Thursday, July 4, 2013

Immersing Myself In Bat-Lore: Part 1


The Black Mirror by Scott Snyder, Jock, Francesco Francavilla.

My quest to find the best Batman stories starts with The Black Mirror, which is a very recent Batman story. Dick Grayson is Batman in this story, which is a significant personnel change. In all classic Batman stories, it's Bruce Wayne. That doesn't take away from the story at all, in my opinion. Snyder really had a grasp on what makes a great Batman story, and he nails it here. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did, but this was a good one. Most Batman stories follow the crime/mystery formula, which you can only do so much with, but this one is actually really good. The art really helps too, as he's got two guys who absolutely kill it. I'd be okay with Jock and Francesco Francavilla drawing Batman FOREVER. The pencils are gorgeous. Actually, the colorist for Francavilla definitely deserves a huge bonus. This book looks GREAT. I sense that at this time in comics, creators generally know what doesn't work and what does work in a Batman story. The character has been mined for DECADES and DECADES and we've seen so many iterations and permutations of him, his rogues gallery, and now it's finally been boiled down to the essential. "The Black Mirror" accomplishes just that: it captures the spirit of the essential Batman story.

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