 52 Batman stories out there. I’ve been reading a TON of New 52 books lately and have a lot of mixed feelings, so it was fun to go back to “my” DCU and enjoy a newer story with characters I actually know and understand deeply. Plus, the only big continuity thing you need to know is that this story comes after Bruce returned from his post-Final Crisis journey through history in The Return Of Bruce Wayne and that he’s launched Batman Incorporated. That’s still kind of a lot to remember as time goes on (once again, a recap page would have been nice), but all-in-all, I think I’ll be able to handle it, especially after I get all of Grant Morrison’s run on my shelf.

Batman Volume 2: The City Of Owls (DC)
Written by Scott Snyder with James Tynion IV, drawn by Greg Capullo with Jonathan Glapion, Rafael Albuquerque, Jason Fabok, Becky Cloonan, Andy Clarke & Sandu Florea
Collects Batman (New 52) #8-12, Annual #1

After all the craziness of the first volume, Snyder didn’t give Batman much of a breather. Battered and nearly broken, Bruce is in rough shape when all of the previously frozen Talons decide to kill him and several other prominent members of Gotham society all on the same night. Of course, they came at Bruce a lot harder than everyone else. Since he was pretty banged up already, Bats donned a pretty killer suit of armor to take them on. I love when characters put on armor, you guys. Love it.

From there, Batman tracks down the Court of Owls only to find a much more prominent villain who thinks he has direct ties to the Wayne family that rounds out Bruce and his parents’ history in this new universe even more. This collection also contains the introduction of a new ally for Batman’s called Harper Row and a really great story that explains this new version of Mr. Freeze that plays off some of the known aspects of the character and goes in a few different directions. Also, for what it’s worth, this book does have a text opener letting readers know what happened in the previous volume. Kudos for that , DC!

I’ve listened to two different Fat Man On Batman podcasts with host Kevin Smith interviewing Snyder and I’ve got to say, this guy thinks about story on levels that I don’t hear about much and I talk to a fair amount of writers for my day job. He’s not just in Batman’s head, but he’s in every character’s head going back a few generations and, from what I hear of the current/upcoming stuff, into the future. I’ve become a huge fan of his writing and hope to score a few more of his books from my Amazon Wish List in the near future. Hinthinthint.