Batman 4: Zero Year-Secret City (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
I'm surprised this got such good reviews! I mean, the art is great....Go Capullo!! But the story is kinda crap! Another retelling of the origin of Batman? Cmon, we know already.... lets get on with it! And what a lame retelling it is with the whole post-apocalyptic Mad Max Gotham thing going on! Batman looks like he spent time with the G.I. Joe team or something and zooms around on his Bat-bike! And telling Alfred to shut up and flipping off bad guys is just so keeping within the character.... NOT!Is this supposed to be one of those Elseworlds tales? Because that's exactly what it feels like with all this weird stuff going on like the creepy Pedo-Riddler and the whole Bruce Wayne 007 thing. Ugh...maybe the whole thing got better in the end, I don't know... but I checked out less than half way. I just can't finish this. Such a terrible retelling of Batmans origin! I was intensely skeptical when DC announced that they were going to be doing a yearlong Batman origin as part of the variable-quality (to put it lightly) New 52. I am just going to take this opportunity now to state that I was wrong.Snyder's script for the first issue in the back of the book basically says "Let's turn every dial we can't break off up to 11" and it comes through from minute one, with Gotham apparently now just a total urban wasteland with fish living in the subway. While I'm not really thrilled by some of the initial stuff with Bruce as a nameless vigilante pre-Batman (the Mission Impossible-ish idea of him using his disguise talents to fight crime from behind any one of several masks is cool, the "brownstone in Crime Alley" headquarters feels like a really weird idea for reasons I can't articulate), the introduction of is-he-or-isn't-he-the-Joker Red Hood One is pretty cool, and Snyder's rejiggering of the big "Yes, father" moment is fascinating and leads to some really good art.Speaking of art, Greg Capullo is basically a one-man wrecking crew on this, from the big, splashy, crazy stuff (the Red Hoods' attack on Bruce is just dripping with color) to the little details that are smartly used everywhere (note the portraits in Uncle Philip's office at Wayne Enterprises!)Much like DC's other books these days, this comes packaged with a set of back-ups that ran alongside the comics -- in this case, expanding on Bruce's world-travelling training with various masters of their fields. They're nothing really special, but they don't really detract from the main event here. I'm definitely looking forward to much more of this.
What do You think about Batman 4: Zero Year-Secret City (2014)?
A retelling of many of the classic elements of the earliest days of batman.
—fresawq
Good, not great. Definite step down from Court of Owls.
—Tara
